[text in Dutch below] Digital transformation is gaining much attention in the business press. Digital transformation concerns the change of business to a fully digital operation of their activities to create value for their customers. Firms like Amazon, Tesla, Apple and Bol.Com were transforming sectors like retailing and the car industry.

Incumbent firms are typically lagging behind and there is an immense fear that they are not transforming fast enough leading to bankruptcy. There are famous examples in The Netherlands (i.e. Vroom & Dreesman) across the globe of firms (i.e. Thomas Cook) that have not transformed in a timely manner. 

Due to the Corona crises, we observe an unprecedented forced digital transformation in university education. We typically distinguish between three phases of digital transformation: digitization, digitalization and digital transformation. In the digitization phase some small elements of the business are digitalized, such as communication via a website. In the digitalization phase more important functions are digitalized. For example a retailer can add an online channel to their dominant offline bricks-and mortar store. Finally, in the digital transformation phase the full business is digitalized. Existing firms frequently move slowly through these phases. 

Many universities including our University of Groningen are typically in the digitalization phase. In our education we have included some digital elements. We already use Nestor for years and share assignments, papers and slides digitally, but our main dominant way of teaching is still offline: using conventional education methods. One could have never imagined that we are quickly moving to fully digitalized education in block 2.2. including online examination. At our Faculty of Economics of Business we took three weeks to prepare for online education with limited internal experience and online education capabilities. Internally we have set up an online education team to support teaching staff and within and across departments staff members share experiences and learn from each other’s successes and challenges. While at the University level experts from CIT and ESI are helping out with the grand scheme of online education, we will also evaluate at Faculty-level what has worked in online education and what was not effective. 

Of course Corona has many negative consequences, but it also forces innovation in university education. I remember discussions on the University strategy, when we discussed online education. The most common response has been that we are a campus-based university, where digital methods should mainly support traditional education methods (digitalization). Due to Corona measures, we are now forced and thus we try to digitally transform our education. The question is: “will we move back to classic methods when we are allowed to do so and forget what we learned?”. Following the famous Austrian Economist Joseph Schumpeter, Corona could function as a kind of creative destruction for university education. Are we forced to revolutionize our education and thereby destroy the traditional way of our education? In a post-corona phase, it’s probably better that we integrate current online education experiences in our way of education and, for example, move to a kind of blended model, where we combine online and offline education in a smart way. It is very likely that we are already forced to do so in the next academic year in the so-called ‘1,5 meter economy’. 

This is all looking more in the future. At this point it is in April 2020, and we are offering online education at a large scale for the first time while learning how we can improve this. Usually, firms can experiment with digital transformation and invest in training and the acquisition of digital capabilities. Contrastingly, university education is required to make this move and again it is amazing to observe how we manage to do this. We have to see how that works out. Having said this, I guess some or even most of us would like to move back to a normal situation as soon as possible. However, I also believe we can use the current experiences to make a next step in university education, which is required anyhow given the increasing digitalizing society with future incoming students from across the globe that are even more digitalized. 

Prof.dr. Peter Verhoef
Dean Faculty of Economics and Business

Gedwongen digitale transformatie in het academisch onderwijs

De meeste universiteiten, waaronder de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, bevinden zich in de tweede digitaliseringsfase. We hebben een paar digitale onderdelen in ons onderwijs opgenomen. We gebruiken al jaren Nestor en delen opdrachten, documenten en sheets digitaal, maar onze voornaamste manier van lesgeven is nog altijd offline, dat wil zeggen door middel van conventionele onderwijsmethoden. Niemand had kunnen bedenken dat we in blok 2.2 zo snel zouden overschakelen op volledig gedigitaliseerd onderwijs, inclusief online tentamens. Op de Faculteit Economie en Bedrijfskunde hebben we ons, met beperkte interne ervaring en online onderwijsvaardigheden, in drie weken tijd voorbereid op online onderwijs. Intern hebben we een online onderwijsteam opgezet ter ondersteuning van het onderwijzend personeel, en binnen en tussen de afdelingen delen medewerkers ervaringen en leren ze van elkaars successen en uitdagingen. Universiteitsbreed ondersteunen experts van CIT en ESI het online onderwijs als geheel, maar ook op faculteitsniveau zullen we evalueren wat wel en niet heeft gewerkt op het gebied van online onderwijs.