Pandemic, Lockdown, and Digital Transformation: Challenges and Opportunities for Public Administration, NGOs, and Businesses (Public Administration and Information Technology, 7) 3030862739, 9783030862732

Citation preview

Public Administration and Information Technology 7

Saqib Saeed Manuel Pedro Rodríguez Bolívar Ramayah Thurasamy   Editors

Pandemic, Lockdown, and Digital Transformation Challenges and Opportunities for Public Administration, NGOs, and Businesses

Public Administration and Information Technology Volume 7 Series Editor Manuel Pedro Rodríguez Bolívar, Department of Accounting and Finance, Faculty of Business Science, University of Granada, Granada, Spain

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10796

Saqib Saeed Manuel Pedro Rodríguez Bolívar Ramayah Thurasamy Editors

Pandemic, Lockdown, and Digital Transformation Challenges and Opportunities for Public Administration, NGOs, and Businesses

Editors Saqib Saeed Saudi Aramco Cybersecurity Chair Department of Computer Information Systems College of Computer Science and Information Technology Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University Dammam, Saudi Arabia

Manuel Pedro Rodríguez Bolívar Department of Accounting and Finance Faculty of Business Science University of Granada Granada, Spain

Ramayah Thurasamy School of Management University Sains Malaysia Penang, Malaysia

ISSN 2512-1812     ISSN 2512-1839 (electronic) Public Administration and Information Technology ISBN 978-3-030-86273-2    ISBN 978-3-030-86274-9 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86274-9 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Contents

 Policies for Enhancing Public Trust and Avoiding Distrust in Digital Government During Pandemics: Insights from a Systematic Literature Review����������������������������������������������������������������������    1 Ecem Buse Sevinç Çubuk, Burcu Demirdöven, and Marijn Janssen  Data-Driven Implementation: The Role of Information and Technology in Public Responses to Social Emergencies������������������������   25 Bruno Baranda Cardoso and Marcelo Silva Oliveira Gonçalves  Implementation of Emerging Technologies in Pandemic Situations: Contact Tracing vs. Privacy in Canada����������������������������������������������������������   47 Irma Spahiu  eTourism and Cultural Resilience: Exploring Opportunities for Indigenous Communities in an Extremely Precarious State ����������������   65 Tariq Zaman, Gary Loh Chee Wyai, and Shaista Falak  Digital Transformation of Health Systems During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges and Opportunities for Telehealth ����������������������������   79 Mina Ostovari  Digital Transformation and Usability: User Acceptance of Tawakkalna Application During Covid-19 in Saudi Arabia����������������������������������������������   95 Sammar Saad AlGothami and Saqib Saeed Digital Transformations to Challenge-­Based Learning in the Context of COVID-­19 and Beyond������������������������������������������������������  111 Peter Szyszlo and Salar Chagpar  Change Management in Digital Environment Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scenario from Malaysian Higher Education Institutions�����  129 Simin Ghavifekr and Hua Yeh Fung

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 Challenges and Implications of Digital Transformation in Higher Education: A Student Perspective from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia����������  159 Madeeha Saqib, Tooba Nasir, Hina Gull, Dina A. Alabbad, and Sardar Zafar Iqbal  Digital Transformation in Higher Education: Impact of Instructor Training on Class Effectiveness During COVID-19��������������������������������������  175 K. Lakshmypriya, Rashmi Rai, and Pallavi Kudal Index������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  197

Policies for Enhancing Public Trust and Avoiding Distrust in Digital Government During Pandemics: Insights from a Systematic Literature Review Ecem Buse Sevinç Çubuk, Burcu Demirdöven, and Marijn Janssen

Abstract  The coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) has demonstrated the importance of the state capacity and public policy-making process in managing both the pandemic and the resulting crisis. Trust and/or distrust in the relationship between citizens and authorities can determine the success or failure of states in combating pandemics. The goal of this study is to provide insight into trust and distrust in digital government during pandemics by creating an overview of the scattered knowledge. Accordingly, the chapter creates an overview of the factors influencing trust and distrust in digital government in pandemics. The results showed that factors affecting distrust are mostly associated with problems in the interactions between citizens and public authorities, whereas factors affecting trust address governments’ policy responses and public compliance. The level of trust is a dynamic condition that can either be strengthened or broken. A single factor can result in trust for one person and distrust for another person. Surprisingly, trust and distrust can coexist at the same time. Governments must pursue a balance between trust- and distrust-­ related factors in times of pandemics to derive the dual benefits of trust and distrust. Keywords  Trust · Distrust · Digital government · Pandemics · Systematic literature review · Factors

E. B. Sevinç Çubuk Aydin Adnan Menderes University, Aydin, Turkey Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] B. Demirdöven Pamukkale University, Denizli, Turkey email: [email protected] M. Janssen Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 S. Saeed et al. (eds.), Pandemic, Lockdown, and Digital Transformation, Public Administration and Information Technology 7, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86274-9_1

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1.1  Introduction COVID-19 is a problem affecting all parts of society. Digital government technologies have sustained dialogue between governments and citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital technologies have played a crucial role in the rapid decision-making process based on real-time data and analytics as well as enhancing coordination to distribute evidence-based services (Division for Public Institutions and Digital Government, 2020). In the context of government-citizens’ relations through digital technologies, scholars have devoted much attention to the antecedents and consequences of the disposition to trust than those of the disposition to distrust. However, governments may need different strategies to increase trust or reduce distrust and different research models and measurement scales to explore them (Saunders et al., 2014). In situations with low trust, the basic attitude toward governments is still one of trust, whereas when there is distrust, even a level of basic trust is no longer present. The latter causes all government actions to be approached with suspicion. Even wellintended actions of governments can be perceived as malicious (De Valle & Six, 2014) and encounter resistance. Surprisingly, trust and distrust can co-exist at the same time (Lewicki et al., 1998). While reading news online, citizens undergo many positive experiences resulting in trust (e.g., a behind-the-story section describing why and how the article was written) and negative experiences might result in distrust (e.g., online pop-ups). In such interactions, both trust and distrust are reinforced by different elements. For one person, this can result in higher trust, whereas for another person to more distrust. Studying distrust in governments is important because it allows us to avoid its potential negative consequences. Early research on COVID-19 has revealed that many governments have struggled to enforce their directives due to distrust among people about public authority and law enforcement (Baniamin et al., 2020). During epidemics and pandemics, people may produce different understandings of disease and may be skeptical about government directives and actions. In contrast, studies about epidemics and pandemics have frequently investigated the drivers of public trust and search for a series of “fixes” to remediate trust (Velan et al., 2013; Holroyd et al., 2020). Such an approach has led to an excessive focus on trusting citizens and what makes them trustful while neglecting distrusting citizens and what makes them distrustful. Although there has been a body of literature about public trust in the relationship with government through digital technologies, there is no research analyzing trust and distrust in pandemic situations. The literature often captures trust in this relationship or the reflections of trust and distrust separately, resulting in scattered knowledge. This study aims to fill this gap in the literature with a presentation of insights from the systematic literature review (SLR) through the PRISMA method suggested by Moher et al. (2009). The SLR methodology rigorously reviews and synthesizes the research outcomes through aggregating knowledge about a particular subject or research questions

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(Kitchenham et al., 2010; Oliveira et al., 2014). Although extensive research has been carried out on trust in governments during pandemics, there is no overview of factors affecting distrust and the differences between these factors and their impact on public trust. Research mostly captures specific cases or the two concepts separately. The SLR brings this literature together and provides an overview to allow researchers, policymakers, and stakeholders to explore the commonalities and divergences so that policies for enhancing effective crisis management during pandemics can be adopted. The SLR will include a selection of peer-reviewed articles on the previous pandemic periods and COVID-19. The study screens the articles that are directly related to trust and distrust issues as concepts involving Internet exchange relationships between citizens and public authorities in pandemic situations. Next, the chapter investigates whether and how factors influencing public distrust in digital government during pandemic situations are distinct from those affecting trust. The following sections are structured as follows: In Sect. 2, the background of the discussion of trust and distrust in the interaction between governments and citizens during pandemics is presented to explain why studying distinctive factors triggering the oscillation between trust and distrust is important. Section 3 presents a detailed description of how the SLR was conducted. Section 4 indicates the first analysis of the findings obtained from the selected articles of the SLR in an integrated approach to factors affecting trust and distrust in government during pandemics. Section 5 provides a discussion of the results from the review, and in Sect. 6, conclusions are drawn and suggestions given for future research.

