Towards Integrating Digital Preparedness into Higher Education

Abstract

Integrating disaster preparedness education into higher education curricula faces persistent challenges in terms of engagement, relevance, and practical skill development. Recent advancements in digital tools offer promising opportunities to address these gaps through more interactive and experiential learning approaches, fostering disaster preparedness competencies among students, including enhanced risk awareness and improved emergency decision-making. However, embedding such tools into academic curricula requires careful alignment with pedagogical goals, institutional systems, and stakeholder expectations. This paper examines pathways for integrating modern digital preparedness tools into university education through a single case study. Data was collected based on semi-structured questionnaires from educators, students, and first responders at a Norwegian University. Experiences from an EU-funded project that developed an ecosystem (B-Prepared) for preparedness, including four digital products: virtual reality (VR-prepared), mobile technologies (IM-prepared), a learning management system (RU-prepared), and a knowledge management system (Disastropedia), were also considered. The results indicate positive attitudes toward embedding preparedness modules into existing courses. However, to be useful, the Learning Management System (LMS) should include a user flow on emergency preparedness and provide concrete examples on technology integration in a curriculum. The paper further discusses key challenges related to knowledge transfer, pedagogical alignment, and institutional infrastructure.