Estudiantes universitarios rurales y urbanos y su vulnerabilidad frente a lo tecnológico: revisión sistemática

The Covid-19 pandemic forced universities to shift to an online learning modality and to dispense with face-to-face education, highlighting the inequality of opportunities and fewer education options in some sectors of the population. Students from rural areas had the greatest difficulties due to the possible lack of access to technological means and the quality of their internet connections. The present article is a systematic review of the literature about rurality and the use of technology in the university setting during Covid-19, through the analysis of 105 articles extracted from the Web of Science and Scopus, which were screened following the PRISMA guidelines, for a total of 17 valid articles. The results describe the university policies developed, the technologies utilized, the difficulties, and the good practices conceived. It is possible to conclude that the challenges experienced by rural students were greater than urban students, and being aware of this, the university policies worldwide opted for ensuring financial resources that could serve as support to these more vulnerable student sectors, so that they could follow the online classes. There is still much to be done, and it is necessary to adapt higher education to the specificities of rural areas and online education, to achieve a greater equality of opportunities.