3.1. Why a Digital Education strategy?

3.1.1. Trends and current context

Reinventing education is one of the most significant challenges in recent years. To that end, we must traverse innovative trails relevant to the newest realities of students and the work of the future.

One of the most recent inflection points was the 2020 health contingency, which affected not only society from a health standpoint but also in the ways of working, production of goods, and, without a doubt, education. This challenge brought education through digital means to the forefront, and even though an end to the pandemic has been declared and educational institutions have returned to normal, Digital Education has become a learning modality that is here to stay.

A benchmark carried out on seven QS ranking universities, five of which offer 100% face-to-face modalities and two that offer fully online programs, produced the following results observed from these universities’ strategies:

Five universities stated that their students’ experience is face-to-face and seek to take advantage of the learnings from the pandemic to incorporate new pedagogies and technologies.

The digital offering they have incorporated is hybrid (blended) for graduate programs (exploratory stage) and online for Continuing Education. For undergraduate programs, they use digital modules as educational resources.

At the same time, they mention that incorporating a digital offering requires revising and reformulating several aspects, such as the scope of the role of the teacher and its workload, as well as the technological infrastructure.

In their operation model, three universities have a central unit tasked with incorporating educational innovation in educational experiences and Digital Education; two have a dedicated area for the design, teaching, academic management, and incorporation of educational innovation in educational experiences and Digital Education. They drive top-down and bottom-up innovations. They report to the presidency or rector’s office.

Five universities have pedagogues experienced in the use of technology who advise teachers involved in distance modality courses. Other roles, such as audiovisual producers and tutor teachers, are involved based on the project’s scope. Two universities include web developers, multimedia developers, platform specialists, and administrative roles (attraction, marketing, alliance development, IT support) for fully online programs’ design, teaching, and academic management.

From the above, we can conclude that universities are moving toward integrating Digital Education to democratize education and offer alternatives toward new markets and as a strategy to prepare students and teachers for experiences and competencies that the future world will demand.

3.1.2. Learnings from the Pandemic

Tecnológico de Monterrey was the first Mexican university to declare a contingency for its academic community. To face it, innovative strategies were implemented based on specialized technologies and pedagogy, making efficient use of the available resources.

After a week of preparation and suspension of academic activities for students, the institution resumed classes through a Flexible Digital Model (August-December 2020). This model allowed the institution to shorten the distance and maintain collaboration and communication. Above all, it facilitated academic continuity to ensure that students and teachers could resume classes and enjoy the best experiences despite a complex situation in a national and international context. For the February 2021 period, and with a partial reopening of campuses, the HyFlex + Tec Model was implemented, which combined real-time participation between distance and on-site students through information technologies. From this model emerges the Hybrid Synchronous Modality (August-December 2021), in which, in addition to repurposing classrooms for this modality, there was a thorough follow-up process for all the sessions carried out under this modality at a national level.

These modalities allowed the institution to achieve academic continuity while maintaining the quality of its programs. Below are some of the best practices implemented during the pandemic:

The evolution of classroom technology. Updating teacher training resources based on incidents detected during sessions. Integrating institutional information bulletin boards to keep track of performance indicators when teaching digital modalities.

Participation from the Tec community in implementing the project.

Decentralization of functions to streamline processes: local “buddies” (people who support teachers during sessions) coordination on campus to maintain closer communication and resolve incidents as they happen, as well as the availability of digital training resources for “buddies” to make training times more flexible, available for consultation at any time.

3.1.3. Institutional vision

Tecnológico de Monterrey Vision Leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship for Human strengthening.

Three main pillars support the institutional vision:

These practices allowed for maintaining the quality and attention of students, as well as strengthening teacher performance.

For more information, consult the academic continuity reports in the Educational Innovation at Tecnológico de Monterrey digital space.

Internationalization: To be a more global institution.

Research: To be a university with more research to create knowledge and social solutions and to develop new entrepreneurship projects.

Innovation: To be an innovative university that prepares its students to meet the challenges they will face in an increasingly digital and ever-changing world.

Considering the three pillars that support Tecnológico de Monterrey’s vision, as well as the demands of the near future for universities to be a part of an interconnected global citizenship, and the learning obtained during the pandemic in terms of educational methodologies, technology use, and teaching competencies, the need arises to redefine the course of Digital Education.

3.2. Which questions are we looking to answer?

The first step was to pose a series of questions that could allow us to define what, what for, and how to implement Digital Education.

Question Answer 1

What is Digital Education, and what are its components?

Description of main elements of Digital Education that define an excellent experience throughout the student’s journey.

Identification and examples of best practices and market trends.

2

What are the diagnostics for Digital Education elements at Tec de Monterrey?

Mapping of starting point and the current situation at Tec de Monterrey.

Identification of main strengths and opportunities for Digital Education. 3

Why do we want Digital Education, and which actions are required to improve our current offer?

Definition of “what for” regarding Digital Education and alignment with Tecnológico de Monterrey’s strategy.

Proposal of strategic projects to integrate Digital Education throughout the student’s journey to ensure a quality experience of high value for learning.

4

How can we define the training programs and units to offer in a digital modality?

Guiding principles to define eligibility of training units and programs to be taught in digital modalities.

Framework proposals to determine eligibility.

5

What are the main implications and enablers of the strategic actions?

6

How can we have continuing education?

Construction of a project implementation roadmap to deploy Digital Education, including activities, milestones, timelines, and impact and follow-up metrics.

Definition of an operational model for adequately implementing the strategy: organization, communication, and followup.

Construction of an innovation framework to generate digital experiences that could improve learning.