Digitalization in Higher Education as a Means to Ensure Student Access and Inclusion in Global Learning Space with Regard to COVID-19 World Crisis

Abstract

The article provides an aspect analysis of the concept «digitalization» and the peculiarities of its functioning in higher education as the one that provides comprehensive access to global educational space during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the research an attempt has been made to articulate the link between the notions of «digitalization», «internationalization», «collaborative online international learning» as a new educational paradigm enhancing intercultural competence of all actors of educational process within jointly established multicultural academic environment. The focus of empirical research is centred on the «internationalization-at-home» paradigm, which is viewed as the nexus of international and intercultural dimensions integrated into formal, non-formal, and informal learning (learning environment) with the application of digital teaching formats such as E-pedagogy, international virtual exchange and virtual mobility projects, etc. The analysis has been conducted with regard to the internationalisation process at Polish and Slovak higher education based on the empirical data provided by online open platforms of Jagiellonian University in Krakow, the Republic of Poland, and Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovak Republic. As such, the research has been aimed at outlining theoretical and methodical basis for application of the basic digitalization process principles in present-day higher education with the emphasis on the roles of academic staff in promoting campus-based international academic environment.