Use of digital technologies in distance education

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Müesser Nat, Chair of the Department of Management Information Systems and committee member of the Distance Education Center,Cyprus International University (CIU) stated that institutions and businesses that can adapt to the digital world at the point reached today due to the COVID-19 epidemic will survive from this process with the least damage, and “digitalization has ceased to be an option and it has become a must”.  

It was mentioned that in recent years many articles about technology frequently use expressions such as adapting to the digitalized world, the generation Z born to the digital world, and young people growing up with technology and similarly, digital transformation in educational institutions and businesses is inevitable and technology is integrated into business processes.

It was also stated that it is inevitable to adapt to this change for the sustainability of businesses, institutions. Assoc. Prof Dr. Nat underlined that it is obvious that the institutions that can closely follow and use digital technologies, as well as the development of digital technologies, will be able to overcome this process with the least damage. “Before we talk about the use of digital technologies in education, we should not ignore that there are different teaching methods as well as different learning methods," said Nat.

Drawing attention to the necessity of the institutions to continuously improve their technological infrastructure by considering the most up-to-date methods of learning and teaching, the content of the lessons, the format of the courses, the digital competencies of the users and other variables, Nat said: “At this point, it's not about having the best or the most expensive technologies, it is to offer the most appropriate technologies to the users to continue the educational processes”.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nat stated that if the technologies in question are not provided in this process, it is inevitable that the user morale and learning/teaching motivations will be affected. "In this case, the failure of the application will be clearly observed," said Nat.