1.2  Background The SARS-CoV2 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has created a traumatic change in life and livelihoods around the globe and become a challenging process for states to test their ability to make and effectively implement decisions (Hartley & Jarvis, 2020). After the declaration of a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020, many countries have faced an unprecedented demand for interaction and cooperation with the public in preventive measures (Gesser-­ Edelsburg et al., 2020). In this period, citizens frequently needed new and reliable information, guidance, and leadership of governments. This expectation has presented the importance of trust between governors and governed once again during the pandemic. The literature on trust in the interaction between governments and citizens during pandemics defines trust as the public perception that governments tend to protect people and serve public interests (Velan et  al., 2013; Holroyd et  al., 2020; Gopichandran et al., 2020; Henderson et al., 2020). Governments are expected to deal fairly with all parts of society (Krause et al., 2020). During pandemics, it is hard to fairly allocate the costs of the crisis and its remedies (Klenk et al., 2020). Due to the limited interaction between people, the digital intermediaries provide

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information about the process and affect the public trust. In these circumstances, trust emerges if people believe that information is reliable (Nutbeam, 2020) and coming from reliable sources (McNeill et al., 2016). How people can perceive and respond to the situation depends on how the risk information is from a trusted source (Siegrist & Zingg, 2014). Distrust results in skepticism that the authorities care about what is politically expedient instead of the right action (Baum et al., 2009). Distrusting people concern that the existing system is most probably biased in favor of government officials (Silva et al., 2012) and the public authorities serve their benefits or ulterior interests (Velan et al., 2013; McNeill et al., 2016). In some cases, distrust-driven responses of the people to pandemics can be rooted in disquiet, hostility, and lack of faith in the government to do the right thing (Hartley & Jarvis, 2020). The unexpected and extreme uncertainties like the outbreak of COVID-19 require distinctive management skills than the normal times. The unusual, atypical crisis may cause public suspicion about both institutions and officials’ motives or competence in managing pandemics (Bangerter et al., 2012; Gesser-Edelsburg et al., 2020). The lack of public perception that individuals and institutions are knowledgeable and expert may result in public trust deterioration (Freimuth et al., 2014). The COVID-19 crisis has indicated the importance of discussing the oscillation between trust and distrust in digital government since information and communication technologies (ICT) have played a prominent role in the interaction between governors and governed. Not only have digital technologies been the main source of information and communication, but they also have been used as an enabler and a part of each task force that has considered citizens at the center (UCLG, 2020). Governments have stressed earning the trust of citizens in the application of digital technologies since they have been the key player in alleviating the fatal effects of this critical juncture. In public administration (PA) literature, studies have been similarly concentrated on the factors affecting trust in governments with the premise that trust and distrust are opposites of the same variable and that the same factors are responsible for trust and distrust (De Valle & Six, 2014). However, there has been an increasing consensus that distrust is not merely the opposite of trust (Sitkin & Roth, 1993; Lewicki et  al., 1998; Saunders & Thornhill, 2004). Consequently, the underlying factors affecting trust and distrust, especially during unexpected uncertainties, are not necessarily similar. Moreover, to distrust, the government can sometimes be rational (Hardin, 2002) since it implies the increased knowledge about the government and guarantees control (Kim, 2005) while the routine trust can be naïve (De Valle & Six, 2014). Research on pandemics suggests that the government’s routine trust may result in underestimating risks and people’s reduced compliance with the measures against the pandemic (Wong & Jensen, 2020). Therefore, identifying the sources of distrust in crisis management is important because it helps the governments controlling their undesirable consequences while adopting policies for enhancing compliance with the government actions.

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1.3  Methodology Systematic literature review (SLR) is important to synthesize the results of studies on the same or similar subjects in an integrated way (Torraco, 2005). SLR enables to limit the subject in research by methodological analysis and synthesis of the literature and providing a firm foundation to the topic and selection criteria for the research that ultimately shows the research has a contribution to the existing body of knowledge (Levy & Ellis, 2006). Accordingly, the study screens the articles based on the oscillation between trust and distrust involving Internet exchange relationships between citizens and public authorities in pandemic situations. The following questions guided the SLR: 1. What are the factors that can influence public trust in digital government during pandemic situations? 2. What are the factors that can influence public distrust in digital government during pandemic situations? We searched for papers indexed by Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, and Digital Government Reference Library (DGRL). We employed Boolean expressions for identifying the target articles using “public trust” as the main concept and combining it with “pandemic,” “digital,” “public health,” “government,” and “social media” keywords in “topic” (Table 1). The search combining keywords of “public trust,” “pandemic,” and “e-government” found no records. Since the DGRL does not allow different combinations in topic-related search, the index was examined by using “public trust” and “pandemic” keywords. The research found no relevant record, so the search was made by using only “pandemic” and the analysis presented five papers. The SLR included journal articles, conference papers, book chapters, editorial notes, and reports written in English and can be openly accessed. The search based on the keyword combinations was further narrowed by excluding papers appearing duplicated on the indexes and including the ones discussing public trust. A total of 38 papers were selected as a result of the first step. The first analysis was conducted in April 2020. Due to the continuous increase in the number of papers related to pandemics, the search was reconducted in October 2020 based on the same keyword combinations to include up-to-date studies. The Table 1  Selected papers for the SLR Keyword iterations (“public trust”) AND (“pandemic”) (“public trust”) AND (“pandemic”) AND (“digital”) (“public trust”) AND (“pandemic”) AND (“factors”) (“public trust”) AND (“public health”) AND (“pandemic”) (“public trust”) AND (“pandemic”) AND (“government”) (“public trust”) AND (“social media”) AND (“pandemic”) Total (after the second analysis eliminating duplication) Total (after research questions-based analysis)

WoS 35 2 5 12 14 2 68 34

Scopus 50 1 11 26 17 7

DGRL 5

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second analysis presented 68 papers (after eliminating duplication) responding to the topic-related keyword search. To limit the scope of the research, we filtered the initial group of 68 papers based on the contribution to the research questions. After having filtered the papers, 34 papers were found to directly contribute to the discussion of the oscillation between trust and distrust in digital government during pandemic situations. The main limitation of the methodology is its dependence on how the reviewed papers present the narrative behind the particular government stance on managing pandemics and the response of the citizens. We had to assume that the articles reviewed have reported all relevant information about the case. A second limitation, there is ever-growing literature on pandemics due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation. Every new study can present unique discoveries in the issue that may result in missing the significant factors. Finally, the generalizability of results to all countries should be done with. Although the factors and the respective contexts are obtained from the literature, the context might play a role and additional insights might be required for the analysis of particular circumstances.

1.4  Findings In total, 34 papers using our SLR protocol were selected and analyzed in detail. The studies mostly focus on trust between the citizens and public authorities at times of crisis. Although there is a striking lack of literature on distrust during pandemics, the analysis provides important factors that create underlying distrust. In total 20 papers introduced a definition of trust and ten papers included a definition of distrust. The studies, including a definition of trust, did not include the concept of distrust explicitly. The concepts of trust and distrust were viewed as related. The literature provided a wide range of factors (see Appendix for the full list). The 29 factors were found in five different contexts: health-related, administrative, political, economic, media/social media. Nine factors were identified in the context of health-related, 11 factors originate from the administrative context, five factors from the political context, two factors from the economic context, and two factors were found in the context of media/social media. In the health-related context, “confidence in healthcare systems” is the most referred factor determining public trust in the management of pandemics. Based on the administrative context, the studies mostly focus on “public communication” while “the lack of scientific information/misinformation” has the greatest significance in the political context. The articles assign “national economy” heavier importance in the economic context and “media content” is the most weighted factor in the context of media/social media. Figure 1 visualizes the frequency of factors depending on contexts. Four contexts and factors which reflect a particular context will be discussed hereafter.

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15

16

13

14

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Complexity

1 Media content

2

Risks of policies

1 Stigma and Marginalization

2

Responsible data management

Collaboration

Standardization

Public spokespersons

4 2

National economy

4

Political history

5

Credibility of authorities

5

7

6

Distribution of public resources

6

1 Preparedness

2

6

Shared interests and values / Responsiveness

Perceived certainty of treatment method

Risk perception / perceived vulnerability and severity

Approach

Transparency in health facts

Confidence in healthcare sy stem

0

Public health messages

2

2

Transparency

3

Citizen engagement

4

Effective decision making process

4

Response costs

5

4

Public communication

5

6

8 6

Lack of scientific information/ Misinformation

7

Accountability

8

Vaccine hesitancy

8

9

Individual experience

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Fig. 1  Frequency of contextual factors affecting trust and distrust

1.4.1  Health-Related Factors The initial analysis explored nine factors affecting public trust and distrust related to health issues during pandemics. “Confidence in healthcare systems” emerged in eight papers, mostly defined as the public perception that the current health system had the adequate capacity, ability, and performance to respond effectively to a pandemic (Henderson et al., 2020; Freimuth et al., 2014; Silva et al., 2012) and public motivation to accept the public health interventions and cooperate with them (Gopichandran et  al., 2020; Bangerter et  al., 2012; Doshi, 2011). Citizens’ past experiences in health care connect health-related factors and political ones that both health care professionals and government authorities need to pay attention to regaining people’s trust during pandemics (Freimuth et al., 2014). The second most frequent health-related factor (5) in the SLR is “public health messages” referring to tailoring all health messages in an appropriate tone for all relevant audiences

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(Retzlaff, 2020) so that people would be provided clear and consistent messages and not seek alternative sources for information (Nutbeam, 2020). Five papers focus on “approach” as a significant variable as a way to responding to pandemic influenza (Tapia, 2020; Doshi, 2011). Trust in citizens’ interaction with governments during pandemics depends on whether the health policies, interventions, and medical treatments are risk-based/evidence-based or scientific/nonscientific (Tapia, 2020)—such as disinfecting people walking through tunnels (Gopichandran et al., 2020). “Transparency in health facts” is used as a variable by four papers (Wong & Jensen, 2020). Three papers identify “perceived certainty of treatment method” (Singh & Ravinetto, 2020; McNeill et al., 2016), and four papers employ “risk perception/ perceived vulnerability and severity” for analyzing variables of the trust-oriented relationship between citizens and governments (Siegrist & Zingg,  2014; Chathukulam & Tharamangalam, 2020). “Vaccine hesitancy” referred to resistance or acceptance of vaccination, is mentioned in two papers (Puri et al., 2020; Sears et al., 2020). Three papers consider concepts related to “individual experience”— such as direct involvement with the pandemic (Devine et al., 2020) or “response costs”—such as side effects or time costs like  an inconvenience (McNeill et al., 2016). The SLR provided a diverse set of concepts grouped into nine factors in the context of health-related discussions. The health-related aspects mostly derive from the individual perceptions based on people’s experiences with the health system or personal risk judgments. The review indicated that the health-related factors cannot be regarded as completely heterogeneous because one factor can trigger the impact of another on public trust. For example, if the health professionals adopt a scientific approach to interventions for infection control, citizens can feel more confident in health professionals.

