Towards hybrid learning in higher education in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis

Digital transformation is considered a major change process that takes time and often meets employee resistance and avoidance. The outbreak of COVID-19 forced educators and students to skip the gradual transformation and transfer all teaching activities online. The present paper views this phenomenon as an 'extreme' case and a unique opportunity to gather real time data on how students respond to digital transformation with particular focus on student diversity with regard to the digital threshold. Based on a mixed-data survey with students from a graduate master programme during the first three months of the lockdown, we aim at mapping students' online learning experiences in terms of adaptability, learning outcomes and learning climate. The results are held against current exam performance in order to surface possible correlations between students' response to the online transition and their general study performance. Our research hypothesis is that capturing and understanding initial experiences during the sudden transition to online teaching can be of particular value in rethinking university teaching in a digitized perspective. Such experiences convey a response to an actual need for digitized modes of teaching and tap into the procedural knowledge domain. We conclude by reflecting on the value of creating hybrid learning spaces that may respond to specific educational needs under changing conditions.