The Challenges of Digitalization in Higher Education Teaching

This chapter focuses on the challenges and changes that the introduction of digital technologies into higher education teaching has brought about. To date the response to the possibilities of digital media in higher education has been mainly reactive and consisted mostly of ‘managing after the fact’ rather than a proactive approach with visions for the future. Many universities still seem to be in a state of ‘catching up’ but not always ‘catching on’ which in part can also be attributed to generational differences between faculty and students. I propose that the most fundamental and challenging of all the changes related to the digitalization of higher education is the way that academics relate to and interact with their students, rather than the technologies themselves. I also propose that in the future we will see the emergence of two distinct ways of teaching: Mostly online courses for lectures and seminars on the one hand and highly individualized face to face tutoring and supervision on the other hand. The most successful universities will be those that manage to integrate both modes of teaching, and who have the staff with the competencies to do both successfully.