1.4.2  Administrative Factors The papers implied 11 administrative factors affecting enhancing trust or reducing distrust during infectious disease outbreaks. “Public communication” (15) and “effective decision-making process” (9) are the two most frequent factors in the relevant literature. Seven papers confirm the significance of “transparency” as being open when things go wrong (Henderson et  al., 2020; Balog-Way & McComas, 2020). “Citizen engagement”—citizens’ feeling that their voice counts in the policy-­ design (Baum et  al., 2009) and “preparedness”—educated and knowledgeable experts and institutions (Johnson & Goronga, 2020) have equal weight in administrative factors that each is discussed in six papers as the underlying factors explaining trust and distrust of citizens. The researchers believe that “standardization” in guidelines, protocols, and procedures emerges as an important factor that the governments need to address in a time of pandemic (Sheikh & Baig, 2020; Ienca & Vayena, 2020). Six papers find

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“shared interests/values” and “responsiveness” (prioritizing public values and experiences; considering their legitimate concerns) as necessary to improve trust-based interaction between citizens and public authorities during crises (Silva et al., 2012; Chathukulam & Tharamangalam, 2020). “Public spokespersons” are mentioned as a variable in five papers that variety in assigned spokespersons (Siegrist & Zingg, 2014) or reliability of officials (Retzlaff, 2020) increases its importance in managing pandemics. Four papers emphasize “collaboration” among stakeholders, especially with the community (Chapple, 2020). “Accountability” or “distribution of public resources” (such as equal access to resources) attracts the attention of four papers as important factors (Baker et al., 2020; Ezeibe et al., 2020; Silva et al., 2012). The review revealed the higher importance of the administrative factors to build the trust of citizens and make sure that they can rely on their government’s administrative skills during pandemics. Although a pandemic is a health-related issue at first glance, the SLR proved that it is more likely to test the effectiveness of governments (Wong & Jensen, 2020). As the SLR indicates, public trust is such a complicated concept that factors affecting administrative success in building and sustaining it cannot be reduced to a simple conceptualization.

1.4.3  Political Factors The components obtained from the articles are grouped under five factors in the context of politics. “Lack of scientific information/misinformation” appears in the 13 papers. The declaration of a pandemic in the world caused panic and fear (Sell et al., 2018) in citizens. In addition, the disclosure of the presence of asymptomatic cases increased the fear of citizens (Whembolua & Tshiswaka, 2020). Conspiracy theories (Sears et al., 2020) and misinformation (Nutbeam, 2020; Sears et al., 2020; Singh & Ravinetto, 2020; Puri et  al., 2020) are other prominent components. Governments’ lack of guidance; infrastructure unpreparedness for epidemic and similar past crises followed by their efforts to hide this situation from the public and the inadequate transfer of information to the public in a correct manner (Velan et al., 2013; Baum et  al., 2009) have caused citizens to turn to alternative information sources (Whembolua & Tshiswaka, 2020; Sell et al., 2018). Citizens expect public agents and institutions to be transparent in information strategy (Silva et al., 2012; Ienca & Vayena, 2020; Siegrist & Zingg, 2014). Neglecting open communication by public officials for avoiding information pollution or enhancing public health struggles (Holroyd et al., 2020; Sell et al., 2018) and constructing discourses in a way that creates polarization may distort knowledge and result in public distrust. The second frequent factor in this category is “political history” that eight papers dealt with the past experiences of countries and citizens with similar crises. Successes and failures in a time of infectious disease outbreaks (Gopichandran et al., 2020), the prevalence of political uncertainty (Gesser-Edelsburg et al., 2020), and intense feelings of this uncertainty during pandemics (Henderson et al., 2020) may trigger anxiety and concerns of citizens. The political history of the

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government is related to other political factors such as includes individual narratives (Claude & Hawkes, 2020; Chapple, 2020), community memories (Larson et  al., 2019)—also called the political memory of the society, governments’ abilities to derive lessons from similar past experiences (Gopichandran et al., 2020; Johnson & Goronga, 2020) and the experience of political corruption (Ezeibe et al., 2020). “Credibility of authorities” is another influential factor mentioned in six articles. The current distrust of political authorities (Claude & Hawkes, 2020; Siegrist & Zingg, 2014) may cause the public to feel in a more chaotic situation in times of crisis. The source of the weak public belief that the government will take the necessary interventions during the pandemic period is the ongoing distrust. Keeping promises and building a reputation (Henderson et  al., 2020) make governments politically strong and increase trust in crisis governance. Leadership is a significant factor that the trust-based relationship between citizens and governments is improved through not only political leadership but also assigning people (i.e., opinion leaders) who are trusted in community networks (Johnson & Goronga, 2020). Although the review specified five main factors in the political context, the line between the factors is hard to discern. For example, the lack of information or misinformation results in the incorrect presentation of data and interrupting timely delivery (Ienca & Vayena, 2020). Aggressive rhetoric by political leaders marginalizing particular groups (Johnson & Goronga, 2020; Chapple, 2020) and stigmatization—such as putting stickers on the doors of patients (Gopichandran et al., 2020) pique citizens’ concerns about the possibility of the recurrence of old problems in the country, thus erode public trust. Political factors can be associated with administrative or media/social media; however, they need to be evaluated under a separate context to investigate the political foundations in the background for particular cases.

1.4.4  Economic Factors Only two economic factors were identified. These are the “national economy” mentioned in two articles and “risk of policies” discussed in one article. Chathukulam and Tharamangalam (2020) focus on nationwide poverty and corruption, while Chapple (2020) cautions governments that the low investment in public health has a negative effect on public trust. The review indicated that government policies favoring preventative measures, such as social isolation and social distancing, can overlook economic risks both for the country and for the individual (Henderson et al., 2020). Governments must balance competing risks when estimating the cumulative risk of pandemics for public trust.

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1.4.5  Factors Related to Media/Social Media The SLR provided two main factors in the context of media/social media: “media content” and “complexity.” Components related to “media content” (such as false narratives or content moderation) are mentioned in 11 studies. Content moderation—removing some sources (Baker et  al., 2020); biased media hype, and false narratives driven by social media without any scientific evidence (Larson et  al., 2019) may erode public trust. Recontextualization that the information sources reproduce the information in a different context resulting in a change of the meaning, and the perception of the original message (McNeill et al., 2016) is one of the key factors affecting the direction of the oscillation between trust and distrust. Propaganda and intense exposure by media cause the higher involvement of lay people in the process that they may confront the measures dilemma (Velan et al., 2013). Open and transparent communication in this context aims at the words used, the flow of information, and avoiding unnecessary sensationalism (Gopichandran et al., 2020). The control of misinformation to prevent conspiracy theories (Sears et al., 2020) and ideological isolation (Puri et al., 2020) are considered as significant variables to build trust during pandemics. Seven papers focus on variables connected with “complexity” referring to being exposed to excessive and complicated information (Tapia, 2020; Holroyd et  al., 2020). Digital platforms become the main communication channel during emergency situations. Laypeople, therefore, face more information than they can process (Siegrist & Zingg, 2014). Intense exposure by media, coincided with exposure to contradictory messages from key players, increase the rate of controversy and criticism (Velan et al., 2013), fear of the unknown (Sell et al., 2018), and public speculation (Tapia, 2020). As observed in previous contexts, factors related to media and social media are intertwined with each other. How these factors are perceived and used to manage times of crisis determine whether the interaction between citizens and government is trust-based or distrust-based. The complex nature of the concepts complicates to introduce distinguishing factors influencing trust and distrust during pandemics.

