Digital Transformation of Education as Overcoming the Global

Digital Inequality within the Framework of Sustainable Development

of Civilization

A. V. Chelovechkova

, Yu. V. Adamenko

and A. A. Medvedev

Institute of Mathematics and Intelligent Systems, Kurgan State University,

63, Sovetskaya st., building 4, Kurgan, Russia

Keywords: Digital University, Information Technology, Roadmap, Educational Process, Strategy, Development, Digital

Transformation.

Abstract: By the end of 2023, all state universities want to introduce elements of a digital university. Projects related to

the Internet are becoming more and more relevant. Over the past 20 years, the field of information technology

has become very popular in all areas, which has made it an independent industry. Recently, the attention of

manufacturing companies and information technology has been focused on university education. Therefore,

universities are beginning to shape their digital strategies to meet the needs of expanding learning formats. In

particular, it is proposed to use "road maps" to assess the performance indicators of universities. The analysis

of the materials presented by such a map should help in identifying the identification of problems in the work

of individual areas within the university and increase the performance of universities. The correct use of

digital technologies in educational activities is an increase in the rating and attractiveness of applicants of any

educational institution. Increasing the rating leads to an improvement in the university's performance, the

possibility of developing promising projects and improving the quality of educational services.

1 INTRODUCTION

In recent years, the education sector has been

increasingly undergoing significant changes due to

the spread of digital technologies. More and more

non-profit and commercial organizations are setting

new trends in the field of implementation in research

activities as an integral part of the educational

process. Therefore, public universities are

increasingly having to think about digital

transformation. The question of creating campuses

and laboratories and translating scientific activities

into virtual reality is becoming more and more acute.

Countless innovative business models are emerging.

Completely new industries emerge, while old ones

disappear. The nature of the educational process itself

is changing. Universities compete for students,

faculty, funding. In addition, traditional technical

means used in the educational process are being

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0236-9402

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4409-1963

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2810-0866

replaced by digital analogs. And each university

understands that only by keeping pace with the times

and using new digital opportunities, it will be

competitive and will have a significant advantage in

the new era.

2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Regardless of which strategy is chosen by the

university, everyone must go through a number of

significant changes, including digital transformation

and the introduction of processes that optimize the

change in the construction of the educational process

(Manikovskaya, 2019). This becomes possible when

building a new learning model. Its peculiarity lies in

the use of a digital trail of students. But when

developing digital strategies, not everyone,

unfortunately, has enough aspiration and

696

Chelovechkova, A., Adamenko, Y. and Medvedev, A.

Digital Transformation of Education as Overcoming the Global Digital Inequality within the Framework of Sustainable Development of Civilization.

DOI: 10.5220/0010596106960700

In Proceedings of the International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Sustainable Development of Regional Infrastructure (ISSDRI 2021), pages 696-700

ISBN: 978-989-758-519-7

opportunities to effectively understand digitalization.

As a result, the invested funds do not produce results

and the expected benefits. The biggest mistake that

universities do not want to notice and recognize is that

digital strategies for the development of one area, for

example, a technical one, are not enough. It is

necessary that IT technologies fully cover all the

activities of the university, all areas in which it works

(Chelovechkova et al., 2020). This is due to a number

of factors.

First, given the globalization of the struggle for

students, universities must understand the need to go

international. The introduction of new technologies,

readiness for changes in the educational system will

determine the competitiveness of universities. For the

regions, the personnel problem remains especially

acute, the lack of readiness of teachers to introduce

high technologies into their professional activities.

Secondly, all students of the new generation are

inclined to use new digital technologies in everyday

life. IT-technologies are used by them not only in

professional activities, but also for constant

communication, as well as a means to keep abreast of

all the news and events taking place in society.

Therefore, digitalization will make the university

more understandable, more interesting to attract

students. Modern students are more inclined towards

visual perception of information. The traditional

format of education no longer meets their needs, it is

boring and uninformative. A more lively, dynamic

educational process requires creative educators who

are ready to promote the digital transformation of the

university on the ground. The teacher must be ready

for constant changes, the search for new ideas, self-

realization and self-education.

