Digital Learning Is an Educational Format towards Sustainable Education

Maria José Sousa, Ana Lúcia Marôco, Sónia P. Gonçalves and Andreia de Bem Machado
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Ana Lúcia Marôco: Centro de Administração e Políticas Públicas, Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas, Universidade de Lisboa, 1300-663 Lisboa, Portugal
Sónia P. Gonçalves: Centro de Administração e Políticas Públicas, Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas, Universidade de Lisboa, 1300-663 Lisboa, Portugal
Andreia de Bem Machado: Knowledge Engineering Department, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis 88040-900, Brazil

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-16

Abstract: The year 2020, due to the pandemic, was a milestone in the history of digital technology in the education sector, allowing a sustainable education although the world was facing a pandemic crisis without precedents. Therefore, in a few days occur a transformation from traditional classroom teaching to online teaching and consequently forced to use digital learning. Nevertheless, more researches are needed to know how was this experience and if there is the intention to maintain the online format. The main goal of this article is to study how digital learning can be an educational format focused on sustainable education. This paper presents a systematic literature review on digital learning through PRISMA methodology, based on a literature search and field research aimed to analyze the significant predictors related to the digital learning experience on the likelihood of choosing to “keep” the online format in the next academic year. An online survey was conducted with 173 university students. The results obtained showed that the significant predictors were factor 1-”Characteristics of online classes; factor 2-”Support from the School and Professors; factor 3-”Online classes vs. face-to-face classes” and gender. The probability of choosing to keep online classes increases exponentially with the characteristics of online classes, with Support from school and teachers; Online classes vs. Face-to-face classes, and keeping factors 1, 2, and 3 constant the probability if a man chooses the online format compared to a woman is higher. This online format thus acquires central importance in the contemporary sustainability debate. The kind of life, education, and society we will have in the future will depend on the quality, depth, and extent of the learning processes we can create and exercise individually and socially. Education, and educators in particular, who concentrate on the tasks of designing and implementing social teaching and learning models, have a unique responsibility in this process. Although the reduced sample size the present work can provide strategic information for university staff, contributing to designing and implementation a sustainable education.

Keywords: digital learning; sustainable education; systematic literature review; university education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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