Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a digitalization skepticism in the German education system that has long been demonstrated (Frailon et al. 2014; 2018) and criticized (Rath/Delere 2020), but so far not corrected with the necessary intensity. Although Germany is one of the most developed countries according to the current Digital Evolution Index (Chakravorti/Chaturvedi 2017), it is affected by a profound "trust deficit" concerning digitality. This point is also evident in the education sector. Professional educational institutions from early education to schools and universities have long been, and in some cases still are, overburdened with the planning, delivery, and implementation of digital teaching.

In the students' view on the corona-induced digitalization of university teaching, two positions can be found. On the one hand, students complain about loneliness at the screen and technically tricky and sometimes didactically poor digital teaching. They hope that everything will soon be "back to normal" (Aristovnik et al. 2020). On the other hand, the voices of those who see the advantages of digital teaching in certain respects are increasing (Rath/Maisenhölder 2021 [to be published]). This second group primarily includes students for whom time flexibility and digitally supported teaching are essential. Either they have obligations beyond their studies, such as childcare, caring for relatives, and earning money to support themselves. Or they rely on digital assistance systems due to limitations and disabilities.

For both types of needs, asynchronous digital learning offerings are beneficial. The time sovereignty gives students the necessary freedom for the obligations mentioned above, and the digital offerings available for multimedia use also allow, for example, to realize the Universal Design for Learning model (Meyer/Rose 2014) particularly effectively when there are specific reception and production needs of the students. This redesigning would make it easier than before to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD 2006) on equal participation in the German higher education system. However, the looming end of the pandemic carries the risk that Germany will revert to its previous, media-skeptical state of insufficient or unused digitization.

Based on available current studies, the paper briefly presents students' preferences with a particular need for flexibility and assistance and then argues from a fairness perspective for an ethical claim to a digitally thoroughly designed German Higher Education. Drawing on John Rawls' (1999) Theory of Justice and Martha C. Nussbaum's (2000; 2006) Capabilities Approach, the paper will show that "conventional" teaching (exclusively offline, analog, and synchronous), as was common before the Corona pandemic, must be considered socially and ethically deficient. It is argued that from the perspective of enabling human rights compliant learning scenarios, asynchronous digital teaching should not only be considered but must proactively be promoted and implemented even after the COVID-19 pandemic. An outlook shows the necessary measures that have to be taken for a fair and capabilities strengthening university teaching.

Keywords:

COVID-19, digital teaching, inclusion, fairness, capabilities approach, UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Martha C, Nussbaum.