How the Twin Tsunamis of COVID-19 and the Digital Revolution Are Transforming Business Studies

Download or read book How the Twin Tsunamis of COVID-19 and the Digital Revolution Are Transforming Business Studies written by Angus Hooke and published by . This book was released on 2022-08-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If Ray Kurzweil is correct, the world has experienced more technological change in the last decade than in the whole of the 20th century. This is enough, by itself, to be hugely challenging for most individuals and businesses. However, the systemic change referred to by Kurzweil has been compounded by the onset of first global pandemic in a century. The pandemic had an especially severe impact on the higher education sector where many institutions were providing education to thousands of students using traditional face-to-face, on-campus delivery. Prior to the pandemic, many decision-makers in the sector had recognised that digital technologies, which replaced industrial technologies as the main driver of economic growth around the end of the 20th century, provided the ability to modify this method of delivery to include a significant online component, delivered and accessible from anywhere. However, the power of inertia as well as the risks involved in being a technology leader encouraged all but a few institutions to put the serious introduction of online learning into the "for the future" basket. Hence, the initial reaction when mandated lockdowns necessitated an immediate and total shift to online delivery was generally one of apprehension and even despair.