Data-informed assessment of Digital Readiness of Higher Education Institutions (Deliverable 1.1)

This report presents a literature review on data-driven assessment frameworks of Digital Readiness of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). In particular, first we conducted a literature review of related work on assessment instruments of Digital Readiness for HEIs. This review indicated that such instruments are limited to self-assessment; pinpointed the lack of data-informed, or data-driven, frameworks that will allow automated – or semiautomated – assessments based on data that HEIs already collect and have available. Further analysis of the literature revealed six core dimensions that are fundamental for the assessment of Digital Readiness of HEIs. These dimensions are: Leadership and Governance, Policies and Strategies, Teaching and Learning, Content and Curricula, Training and Support, Infrastructure. Then, we conducted a review of data-driven Digital Readiness indexes, typically used to assess Digital Readiness at national levels. This review provided insights regarding quantifiable, data-informed indicators of Digital Readiness that can be used in educational contexts, and specifically for Higher Education Institutions. At the same time, the analysis suggested that although such indexes use similar metrics and data for the computation of national indexes, the results can be very different. For example, a country that scores on the top-5 of one index may appear close to the bottom of another index. Finally, to contextualize our findings we referred to national policies and strategies and digitalization agendas of the respective countries of the three academic partners (that is, Greece, Spain and Germany) with a focus on education.