Abstract:

The global pandemic has revealed new challenges and areas in students' digital skills in education and training. All levels of graduate education had to accept new challenges and transition to online education after the onset of COVID-19 pandemic. This scientific article presents results of research focused on pandemic impact on traditional education, transition to online education and related requirements for digital skills of economics university students.

Current technologies and online platforms used in e-learning have been a challenge not only for students but also for teachers. Digital education has had a positive effect on increasing students' digital literacy levels because forcing students to use new technologies have significantly proceeded their digital skills. The research was carried out during two years at two levels of study (bachelor's/master's), research sample is 763 respondents. Research results identify benefits, shortcomings, problems of online learning, changing in digital skills requirements and by this way it is revealed failures in information technology education. In addition to positives brought by distance learning, many negative impacts have been identified. Essential problems included internet connection, wifi signal in households, increased requirements for technical and software equipment and consequent financial burden on households. Development over time is interesting: with increasing length of online education, students' problems were reflected in their mental health, psychic discomfort and lack of socialization. A significant factor is also lack of motivation and maintaining of student's attention in a distance form of education. The pandemic period showed that universities had sufficient information technology, but they had not been used in such a way that the transition to distance education was trouble-free. We can say with certainty that there is space for improvement in colleges and universities. It is therefore clear that thanks to current knowledge, technologies are going to be used at universities more than they have been used so far and going to become the undeniable part of educational process. However, they can not replace personal contacts with the teacher, socialization of students and student life, so it is optimal to choose some compromises.

Keywords:

Digital education, online education, COVID-19 pandemic, digital skills, requirements for digital skills, university students.