1.5  I mpacts of Trust and Distrust on Citizen-Government Interaction The review indicated that dealing with public trust and distrust has become more prominent for effective and efficient risk management. Although public trust is a desirable outcome in public administration, the SLR showed that trust and distrust can be a double-edged sword during pandemics (Wong & Jensen, 2020). Pandemics are unexpected uncertainties that governments can be caught unprepared for a health emergency and crisis management in the political-administrative context. Many authorities have a lack of ethical and pragmatic principles and strategies that

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lead the governments to appear incapable of formulating effective responses and recommendations (Claude & Hawkes, 2020) and serving the interests of the public (Henderson et al., 2020). Governments must develop clear protocols and procedures to follow standardized measures so that they can guarantee public trust. Based on the analysis, the research on citizen-government interaction in a time of health emergency focused on enhancing public trust rather than investigating preceding causes of distrust. However, pandemic narratives reinforce that effective management of the citizen-government interaction requires a comprehensive analysis of public distrust. Even the early researches on COVID-19 has revealed that many governments had difficulties in promoting citizen cooperation and compliance due to distrust among people about public authority and their actions (Baniamin et  al., 2020). The existing gap relating to the distinguishing factors for avoiding distrust may not be discussed extensively with the findings of this SLR. The findings presented a wide range of factors that each needs to be examined in its context over a given case. Outbreaks of infectious diseases occasionally involve parties who trust and distrust each other at the same time. For example, citizens and governments have to trust or feel confidence in each other for mutual support and cooperation against a pandemic, while at the same time distrusting each other’s decisions and actions because each believes that the other give priority to its own interests. “Distrusting-­ compliers” and “trusting-non-compliers” confirm this outcome. In the first scenario, citizens can think that government officials are trying to do politically expedient to protect themselves instead of what is right to do despite their motivation for public education and opportunities for public input in policy decisions (Baum et al., 2009). On the other hand, even people trusting the credibility of the authorities did not follow the H1N1 vaccination recommendation (Velan et  al., 2013). Therefore, concepts related to distrust can be expected as separate from the ones related to trust during pandemics. The review shows that factors affecting trust and distrust may overlap with one another. Direct experience with the pandemic is identified as the predictor of both trust and distrust. On the one hand, people who received proper and pleasing treatment can be satisfied with the government’s performance and their trust level may increase (Freimuth et al., 2014). On the other hand, suffering from infection may cause dissatisfaction in governments’ responses (Devine et  al., 2020) and finally result in distrust in the relationship between parties. The complexity can be solved through equity in distributing public health containment measures (Chapple, 2020) and public resources (Silva et al., 2012; Sheikh & Baig, 2020). Moreover, some factors can influence each other that they must be interpreted in the light of other factors. Contexts of government actions and use of media/social media are linked to one another because the latter can manipulate the former. The oscillation between two dispositions regarding governments’ stance and actions related to preventative health measures depends on the way how these actions are reflected by media and social media channels (Holroyd et al., 2020). Thus, public officials and institutions must distribute information, consistent and certain

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messages through their direct channels and social media (Tapia, 2020; Holroyd et al., 2020; Nutbeam, 2020). Although some factors are attributed to the trust in citizen interaction with electronic government, they can drive distrust for others. For example, citizens expect their governments to make planned and fast decisions (Nutbeam, 2020), based on solid risk assessments (Singh & Ravinetto, 2020). Digital technologies have a vital role in creating effective interaction among stakeholders, including lay people (as content providers and users), that provide an effective decision-making process during pandemics. Most papers consider digital technologies as fundamental players to overcome these crises through cooperation with the least possible damage (Wong & Jensen, 2020; Sell et al., 2018; Ienca & Vayena, 2020). However, digital technologies may present emerging challenges for health policy and privacy, such as collection and processing of data by private employers or identification of people who may have been exposed to the virus and may distort citizens and fuel distrust (Ienca & Vayena, 2020). Responsible data collection and usage and justification of data processing based on public-health objectives have an important role in enhancing trust while avoiding distrust. Although the SLR may not compromise the generalizability of the findings, it allows a fruitful discussion for understanding context-specific factors. Based on these factors, this research offers some conclusions and implications for policy, practice and research that are described in Table 2.

1.6  Conclusion The studies about epidemics and pandemics have an excessive focus on trusting citizens and the reasons behind trusted interactions rather than distrusting citizens and what makes them distrustful. This study aimed to fill this gap in the literature relating to the distinction between factors influencing public distrust during pandemics from those affecting trust. The SLR reveals that the literature has remained focused mostly on the degree of trust. However, the citizens with a low level of trust still have the basic attitude of trust toward governments. Therefore, governments can help foster citizens’ trust through effective policy-making, such as being responsive to the publics’ experiences and values or adopting a different approach to pandemics than annual, seasonal influenza. On the other hand, distrusted interactions have no longer include a basic trust that even well-intended government actions are perceived with suspicion. Even in some cases, trust and distrust can coexist at the same time. Trusting-non-­ compliers and distrusting-compliers prove the coexistence that citizens can act against their basic attitude of trust or distrust. Thus, trust and distrust need to be handled in a separate way instead of a continuum. Trust deficit past experiences in previous pandemics have emerged as a striking factor to explain the existing distrust in the citizen–government interaction in case of health emergencies. Similar experiences may remind community memories prompting anxiety, fear, or panic.

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Table 2  Policy implications for trusting/distrusting citizens–government interactions during pandemics Health-related

Administrative

Political

Economic

Media/social media

Health-related factors cannot be regarded as completely heterogeneous because one factor can trigger the impact of another on public trust. Developing clear protocols and procedures and following standardized measures Equity in distributing public health containment measures and public resources Adopting a scientific approach Adopting a different approach to pandemics than annual, seasonal influenza Assigning knowledgeable and expert individuals and institutions Designing more balanced interventions Responsible data collection and usage and justification of data processing based on public-health objectives Effective communication and transparency Collaborative decision-making through empathy and community ownership Improving distinctive management skills than the normal times because of the unexpected and extreme uncertainties Being responsive to the publics’ experiences and values Balancing the levels of trust and distrust during pandemics Reconsideration of trust and distrust as separate constructs to distinguish acute and chronic problems Although there are many versions of the political steps taken during the pandemic period, the determining factor is the political background that shapes the discourses. Being aware of the risk of overlooking economic risks of preventive measures both for the country and for the individual Balancing competing risks when estimating the cumulative risk of pandemics Being economically prepared in advance Distribution of information with consistent and certain messages through public institutions’ and officials’ own direct channels and social media Being aware that pandemics are not only about risk and public health management; but also image building

Governments must search for the roots of distrust originating before the outbreak of an infectious disease. Based on the findings of the SLR, trust-oriented relationships between citizens and governments during pandemics can be both beneficial and problematic. A high level of trust in governments may result in the underestimation of risks and emergencies. This may result in the need for stricter institutional enforcement and more severe government measures that, in turn, may increase the level of distrust. Thus, the level of trust and distrust must be balanced during pandemics through effective communication and transparent and scientific information sharing. Although each crisis has its own unique characteristics depending on the country-­ specific conditions, this analysis indicates that digital interactions during pandemics should be viewed from both a trust-oriented and distrust-oriented perspective.

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Governments should derive lessons learned from similar experiences in the past so that they can invest in collaborative decision-making through empathy and community ownership instead of imposing interventions on people. It is challenging for governments that balance between trust and distrust cannot be provided only by considering health-related concepts. The SLR demonstrates that the creation of a mutual trust environment during pandemics require more than health-based analysis since the administrative and political factors also play an essential role in crisis management. There are three main strategies that should be followed in terms of improving a balanced approach to the question of trust in digital government during pandemics: risk information, vigilance and caution, and discursive strategies. The need for information about pandemic-related issues such as the rate of spread of virus, the damage it causes or reliability of protective measures has become the principal focal point. It has been more essential than ever for an individual to feel safe based on accurate information. Facing more information than that laypeople can process and intense exposure result in public speculation and bombardment of conflicting or inconsistent information. Therefore, governments should form policies to develop transparent, collaborative, interactive, responsive and accountable digital channels reach their audience. The SLR implies the difference between digitalization and digital government. The spread of digital intermediaries alone are not enough to establish trust-based relations. Despite the digitalization-induced transformation in public administration, COVID-19 pandemic has proved that digital government or digital governance, especially during unexpected crisis, still demands collective learning process in search for seeking alternative practices to solve crises and enhance communities’ preparedness to play a visible role in response to crisis. This learning process can be trustworthy through effective digital public communication and public decision-­ making process. Governments should support open and transparent communication based on consistent messages, dialogue with the targeted audience and clear and effective information. Encouraging community engagement in planning decisions coupled with the investment in community ownership and participation instead of imposing interventions on people will help government to promote community-­ based, connected and credible digital governance both in ordinary and uncertain times. This paper contributes to filling a gap in the literature that not only trust but also distrust should be considered seriously as a concept mediating citizens’ interaction with the government during pandemics. The SLR provides an integrated approach to common and distinguished factors affecting trust and distrust. The findings can be used for the management of both ongoing uncertainties during the COVID-19 pandemic and similar future experiences; thus, governments will be prepared to design more balanced interventions.