Thirdly, digitalization of all processes taking

place inside the university is necessary. This will

increase the efficiency of interaction and work

between all departments of the educational

institution. This change is especially relevant for the

scientific environment. With the advent of big data

analysis tools, it became necessary to accumulate a

digital footprint of both the students themselves and

their mentors. Consequently, the teacher must learn,

not only master new tools for accumulating

knowledge, but also be able to interpret them

correctly, be able to draw the right conclusions and

make promising decisions in their activities.

The majority of universities are still unable to

fully appreciate the benefits of digital technologies.

Many teachers, due to their age, try to avoid using

digital devices, as this puts them at a disadvantage for

students. But, despite the fact that modern students

cannot do without mobile devices, not everyone can

correctly use them in the educational process (Butsyk,

2019).

3 RESEARCH RESULTS

Higher education institutions are faced with a difficult

task - to move to digital technologies, create a digital

educational environment that will help in monitoring

the educational work of students. The new learning

environment must be able to be used anywhere,

anytime. In addition, it should be able to update,

provide free search and copying of information. To

do this, universities need to develop the right business

model that includes a wide range of new ways of

organizing work. I would like to note that there is no

universal solution to this problem. Any digital project

within the university must be supported at the level of

all constituent units - institutes, faculties,

departments. In this case, the work plan of a single

unit should coincide with the general strategy of

information development. It is impossible to improve

IT - technologies only in the technological direction.

First, it is a separately taken component of the entire

digitalization process. Secondly, the level of

applicants entering technical specialties is currently

low, since there is a problem of preparing students in

the field of physics, computer science, mathematics

(Chelovechkova et al., 2020;

Nikiforova et al., 2017). It

is necessary that all parties - the administration of the

university, the scientific and pedagogical staff, the

students were stimulated to introduce and use digital

technologies (Boronenko et al., 2019).

4 DISCUSSION OF THE

RESULTS

The development of any project in recent years is

recommended to start with the preparation of a

roadmap, which should help in identifying the

strengths and weaknesses of the university. We want

to present one of the simplest versions of such a map,

which considers one of the most urgent tasks –

attracting students.

One of the main goals of universities at the present

time is to attract applicants. These are potential

consumers of educational services, which play an

important role in building a strategy for the

development and work of the university. Informing

becomes the main stage in the phase of achieving the

set goal. Communication allows you to explore

options for exam preparation courses. In the process

Digital Transformation of Education as Overcoming the Global Digital Inequality within the Framework of Sustainable Development of

Civilization

697

of searching for information on courses, information

is also viewed about the directions of work of the

university, specialties that are offered by universities

for education. In this case, the applicant must be

motivated to obtain higher education. And for this he

needs to understand how the training scheme and the

education scheme work. The future student at this

stage of his work should not be scared by the

questions: what would I like to do, what universities

can offer me, whether I can get the necessary

knowledge for mastering information technologies,

which are necessary not only for study, but also for

the future profession.

When the questions are formulated, you need to

get answers to them. And then the applicant must

proceed to the second stage in the goal setting phase

- research. At this stage, the final criteria for choosing

an applicant are determined. He will be able to draw

conclusions for himself on the preparation for exams,

find interesting proposals for choosing his future

specialty. In addition to receiving education, within

the framework of additional programs, you can take

various kinds of practices, retraining courses to

improve your skills in the acquired profession. This is

especially relevant now, when the rapid development

of information technology dictates its conditions in

improving the skills of information systems.

The next step is to reduce the choice of training

programs. Currently, according to the new

requirements, from 2021, an applicant can apply to a

university by choosing five areas of training, and only

one of them should become a priority in choosing a

future specialty. This will be a program that will

allow you to study in an area of interest, which should

be promising, interesting, and highly paid in the

future (Shinde and Prasad, 2019). And, of course, the

most satisfying all the needs of the student. A

prerequisite for training is a highly qualified teaching

staff, with experience in the direction. The

availability of a modern material and technical base

will also be important.

