Abstract:

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected educational system worldwide, Latvia hasn’t been an exception. After 11th of March 2020 when Latvia has declared state of emergency over Covid-19, all educational institutions, including higher education forced to move to remote learning because of the quarantine. The quick response to new circumstances and challenges has been required. The aim of this article is to find out the emerged problems and difficulties caused by Covid-19 in the context of higher education in Latvia, to describe possible solutions and identify the pros and cons of remote learning based on the semi-structured questionnaire held online in June 2020. It also tends to describe the importance and readiness of students and lecturers in the specified aspects: study environment, organization of study process, key competences and IT-Human interaction. The summarized results of the questionnaire among Latvian students and lecturers provided an opportunity to list recommendations and guidelines of introduced remote learning and digital transformation.

Methodology:
The current study is based on the non-experimental mixed research design involving analyses of quantitative and qualitative data on the impact of Covid-19 in the context of higher education. The semi-structured questionnaire "The Impact of Covid-19 in the context of higher education: emerged problems and possible solutions" was chosen as the main research method. 93 respondents, including 27 lecturers and 66 students, from Latvian higher educational institutions have participated in the online questionnaire. Identified aspects are trans-disciplinary fields considering many disciplines, so the focus of this article is on pedagogical and educational ones.

Results and conclusion:
According to the preliminary results of the questionnaire analyses the digital transformation in the context of higher education has been speeded up because of Covid-19. It is concluded that digital transformation is observed within the specified aspects: study environment, organization of study process, key competences and IT-Human interaction.
The research findings identify the key conditions needed for effective digital transformation under unexpected Covid-19 circumstances although defining the peculiarities of remote learning/teaching process.
In summary the research results offer the list of recommendations and guidelines for effective remote learning and digital transformation in the context of higher education in Latvia.

Acknowledgment:
This article is the part of the applied research "Implementation of Transformative Digital Learning in Doctoral Program of Pedagogical Science in Latvia" conducted by RTA Research Institute for Regional Studies.

Keywords:

Higher education, remote learning, Covid-19, digital transformation.