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Appendix Context Factors Health-related Approach

Perceived certainty of treatment method Vaccine hesitancy

Confidence in healthcare system

Public health messages

Transparency in health facts

N Components 5 Risk-based or evidence-­ based approach and medical treatments; scientific and nonscientific interventions for infection control 3 Use of trial and error method in treatment; people’s perception about efficacy of medication; the death of human subjects 2 Resistance or acceptance of vaccination; questioning the vaccination strategy; ordered pre-pandemic vaccines before the pandemic began 8 Confidence in healthcare professionals; adoption of ethical and pragmatic principles; offering routine primary care services and building resilient health system; experience of discrimination in health care in the past; cynicism about health systems’ current capacity; equity in distributing public health containment measures; independence of medical experts from governments; independence of scientific studies, country contexts 5 Tailoring health messages; crafting all messages carefully for both internal and external audiences; 4 The transparent reporting of uncertainty information; on-time alerts, completeness, clarity of information in alerts and clear recommendations; supressing information on the number of cases and deaths

References Siegrist and Zingg (2014), Doshi (2011), Tapia (2020), Gopichandran et al. (2020), Velan et al. (2013)

Singh and Ravinetto (2020), McNeill et al. (2016), Sears et al. (2020)

Puri et al. (2020), Sears et al. (2020)

Claude and Hawkes (2020), Gopichandran et al. (2020), Freimuth et al. (2014), Silva et al. (2012), Chapple (2020), Henderson et al. (2020), Doshi (2011), Bangerter et al. (2012)

Henderson et al. (2020), Retzlaff (2020), Nutbeam (2020), Freimuth et al. (2014), Chapple (2020) Retzlaff (2020), Wong and Jensen (2020), Holroyd et al. (2020), Gopichandran et al. (2020)

Policies for Enhancing Public Trust and Avoiding Distrust in Digital Government… Context

Factors Individual experience

N Components 2 Direct experience with the pandemic; direct involvement with the issue Risk perception/ 4 The level of embracing the identity of being “at risk”; perceived false sense of security in vulnerability and the human mind; severity individual susceptibility or vulnerability to the hazard, judgments about the overall severity or seriousness of a hazard Response costs 1 Response costs of the medication (side effects, affective costs like fear of needles and time costs like inconvenience) Administrative Public 16 C2C communication; communication effective and appropriate communication; open and transparent communication; stating uncertainty; consistent messages; dialogue with the targeted audience without translators; clear and effective information and communication with the public in a timely manner; procedures and personnel to monitor social media and links with the public Public 5 Using narratives and spokespersons leveraging celebrities; reliability of officials and spokespersons; variety in assigned spokespersons; use of a diverse set of experts as communicators Standardization 5 Adoption of ethical and pragmatic principles; lacking or unclear evidence-based guidelines; the lack of standardized measures; development of clear protocols and procedures; clarity of conditions for responsible data collection and processing at a global scale

17

References Freimuth et al. (2014), Devine et al. (2020) McNeill et al. (2016), Siegrist and Zingg (2014), Chathukulam and Tharamangalam (2020), Hartley and Jarvis (2020)

McNeill et al. (2016)

Puri et al. (2020), Holroyd et al. (2020), Johnson and Goronga (2020), Silva et al. (2012), Tapia (2020), Gopichandran et al. (2020), Henderson et al. (2020), Retzlaff (2020), Nutbeam (2020), Gesser-Edelsburg et al. (2020), Freimuth et al. (2014), Wong and Jensen (2020), Sell et al. (2018), Balog-Way and McComas (2020), Hartley and Jarvis (2020)

Puri et al. (2020), Holroyd et al. (2020), Freimuth et al. (2014), Siegrist and Zingg (2014), Balog-Way and McComas (2020)

Sheikh and Baig (2020), Tapia (2020), Doshi (2011), Henderson et al. (2020), Ienca and Vayena (2020)

18 Context

E. B. Sevinç Çubuk et al. Factors Preparedness

N Components 6 Seeking alternative practices to solve crises; unpreparedness; government officials’ preparedness to play a visible role in the response; success in previous waves caused early relaxation; education of stakeholders and public; education of communities by public experts about realities, response plans, perceptions and concerns Citizen 6 Encouraging citizen engagement engagement and participation; community engagement in planning decisions; investment in community ownership and participation instead of imposing interventions on people; encouraging citizens to comply with security measures; community-based surveillance, community-­ based quarantine, community policing; citizens’ feeling disconnected, poorly informed or without a voice in designing policies 9 Planned and fast decision-­ Effective making; required time for decision-making decision; empathy into process decision-making; disagreement among public officials over a policy recommendation; leadership and coordination across a range of stakeholders; cooperation across multiple levels of government; solid risk assessment; government’s stance

References Sheikh and Baig (2020), Whembolua and Tshiswaka (2020), Sell et al. (2018), Chathukulam and Tharamangalam (2020), Henderson et al. (2020), Johnson and Goronga (2020)

Gopichandran et al. (2020), Sell et al. (2018), Baum et al. (2009), Johnson and Goronga (2020), Baum et al. (2009), Ezeibe et al. (2020)

Nutbeam (2020), Velan et al. (2013), Johnson and Goronga (2020), Freimuth et al. (2014), Sell et al. (2018), Henderson et al. (2020), Singh and Ravinetto (2020), Wong and Jensen (2020), Balog-Way and McComas (2020)

Policies for Enhancing Public Trust and Avoiding Distrust in Digital Government… Context

Political

Factors Collaboration

Accountability

N Components 4 Collaboration with stakeholders; collaborative decision-making rather than imposing naked governmental authority; social mobilization; community capacity 2 Public accountability

Transparency

7

Distribution of public resources

2

Shared interests and values/ Responsiveness

6

Stigma and Marginalization

4

timely information about level of risk, communicating openly, timely and honestly with the public, substantiating claims, openness about what can be investigated and accountability when things go wrong, openness about scientific uncertainty; Equity and fairness in the distribution of public resources; access to resources Prioritizing the public; shared values; responding to publics’ values in policy-making; entitlement failure; identification of needs of different population groups; being sensitive to needs and experiences of the community; failing to address people’s legitimate concerns Gaining access to hard-to-reach or marginalized groups; fear of shame and stigmatization; need to avoid “othering” either victims or nonconformists

19

References Henderson et al. (2020), Chapple (2020), Johnson and Goronga (2020), Balog-Way and McComas (2020)

Silva et al. (2012), Ezeibe et al. (2020), Henderson et al. (2020), Baker et al. (2020), Ezeibe et al. (2020), Ienca and Vayena (2020), Holroyd et al. (2020), Siegrist and Zingg (2014), Balog-Way and McComas (2020)

Sheikh and Baig (2020), Silva et al. (2012)

Henderson et al. (2020), Silva et al. (2012), Gopichandran et al. (2020), Chathukulam and Tharamangalam (2020), Johnson and Goronga (2020), Balog-Way and McComas (2020)

Johnson and Goronga (2020), Chapple (2020), Gopichandran et al. (2020), Balog-Way and McComas (2020)

20 Context

E. B. Sevinç Çubuk et al. Factors Political history

References Claude and Hawkes (2020), Gopichandran et al. (2020), Gesser-Edelsburg et al. (2020), Larson et al. (2019), Johnson and Goronga (2020), Chapple (2020), Ezeibe et al. (2020), Hartley and Jarvis (2020)

Henderson et al. (2020), Gesser-Edelsburg et al. (2020), Siegrist and Zingg (2014), Claude and Hawkes (2020), Johnson and Goronga (2020), Retzlaff (2020) Whembolua and Tshiswaka 13 Asymptomatic cases, Lack of (2020), Puri et al. (2020), misinformation about the scientific virus; fear of the unknown, Sears et al. (2020), Singh information/ particularly when coupled and Ravinetto (2020), Misinformation Velan et al. (2013), Sell with changing or et al. (2018), Holroyd et al. conflicting information; conspiracy theories; being (2020), Baum et al. (2009), independent from political Silva et al. (2012), Siegrist and Zingg (2014), pressure and populism Nutbeam (2020), Ienca and Vayena (2020), Balog-Way and McComas (2020) Responsible data 1 Use of data and algorithms Ienca and Vayena (2020) management in a responsible manner, data-protection regulations and respect for privacy and confidentiality; data collection proportional to the seriousness of the public-health threat, limited to what is necessary to achieve a specific public-health objective, and scientifically justified Chathukulam and National 2 Nationwide poverty; economy corruption; low investment Tharamangalam (2020), Chapple (2020) in public health Risks of policies 1 Balancing competing risks Henderson et al. (2020) by the government in implementing or lifting restrictions Credibility of authorities

Economic

N Components 8 Past experiences; ongoing political uncertainty; historic experiences, personal narratives and community memories triggering past anxiety and concern; lessons learned from similar experiences in the past; political corruption 6 Building the reputation and keeping promises; the existing level of trust in authorities; current distrust of governments and leaders; leadership

Policies for Enhancing Public Trust and Avoiding Distrust in Digital Government… Context Media/social media

Factors Media content

Complexity

N Components 11 Content moderation on social media; biased media hype; false narratives driven by social media; recontextualization; propaganda/intense exposure by media; open and transparent communication; misinformation; conspiracy theories; ideological isolation; social media strategy 7 Facing more information than that laypeople can process; intense exposure by media; message exposure; rate of controversy and criticism; media bombardment; receiving conflicting or inconsistent info; public speculation

21

References Baker et al. (2020), Larson et al. (2019), McNeill et al. (2016), Velan et al. (2013), Gopichandran et al. (2020), Nutbeam (2020), Whembolua and Tshiswaka (2020), Puri et al. (2020), Sears et al. (2020), Singh and Ravinetto (2020), Hartley and Jarvis (2020)

Siegrist and Zingg (2014), Velan et al. (2013), Henderson et al. (2020), Sell et al. (2018), Holroyd et al. (2020), Tapia (2020), Hartley and Jarvis (2020)

