Abstract:

Digital transformation is one of the key directions for improving business operations in all economy sectors with the aim of increasing efficiency and improving the quality services provided, which also includes the education sector. At Zagreb University of Applied Sciences (TVZ), digital transformation has been implemented for the past few years, trying to significantly contribute to the improvement of all activities in which participate all students, their teachers and non-teaching staff. Digitalization of the student’s enrolment process, digital monitoring of exams results and integration of new equipment and ICT technologies used in different teaching models are just some of the results of the implemented digital transformation.

In order to discover the causes of (dis)satisfaction with these digital transformation results, it was conducted a survey via a WEB questionnaire. The obtained results show that teachers are significantly more satisfied with the integration of equipment and ICT technologies, digitalization of the student’s enrolment process and digital monitoring of exams results than non-teaching staff. With the digitalization of the enrolment process, students are even more satisfied than their teachers. Such different perceptions towards these elements arise from their different roles in these processes. While teachers and students are end users of these processes, non-teaching staff ensure and implement all these processes and therefore experience them from a different perspective.

In terms of different teaching models, hybrid teaching has proven to be the most preferred model for both students and teachers. During the COVID-19 pandemic in the academic year 2019/2020, classes were forced to be conducted online, requiring both teachers and students to adapt to a new mode of teaching within a very short period. A survey conducted at TVZ in the spring of 2021 showed that students had significantly more positive attitudes toward online teaching compared to teachers, who preferred traditional classroom teaching. Despite this, even then, an absolute majority of both teachers and students expressed a preference for a hybrid model of teaching. Today, attitudes are largely the same as they were five years ago, with a slight decrease in preference for exclusively online classes. The hybrid model continues to enjoy the highest level of acceptance because it combines the benefits of face-to-face classroom interaction with the flexibility and technological capabilities of an online environment. It can be concluded that a positive perception of digital tools and infrastructure represents an important basis for the acceptance of the hybrid teaching model. The level of digital maturity of the institution, as well as the experience gained during the pandemic, has shaped more stable and balanced attitudes toward different forms of teaching, with the hybrid model proving to be a sustainable and widely accepted long-term solution.

Keywords:

Digital transformation, integration of equipment and ICT technology, digital student’s enrollment process, digital monitoring of exams results, teaching models, COVID-19 pandemic.