The final stage in goal setting will be the adoption

of the final decision and execution of all the necessary

documents for admission to the university.

In order for this process of defining the training

program to become understandable, accessible and

open, it is necessary that all information on the

university website is timely updated and up-to-date.

In addition, good feedback is needed so that

applicants can receive timely answers to all questions

that arise.

Social networks also play an important role in

making a decision by a future student. This is

convenient because students spend a lot of time

communicating in various groups. But here it should

be remembered that information in the networks does

not always carry a positive assessment of the

activities of an educational institution. Therefore,

there is a possibility of loss of students for

universities.

It is a big misconception to think that digital

transformation is something that can only be

associated with digital technologies. This cannot be

denied, but technology in this case will play only one

role. Acquiring new platforms for the digitalization of

institutions, universities are not always aware of the

possibility of their widespread application and use in

the university. Such spontaneous decisions may not

always give the expected results.

For the benefits of digital technology to be

tangible, it is necessary to invest not only in the

education of students and the work of the faculty, but

also to constantly update the platforms for potential

students - applicants. For this, it is simply necessary

that all programmatic changes would be clear and

understandable in a common vision. Then they will

not be uncompetitive in the rapidly changing digital

environment. Universities must provide digital

learning on an ongoing basis. Starting from the

moment of admission, with the subsequent

monitoring of their work, so that they, too, could be

participants in the digital transformation process.

At the same time, any management should be able

to listen and, of course, perceive the criticism

adequately from our direct consumers of services -

applicants and, subsequently, students. You can not

neglect any information that can help in the analysis

of the activities of the university. To do this, you can

conduct regular polls in various social networks. But

not everyone knows how to properly use social

media, without the necessary support, in the interests

of the university. Many are wary of private spaces, as

students may leave negative comments there. But this

is also a certain experience and result. Currently,

many educational institutions use the positive impact

of various groups on potential consumers of

educational services - applicants, who can rely on the

feedback of university graduates and students. In a

social group, it is much easier to keep everyone

updated on the latest information. Since the

attendance of such groups is several times higher than

the attendance of the websites of universities.

Everyone should have their own strategic approaches

to such issues. But expanding the boundaries of

communication should have a positive effect on the

introduction of new digital technologies.

In order to help the applicant in the research, to

reduce the choice, and subsequently to make the final

ISSDRI 2021 - International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Sustainable Development of Regional Infrastructure

698

decision, the university needs to perform many

different functions, present and adhere strictly to its

strategy, which would greatly distinguish it from

competitors. A clear balance is needed, realizing that

today's students are very different from those that

were before. They have their own requirements, their

own concepts, their own expectations. And to all this,

modern higher education institutions must

correspond as providers of educational services.

Having tremendous opportunities, thanks to digital

interaction, we also have huge problems, since

everything changes - the conditions for information,

training, interaction, payment. The digitalization

process is different for each university. With the help

of our map, we wanted to highlight a number of

common problems, which, as a rule, are leaders in the

issue under discussion.

First, the map should clearly reflect all the

information that could be easily found, and provide

answers to the questions: what to study and where to

go. These materials are reflected on the websites of

the university and in social groups. All materials must

be fully consistent with the study of goals and "pain"

of our main segment of the client base - school

applicants.

Secondly, the maximum impact of the work of

social groups is needed. What is needed is a

simplified registration system for sites and a well-

defined feedback. At the initial stages of the search,

the prospective student should be able to track the

process of interaction work in order to make a

positive decision in favor of choosing this university.

Thirdly, any site, any social group should

strengthen the image of the university. To do this, you

can use corporate identity, present the university's

rating in holding various kinds of conferences, events,

not only internal, but also external scale, acquaint

with talented people, graduates of this university. It is

necessary that at the stage of identification, the future

student sees the potential of the highly qualified staff

of the university.