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Data-Driven Implementation: The Role of Information and Technology in Public Responses to Social Emergencies Bruno Baranda Cardoso and Marcelo Silva Oliveira Gonçalves

Abstract  In April 2020, the Brazilian Government established an Emergency Payment to minimize the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. This ad hoc policy strengthened the Brazilian welfare network to cover low-income, informal workers. During this period, social protection reached its historical peak in Brazil; however, to implement this massive policy, the federal government had to revisit its own institutional configuration and operations. This chapter presents an overview of this governance challenge to explain the implementation of the Emergency Payment. It assesses how the Brazilian federal government used ICT (information and communication technology) and large administrative databases to build a prompt response to an unprecedented emergency. We address this topic on two fronts. First, we develop a critical approach to discuss the limitations faced by traditional policy structures when dealing with a novel kind of public emergency. Secondly, we assess how governmental agencies managed to incorporate new technology-based routines in order to design and implement a new public policy. Most importantly, we focus on the adoption of ICT solutions in the implementation of the Emergency Payment. We argue that ICT solutions were pivotal to define (1) how many people were eligible to the new benefit; (2) how to reach these public; and (3) the design of a public policy. Besides, ICT solutions were essential in the governmental response since the usual implementation venues were blocked by lockdowns and other restrictive measures. However, these new technology-based routines interacted with preexisting infrastructure and policies. More precisely, we argue that ICT solutions require a set of informational, technological, and institutional conditions that shape the extent in which data can be helpful in designing and implementing rapid responses to large-­ scale crises. Moreover, we argue that, despite its positive impacts, ICT solutions may empower system-level bureaucrats and impose serious threats to accountability and democratic values.

B. B. Cardoso (*) M. S. O. Gonçalves Secretariat of Evaluation and Information Management, Ministry of Citizenship, Brasilia, Brazil © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 S. Saeed et al. (eds.), Pandemic, Lockdown, and Digital Transformation, Public Administration and Information Technology 7, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86274-9_2

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Keywords  Social emergencies · Public policy · Information and communication technology · Digital technologies · Emergency payment · Digital transformation

1  Introduction On April 2nd, 2020, the Brazilian Government established an Emergency Payment to minimize the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, especially among informal workers—whose livelihoods were largely affected by the restrictive measures (such as social distancing and lockdowns) adopted in many Brazilian cities. When the Covid-19 hit Brazil, 32% of the Brazilian households had their labor income reduced to zero (IBGE, 2019). During this time, the Emergency Payment benefited more than 68 million adults, which comprises around 56% of the country’s population (Brazil, 2020). During this unprecedented crisis, most local governments closed their offices to the public as a sanitary measure. As a result, the federal governments could not employ traditional instruments normally used in emergency responses, which usually involve direct interactions with the public. In face of this daunting scenario, the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) stood out as a pivotal part of public strategies to deal with the virus and its socioeconomic effects. In this chapter, we discuss how the Brazilian government managed to implement, in record time, an emergency assistance policy—hereinafter called Emergency Payment—by resorting to such technologies. To implement this new program, the federal government had to revisit its own institutional framework and operations. After the new policy’s creation by the National Congress, a group of federal agencies acted together to prepare the institutional framework for the new benefit (redesigning institutional structures and regulations), define strategies to identify the eligible public (since many informal workers were “invisible” to the State), and implement new protocols to pay the benefit. In this chapter, we discuss the governance designed to implement the Emergency Payment. More precisely, we assess how federal agencies used ICT and large administrative databases to build a prompt response to an unprecedented emergency. We address this topic on two fronts. First, we critically approach the limitations faced by traditional structures when they need to face a new public emergency. Brazil has emergency protocols to deal with small-scale, locally contained emergency (as defined by the Federal Law 12,608/2012); however, the country had no contingency plans to deal with a crisis with the proportions of the Covid-19 pandemic and its social consequences. Secondly, we assess how governmental agencies managed to incorporate new technology-based routines to design and implement a

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new policy—and how this policy interacted with preexisting policies and bureaucratic routines. It is worthy to highlight that, throughout this chapter, we refer to new technologies from the point of view of the government. These technologies were new in the public administration environment, and do not constitute novelties per se. As we focus on the adoption of ICT solutions in the implementation of the Emergency Payment, we argue that ICT solutions were critical (1) to define how many people were eligible to the new benefit; (2) to set instruments to reach these citizens; and (3) to shape the design of a public policy. However, these new technology-­based routines interacted with preexisting infrastructure and policies. More precisely, we argue that the Brazilian experience shows that ICT solutions require a set of informational, technological, and institutional conditions that shape the extent in which data can be helpful in designing and implementing rapid responses to large-scale crises. This study contributes to the literature that relates do state capacity development and public policy modernization. It also presents several insights that informs the setup of strong emergency preparedness systems, especially among developing countries, where such systems are rudimentary or non-existent. The Brazilian experience shows how ICT solutions can curb many shortcomings of traditional bureaucratic structures, deliver fast results, and prompt policy effectiveness. However, it also shows that a major shock was needed to make traditional bureaucracies to change its instruments and break path dependence—a lesson to those who expect major, endogenous changes in public policy without proper incentives. Furthermore, the Brazilian experience with the Emergency Payment demonstrates that the disruptive impacts of ICT solutions are not necessarily positive. New technology-intensive procedures can reduce accountability when moving up discretionary power from street-level bureaucrats to system-level bureaucrats. This phenomenon, we argue, will follow most modernization process implemented in any setting, especially in developing countries—where bureaucrat modernization should contribute to strengthen democratic values and procedure. Therefore, the Brazilian case shows that digital transformation cannot forego a discussion about accountability and transparency. Moreover, the Brazilian experience also underlines some normative aspect of digital transformation, particularly equitable access to services and public good. More precisely, digital solutions should work for and be accessible to every individual, including minorities such as indigenous people and other populations with limited (or no) access to the internet. Those are questions and limitations that are not constrained to the Brazilian case, it pertains to any country where policymakers decide to push forward major digital modernization. Otherwise, in countries that miss the proper infrastructure (e.g., universal access to the internet), modernization might become another symbol of exclusion.

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2  T  heoretical Background: Incrementalism, Street-, Screenand System-Level Bureaucracy To analyze the Brazilian experience, this study draws its theoretical references from both well-stablished and new theories and models designed to analyze and explain State capacity and bureaucratic behavior. We show that the Brazilian experience with the Emergency Payment reinforces classical concepts such as incrementalism and path dependence; at the same time, we also underpin the analytical usefulness of relative new concepts and framework, such system-level bureaucracy. Charles Lindblom’s 1959 essay “The Science of ‘Muddling Through’” is frequently referred to as a strategy of decision-making, a reference of how public administration works in reality (objective dimension) and how managers and decisionmakers can organize their action to improve public policy. This set of recommendation gave birth to the “disjointed incrementalism,” one of the most influential theory in the field of public policy. However, more than a simple normative method for decision-making, it became the source of a schematic criticism used to debunk the rational model/theory of decision. Since then, incrementalism is frequently referred to a theory or epistemological model (Bendor, 2015; Howlett et al., 2009). Incrementalism sets a series of procedures to interpret and act upon complex policy problems with the goal of gradually change the reality toward a more desired, ambitious state (Scott, Scott, 2010). However, incrementalism as a decision-making strategy has been target of many criticisms, for many critics see it as an apathic approach to reality that tends to favor status quo (Bendor, 2015). Nonetheless, the model and its core epistemological ideas have been endorsed throughout the years by findings from various fields, such as political science and economics. These findings kept incrementalism (or at least part of it) alive and a relevant reference to explain how policymakers act even in face of novel complex challenges (Scott, Scott, 2010). The incrementalistic approach gained different versions along the years. In most case, the core idea of incrementalism remains the same: policy status quo tends to change gradually because of the many interests (and players) represented in the policymaking process. In addition to that, it has been applied in the company of new concepts, borrowed from different fields or disciplines. Thus, to understand how preexisting policies and instruments have influenced the implementation of the Emergency Payment, we resort to the concept of instruments as technical and social devices created to structure the relationship between public agents and policy beneficiaries (Le Galès, 2011). These instruments are part of a policy framework which defines the governance model where policy agents execute their actions. In this context, the policy framework constitutes the “space” where relevant policy actors interact (as discussed in the Sect. 4.2). This approach permits the construction of an integrated view of the public policy arena (Pires, 2016). As pointed out by Lotta and Favareto (2016), these concepts help to select central variables to

