Development of a digital education standard in higher education for ensuring equity and accessibility in digital education

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for higher levels of digital capacity in education and training, while deepening existing challenges and inequalities between those who have access to digital technologies and those who do not, including individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. The pandemic has also revealed a number of challenges in higher education related to the digital capabilities of educational and training institutions, the training of teachers and their overall level of digital skills and competences. Most importantly, the pandemic clearly showed that the system of higher education was not ready for such a rapid shift from the classroom to the online environment and that in Slovenia there is an urgent need to create a digital education standard which will help teachers to successfully adapt and redesign or even recreate educational programmes or individual courses using digital technology. The aim of the project is to explore the experiences of higher education teachers with the current use of digital technologies for educational purposes and to investigate their digital competencies. At the same time, the project aims to investigate the experiences of students from different programs and levels of study with education/training and learning using digital technologies and to determine the level of their digital competences. The main goal of the project is to develop the education digital standard in higher education based on a detailed analysis and identification of factors in digital education while focusing on the country's environment, policys, and culture. In the proposed research project, we will use a mixed methods research design. Its first phase will include collection and analysis of qualitative data, which will be followed by the collection and analysis of quantitative data to upgrade the results of the first stage. For the qualitative part of the research, a purposive sample of students from various programs and levels of study who have experience as participants in the pedagogical process based on digital education, either through distance learning, blended learning, or fully implemented through learning management systems, will be used. In addition, a purposive sample of higher education teachers who have experience as providers in the pedagogical process based on digital education (via distance education, blended learning, or through learning management systems) will be used. Data will be collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using the content analysis method based on thematic analysis. Data analysis will be conducted using the computer program NVivo. The qualitative data will be reported in accordance with the reporting standard for qualitative research. For the quantitative part, a stratified random sample from each participating group (higher education teachers, students) will be used. Data will be collected using a structured questionnaire, based primarily on the findings of the qualitative part of the research. In this part of the research, we will add another standardised tool for measuring digital competence among higher education teachers. Before conducting the survey, both questionnaires will be piloted on a small sample. The questionnaires prepared in this way will be translated into electronic form and conducted as an online survey. Data will be analyzed using the computer program IBM SPSS and IBM SPSS Amos. Data will be analyzed using basic descriptive statistics. Depending on the sample size, normality of data distribution, and the purpose and objectives of the study, the appropriate statistical tests will be used. The STROBE standard for cross-sectional observations will be followed in reporting the results. Ethical guidelines will be followed throughout the research process, more specifically the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity. We will apply for ethical approval in advance from the Research Ethics Committee.