Description
How the Twin Tsunamis of COVID-19 and the Digital Revolution are Transforming Business Studies. Volume 7 in the UBSS Publications series.
If Ray Kurzweil is correct, the world has experienced more technological change in the last decade than in the whole of the 20th century. This is enough, by itself, to be hugely challenging for most individuals and businesses. However, the systemic change referred to by Kurzweil has been compounded by the onset of the first global pandemic in a century.
The pandemic had an especially severe impact on the higher education sector where many institutions were providing education to thousands of students using traditional face-to-face, on-campus delivery. Prior to the pandemic, many decision-makers in the sector had recognised that digital technologies, which replaced industrial technologies as the main driver of economic growth around the end of the 20th century, provided the ability to modify this method of delivery to include a significant online component, delivered and accessible from anywhere. However, the power of inertia as well as the risks involved in being a technology leader encouraged all but a few institutions to put the serious introduction of online learning into the “for the future” basket. Hence, the initial reaction when mandated lockdowns necessitated an immediate and total shift to online delivery was generally one of apprehension and even despair.
However, as indicated in several of the chapters in this book, switching to the new mode of teaching was less challenging than had been feared, especially for institutions like UBSS that had prepared for online delivery and were proactive in providing targeted training for academic staff. Now, with more than two years experience of online learning, many staff and students have a positive appreciation
of its benefits. Nevertheless, not all staff and students are convinced that the new mode of education is an improvement. Time will tell whether the optimists or the pessimists are correct.
“How the Twin Tsunamis of COVID-19 and the Digital Revolution are Transforming Business Studies” is always in stock. “Printed On Demand” in Australia by Intertype
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