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understand the way in which the actors define themselves and their degrees of autonomy, and how they build governance and conduct the decision-making process. One can analyze how bureaucrats act by assessing the “instruments” used in the policies they implement. Instruments are not only highly effective in tracing change (jostling history, revealing discrete scenes), they can also explain the dynamics observed in the policymaking process, such as the production of new expertise or the renewal of coalitions (Lascoumes & Le Galès, 2007). It should be noted that the instruments of intervention in public policies are not neutral—axiologically speaking—, as stated by Lascoumes and Le Galès (2007), they have a “technical” and “social” dimension so that instruments can produce autonomous effects. Moreover, instruments have other crucial limitations. In the case of online applications, establishing categorizations and processes to cover all existing situations can become an almost impossible task. Most of the time, it is impracticable to fully translate the needs of citizens and the reality in which they find themselves into policy processes. This fact reinforces the need for an “interpreter” and thus warding off the potential creation of a “radical disintermediation” (Buffat, 2013). In our analysis, we pay special attention to the instruments designed to implement the Emergency Payment. In this sense, we follow Lascoumes and Le Galès (2007), who argue that instruments of public action are useful explanatory variables to explain transformations in public policies. The Emergency Payment not only resorted to the intensive use of ICT to identify potential beneficiaries; it also employed, for the first time, a mass-use application at the national level. The efficiency of this type of “instrument” and its limitations will the object of the sections below. Another set of concepts that are crucial in our analysis focused on the actors (or players) who interact in the policy framework. One of such concepts it the notion of “street-level bureaucracy,” formed by those public agents who are on the front line of the public service, directly providing customer service to citizens and having some level of discretion to exercise authority (Lipsky, 1980, 2010). According to Buffat (2013), street-level bureaucrats are usually defined as public service workers who directly interact with citizens (often in face-to-face encounters) and have considerable discretion in the execution of their work, particularly in the way they process people’s demands and the decisions they make. These bureaucrats, despite being at the bottom of the organizational pyramid, have their own views about the policy they implement, and use any eventual discretionary power they may have to influence the policy’s outcome. Therefore, while having some level of discretion is indispensable to perform any bureaucrat task; discretionary power makes it possible to modify a public policy distancing it from the conceptions of its formulators (Lima & D’Ascenzi, 2013). Once a very diversified body of studies proved the utility of the concept of street-­ level bureaucrats, it became a common place in policy analysis, frequently used to emphasize the complexity of policymaking. For a while, public policy studies divided policy players into policymakers (formulators) and street-level bureaucrats (implementers), highlighting the constant conflict between these two “casts.”

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This simplistic view of the policymaking process changed significantly with the emergency of new concepts. In effort to proper describe the way in which the State organizes itself, new studies added new perspectives of bureaucracy to their models due to the different instruments and environments in which implementers are exposed. Bovens and Zouridis (2002) refer to the existence of at least “types” of bureaucracy: “street-level bureaucracy,” “screen-level bureaucracy” and finally, “system-level bureaucracy.” These new levels are the result of emerging technologies and functionalities inside modern public organizations. They are responsible for ensuring compliance to the law and organizational norms, for controlling public managers spread all the down the State and overseeing the adoption of new technologies and procedures. In this context, one of the main drivers behind the emergence of these new perspectives of bureaucracy is the adoption of new technologies by public sector organizations. The main characteristics of these levels and their relationship with information and communication technology are described in Table 1. These theoretical additions maintain part of the previous frameworks. The initial and most common level of implementation public policy still resides at the street level. According to Lipsky (1980, 2010), even after significant changes in the policymaking process, street-level bureaucrats still have great discretion, even though it is limited by norms and supervision. These policy actors are still able to hold some a certain level of autonomy, and consequently they can shape policies according to their interests—at least partially. At this level, ICT is usually used to support the implementers’ actions and decisions. In this context, street-level bureaucrats’ main function is to load data. In their model, Bovens and Zouridis (2002) observe an intermediate stage between the street-level bureaucracy and the system level, which they call screen-­ level bureaucracy. On this level, there is a preponderance of limiting the Table 1 Bureaucratic levels and their relationship with Information and Communication Technology Dimension Role of ICT Functions of ICT Human interference with individual cases Organizational backbone Organizational boundaries Legal regime

Street-level bureaucracy Supportive Data registration Full

Screen-level bureaucracy Leading Case assessment and virtual assembly line Partial

Case managers

Production managers Systems designers

Strict, with regard to Strict, both within other organizations and between organizations Detailed, little Open, ample discretion, single discretion, single legal framework legal framework

Source: Bovens and Zouridis (2002)

System-level bureaucracy Decisive Execution, control, and external communication None

Fluid, both within and between organizations Detailed, no executive discretion, exchange between legal domains

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implementers’ action and also their discretion, through the use of software. Unlike the initial stage in which the implementers have a large degree of discretion and autonomy, the screen-level is the system which conducts the process, limiting the actions of the agents by system rules. In street-level the decision-making process is routinized, and the implementers need to fill citizen data in electronic forms with fixed templates (Bovens & Zouridis, 2002). Finally, the most technological stage of implementation is the system-level bureaucracy. When a policy’s implementation is completely transferred to this stage, citizens interact exclusively with a software, eliminating direct human interference. The ICT instrument assumes the implementers’ role. In this context, any situation that has not been foreseen in the programming will require system updates, which can jeopardize the policy’s rollout. When system-level bureaucrats assume the role of implementers the relationship between citizens and the State changes. Most likely online applications will be used for cases that are perceived as simpler, while citizens will need to contact state agents (street-level bureaucrats) for more complex matters, which require more elaborated explanations and procedures (Vitalis & Duhaut, 2004; Buffat, 2013). Changes in the circumstances of these street-level bureaucrats for citizens might have mixed consequences (Snellen, 2002). On the one hand, applications process demands more quickly, while providing them with equal treatment (at least to some extent); on the other hand, access to public services by digitally illiterate citizens largely depends on the actions of street bureaucrats. Similarly, the case of Norway studied by Hansen et al. (2018) shows the great difficulties of adopting ICT in the welfare field. They argue that many changes represent just a transition from a paper-­ based format to an electronic one. Sometimes, without the proper adaptation to the user’s reality bringing new challenges to the welfare administration. Thus, with most cases being treated through computerized methods, such as the cross-tabulation across multiple administrative registries, street-level bureaucrats are left to deal with the remaining cases (i.e., deal with people who are not present in any database) and to check and correct information within the database used by system-level bureaucrats. It might sound less important, because it may represent less power over public policy; however, depending on the context, this information realignment is essential to adjust the informational system and improve the policy’s scope and reach. As a result, even policy conducted by system-level bureaucracies still need to leave certain level of autonomy to street-level bureaucrats, who collect the information/data fed into the system-level software. In this context, we will see that the Brazilian experience with the Emergency Payment is an extreme case. The federal government formulated and implemented a large-scale policy with almost no support from street-level bureaucrats. Despite using some information that was previously gathered by street-level bureaucrats, the federal bureaucracy did not resort to the street level bureaucrats while designing or implementing the Emergency Payment. Therefore, the Emergency Payment provides a singular experiment where is possible to evaluate the possibilities and limitations of concentrating the policymaking process at the system-level bureaucracy, a process that became feasible through the adoption of ICT solutions.

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As Jansson and Erlingsson (2014) argue, a more rigid form of implementation may incur the risk of negatively affecting citizens’ experiences with governmental policies and, hence, affect the public policies which ultimately can harm the legitimacy of the political system. In addition, Busch and Henriksen (2018), in a systematic literature review of ICT and street-level discretion, suggest that digital discretion can strengthen ethical and democratic values but weaken professional and relational values. The Emergency Payment is, to best of our knowledge, the first large-scale experiment with such a rigid form of implementation in a developing country. Therefore, it provides a valuable case study to evaluate the consequences of adopting ICT solution to run large-scale policies. The literature dealing with the adoption of ICT solutions in public policy is scarce and recent. A few studies have focused on ICT adoption by public organizations in developed countries—mostly European countries. That is the case of the implementation of electronic health records in the United Kingdom (Giest & Raaphorst, 2018); the Digital post in Denmark (Schou & Pors, 2019); the experience of the Norwegian Welfare and Labor Organization (Hansen et al., 2016); the implementation of the digital service in Botkyrka, Sweden (Jansson & Erlingsson, 2014), and the analysis of the RINIS concept (National Information Streams Forwarding Institute) in the Netherlands (Snellen, 2002). However, as far as we know, studies of this nature are still inexistent in developing countries. Therefore, the Brazilian experience, for its peculiarities and magnitude, can fill a relevant gap in the literature and inform administrative reforms in countries that need them the most.