The digitalization process is a set of activities

carried out to achieve a high level of transformation

of a university into a digital university. It is necessary

that a single information space be organized, the

collection of up-to-date data reflecting the state of the

university's activities is established, there was an

opportunity to evaluate the services and services

offered by the educational organization. This will

help tracking new trends and directions in the

development of information systems, considering

new opportunities for their use in the work of the

university. The policy of stimulating the payment of

teachers and students should be reviewed, especially

when developing and implementing new projects.

The use of digital communication channels to attract

international students, especially through social

networks, should not be neglected. The International

relations department can help the university with this,

for the correct translation and presentation of the

necessary information. The marketing department

should fully interact with potential students, students,

graduates, and scientists and use monitoring to clearly

determine the image of the university in the

educational services market (Minina and Mabruk,

2019). This will help the university to develop a clear

strategy to attract consumers-applicants.

5 CONCLUSIONS

As much as we would like to, but digital reality is

increasingly entering our life. Every day we work

with a mobile device, communicate on social

networks, use various programs in the field of

computing, payment, providing all kinds of services

without leaving their home, it is more and more

difficult for us to do without new geolocation data.

The list could be continued. And all this changes the

horizons of higher education, having a direct impact

on it.

The transition of universities to a new era of

digitalization scares not only consumers of

educational services, but also universities themselves.

Each university must understand that when

developing the right business strategy, a lot of new

and interesting opportunities open up for it. There is

no single way to achieve results using digital

technologies. Each university will have its own

development path. To do this, you will have to try out

many ways of working with new information systems

before deciding on the right strategy and personality.

It may be necessary to rethink the stated goals in

training, improve modern standards in accordance

with the requirements of the new information

environment, and move away from the usual form of

working with work programs. And it depends only on

ourselves how correctly we will be able to take

advantage of all the benefits that the new digital era

gives us.

REFERENCES

Baumeol, U. and Boksheker, A. (2017). Evolutionary

Changes in Higher Education Driven by Digitalization.

16th International Conference on Information

Technology-Based Higher Education and Learning.

Digital Transformation of Education as Overcoming the Global Digital Inequality within the Framework of Sustainable Development of

Civilization

699

Boronenko, T., Kaisina, A. and Fedotova, V. (2019).

Development of digital literacy of schoolchildren in the

context of creating a digital educational environment.

Scientific journal.

Butsyk, S. (2019). Digital" generation in the educational

system of the Russian region: problems and solutions.

Scientific journal.

Chelovechkova, A., Polyakova, E., Tetyusheva, S.,

Sidorova, O. and Dick, D. (2020). Problems and

prospects of modernization of higher education based

on the implementation of professional standards in the

field of information technology, Materials of the

International Scientific Conference "Far East".

Makarova, I., Boyko, A., Giniyatullin, I., Pashkevich, A.,

and Mukhametdinov, E. (2020). Changes in

Engineering Education in the Transition to a Digital

Society. 21st International Conference on Control in

the Carpathians.

Manikovskaya, M. (2019). Digitalization of education:

challenges to traditional norms and principles of

morality. Scientific journal.

Minina, A. and Mabruk, K. (2019). Transformation of the

University Communication Strategy in the Context of

Digitalization. Workshop on Communication Strategies

in a Digital Society.

Nikiforova, T., Polyakova, E., Chelovechkova, A.,

Zmyzgova, T. and Dmitrieva, O. (2017). Development

of an educational web resource as an example of the

development of professional competencies of a future

engineer. Materials of the III All-Russian Scientific and

Practical Conference.

Serditova, N. and Belotserkovsky, A. Education, quality

and digital transformation. Scientific journal.

Shinde, D. and Prasad, R. (2019). Digital Transformation in

Technical Education. 22nd International Symposium on

Wireless Personal Multimedia Communication.

ISSDRI 2021 - International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Sustainable Development of Regional Infrastructure

700