Abstract:

Digitalization is core to the success of Higher Education institutions to provide excellent training. In the last 20 years the ways of teaching have drastically changed towards a greater use of new technologies. The old “talk-chalk” mode of teaching has taken a second place and teachers are increasingly using new information and communication technologies (ICTs) to provide more agile and interactive classes that capture the attention of students and can provide useful information that help better understand the subject. However, digitalization is a hard challenge for many Higher Education institutions worldwide that have seen the new trend to provide the best performance is to draw on ICTs to provide quality and interactive teaching with which to satisfy the students the most. ICTs represent a valuable support of teaching and learning that Higher Education institutions cannot disregard today, given that Higher Education students are Y and Z generation students for whom ICTs are native to them and the use of ICTs in the classroom is essential to prepare them for their future career. However, in digitalizing, universities IT departments need instructions on how and when to digitalize. The array of options that can be used is wide and typically range from digitalizing existing products/new education products (e.g., video lectures, digital texts, easy and quick access to literature, software and other material or resources) to digitalizing common operations such as examination, study planning, teacher allocation or scheduling, among others. The purpose of this study is to investigate on which aspects universities should focus when a decision to digitalize a new Higher Education degree has been made. Qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys realized in a representative sample of students were conducted to gather information on the current digitalization state of the degree they were studying (a new Degree in Tourism that a Spanish University had recently included as part of its programme of offerings) as well as the services they missed and perceived as the ones that most probably could satisfy their interests. The quantitative data was analyzed with SPSS and was complemented with qualitative data analysis. These analyses revealed several services categories as the most appreciated among the students surveyed and as the ones that students perceived were key to improve their level of satisfaction with the teaching-learning process experienced during the classes. They also informed about the deficiencies they found in terms of digitalization in the degree they were enrolled and that they perceived as potentially underminers of their level of satisfaction with the teaching-learning process experienced. After these findings were analyzed together, a series of best practices could be drafted. Thus, with this proposal of best practices in the digitalization of new degrees, useful and valuable guidelines will be provided for university general and IT managers to implement the best digitalization strategy that maximizes the satisfaction of the students with the teaching-learning process

Keywords:

Digitalization, teaching-learning process, ICTs, Higher Education, student satisfaction.