3  P  olicy Setting: Brazil’s Initial Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic Most countries felt the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic way beyond its epidemiological effects. Lockdowns and other restrictive measure caused significant economic and social distress, threatening the livelihoods of millions of people. In Brazil, the creation of the Emergency Payment, has stood out as the most comprehensive and challenging measures adopted in the country to address the socioeconomic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19). On March 18, 2020, the federal government announced its plans to create a temporary assistance program to provide economic relief to low-income workers affected by restrictive measures adopted in most Brazilian cities. The government initial plan was to pay a value equivalent to Bolsa Familia, the national CCT program (the average allowance paid by this program is R$200). After criticism from several political sectors and organizations, the National Congress signaled that it

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would raise the value to R$500. On April 2nd, the Federal Law no. 13,982 established the Emergency Payment Program, enabling a 3-months assistance program that should pay R$600 to eligible workers with no dependents with a cap of two payments per household. Single mothers with underaged dependents were eligible to receive a monthly payment of R$1200. This scheme allowed a household formed by a single person (male or female) to receive an allowance of R$600; and a household formed by a single mother and another eligible adult (a sibling, for example) could receive up to R$1800. Conceptually, the Emergency Payment is a mixture of basic income and unemployment insurance. In this sense, it builds upon policies that already exists, at least formally. Brazil has had a basic income law since 2004 (Federal Law no. 10,835), nevertheless, it has not been regulated yet. Instead, the national CCT program was created based on a basic income law (Cardoso, 2020). Until 2019, the Bolsa Familia Program covered 14.3 million households (more or less US$35.00 according to the current exchange rate of April/2020). Also, the country has an unemployment insurance policy since 1990 (Federal Law no. 7,998 of 1990), which cover only part of the workers employed in the formal sector. Because of its characteristics, the new Emergency Payment covers a gap in the Brazilian safety net: its benefits people already in the social assistance network (i.e., low-income household enrolled in the Bolsa Familia Program), but it also covers low-income informal workers who did not qualify for unemployment insurance. To be eligible to the Emergency Payment, Brazilian citizens and legal residents should fulfill the following requirements: 1 . Be at least 18 years old. 2. Have no formal employment. 3. Do not receive other social assistance allowance, unless its value was lower than the Emergency Payment (in which case, the Emergency Payment became a temporary replacement). 4. The household per capita income must be lower than 1/2 the national minimum wage and the total household income must be up to three minimum wages. 5. Have not file a tax return declaration in 2018. 6. Be an informal worker or a formally registered micro-entrepreneur. These requirements created a novelty in the Brazilian safety net, whose implementation would face several practical obstacles. Since the federal administration was not prepared to implement an assistance program with these characteristics, the implementation of the Emergency Payment had to rely on procedures and instruments already used in other social policies (Cardoso, 2020). Parts of many policies were combined to connect the federal government to the beneficiaries. For instance, databases usually used in other policies were “borrowed” to help identify eligible beneficiaries. Instruments and technologies from other social policies were adapted to serve the new program.

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4  Analysis: The Design and Implementation of the Emergency Payment 4.1  The Emergency Payment’s Institutional Framework To organize the implementation of the Emergency Payment, the Federal Government edited a degree 5  days after the Congress passed the new law (Decree no. 10,316/2020). It defines the roles and responsibilities of several agencies in the implementation of Emergency Payment. Therefore, this decree is the most important regulatory piece to understand the governance of the new policy. The decree established the Ministry of Citizenship (MC) as the leading agency in the implementation of the Emergency Payment. According to the decree, this ministry is in charge of “managing the payment of the Emergency Payment for all eligible beneficiaries” in the country. Inside the MC, there were several secretariats and departments involved in the processes of validating the databases, testing parameters, and ordering payments. Another agency involved in the implementation is the Ministry of Economy, which should “act jointly with the Ministry of Citizenship” to regulate and enforce the eligibility criteria. In addition to these two ministries, two state-owned companies were called to assist in the Emergency Payment’s implementation: The Social Security Information Technology Company (Dataprev) and the Caixa Econômica Federal (CAIXA). Dataprev is a major technology company responsible for processing the national retirement data and payment sheet. It also acts on many of Brazil’s major social assistance programs. CAIXA is one of the largest banks in Brazil. Besides operating as a regular, commercial bank, CAIXA operates many federal programs, including the national housing program (former Minha Casa, Minha Vida) and the Bolsa Familia program. Other public agencies, from the Executive and Legislative branches, had complementary, though relevant, roles in the implementation of the new policy. The Federal Revenue Office (RFB), the General Accounting Office (TCU), the Federal Police, and the Office of the Comptroller General (CGU) provided data, evaluated threats, and oversaw the implementation of the Emergency Payment. Usually, a program of this magnitude would also count with the support of state and municipal agencies, at least, to identify/locate beneficiaries. However, when the Emergency Payment was created, restrictive measures and social distancing (lockdown) were in place in several Brazilian states with the objective of controlling the spread of the virus. Although we firmly believe that these measures were necessary, we also acknowledge that they increased the complexity involved in the Emergency Payment’s implementation, as we discuss below. This myriad of agencies shows how complex the implementation of nation-wide policies can be—even with intensive use of ICT solutions. To understand it, one needs to approach the State not as a single actor, but as an environment within which there are interactions between different agents who play multiple roles and perform

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various actions in the policymaking process (Pires, 2016). In this sense, a conceptual framework needs to highlight the complexity of this process, which means to acknowledge the multitude of actors, and organizations involved in it. This approach is much more realistic and accurate than conceptual frameworks that see the policymaking process as linear and automatic (Howlett et al., 2009). For this reason, Gomide and Pires (2014) propose that policy analysis should start by identifying the policy’ framework, i.e., the group of rules, mechanisms, and processes that define how actors and interests are coordinated in the implementation of a specific public policy—an approach closely related to the literature on new institutionalism (see Powell & DiMaggio, 2012, for a review). That is the reason why the decree had to be complemented by additional administrative rules. Administrative Regulation no. 351/MC/2020 (Portaria no. 351), for instance, designated Dataprev as the public agency responsible for the treatment of all the information provided by other federal agencies. However, this Administrative Regulation was not clear about who was in charge of paying the benefit. The Administrative Regulation mentions the existence of a “paying agent” without designating which bank or organization would actually pay the beneficiaries. Later, new rounds of negotiations inside the government defined CAIXA as the bank that would concentrate all the payments. In practice, because CAIXA was already responsible for operationalizing the payment of the Bolsa Família and other major federal programs, it became responsible for paying of the Emergency Payment. Despite the effort to clearly define the roles of each actor participating in the implementation of the new policy, the Emergency Payment’s framework in practice extends beyond the contents of the decree and administrative regulation cited above. These norms were important to establish several connections between the various agencies involved in the policy’s implementation, but they do not reveal the totality of the relationships contained in the Emergency Payment’s frameworks (such as formal agreements and public contracts). In other words, even a thorough evaluation of the normative acts mentioned above represents a simplistic description of the Emergency Payment’s policy framework. Furthermore, because the new regulations could not solve all the issues involved in the implementation of the Emergency Payment, its governance framework was greatly influenced by the preexisting relationships between public agencies, derived from their participation in other public policies—such as the Bolsa Família. This incremental approach calls attention to the fact that new institutional frameworks do not come from scratch. Instead, they are conditioned by the preexisting procedures and instruments—they are also influenced by rules and practices in operation within the context of other public policies (Bendor, 2015; Scott, Scott, 2010). The instrumentalization of these connections between old and new will be further explored below.

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4.2  Identifying Potential Beneficiaries The first term used to designate the public targeted by the Emergency Payment was “informal workers.” However, identifying the citizens who fall into this designation is not a trivial task. Due to the variety of laws that regulates the Brazilian labor market, there are several levels of informalities in the country. More restrictive conceptions consider informal workers only those occupied in precarious, often unregulated, activities. Other concepts classify as informal every worker who is not listed on the General Registry of the Admitted and Laid-Off Workers (CAGED) or/and does not have a registered business (as a micro-entrepreneur, for example). The law that created the Emergency Payment adopts an inclusive criterion. Lawmakers extended the concept of informal worker to “individual micro-­ entrepreneurs” (MEI), single contributors to Social Security1 and common informal worker (those without any registration). At the same time, the legislator also adopted some exclusionary criteria, such as a minimum age, an income cap, not having an active formal job (regardless of the salary), not being enrolled in another social security or assistance benefit/program, not being a recipient of unemployment insurance or any federal cash transfer program, except the Bolsa Família program. In summary, we can describe the Emergency Payment’s public as: 1 . Individual micro-entrepreneurs (MEI); 2. Single Social Security contributors; 3. Those registered in the national registry of low-income household (Cadastro Único); 4. People not included in the previous databases who declared that they were eligible to the Emergency Payment (self-declaration). Some citizens within groups “1”, “2,” and “3” can be identified in a relatively simple manner, because they are enrolled in administrative databases, used to run federal programs. These databases are the result of the efforts to improve the formalization of self-employed workers so that they can access (and contribute to) the publicly funded retirement plans—but are not contemplated by the unemployment insurance program due to the nature of their self-employed work. These efforts generated a generalized expansion of social security coverage—and much larger and comprehensive databases (Ansiliero et al., 2020). Still, the main challenge involved in the Emergency Payment’s implementation was to identify eligible workers included in group “4” (informal workers who are not included in the national registry for low-income household). Because they were not present in any database of the federal government, they were de facto “invisible.” The only sources of information about this population were surveys conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), i.e., the Census and  Workers who pay the Social Security Contributions without an employer counterpart. A few million Brazilian worker makes this kind of contribution to the Social Security system to have access to the official retirement plan. 1

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the National Household Survey (PNAD). However, IBGE conducted its last census in 2010, therefore, its information had serious limitations. The PNAD, on its turn, is a sample survey and it is representative at the national and regional levels. It does not contain information that could help the federal government to estimate the number of beneficiaries in each city. Moreover, neither the Census nor the PNAD contains identifiable data. In this context, the federal government ended up in a situation where it could not estimate, with precision, not even the number of eligible workers falling into group “4.” It would be impossible to identify them individually. The solution, then, was to launch a website and a mobile application where workers could declare that they were eligible to the new benefit, without a proper means-test instrument—which, in another context, would be conduct by street-level bureaucrats. Thus, system-level bureaucrats located in Brasilia became the gatekeepers of the new policy, conducting means-test procedure without any contact with the public. To verify the eligibility criteria, system-level bureaucrats at MC combined more than 16 large databases from several agencies to build the large dataset ever for public policy in the country. Indeed, the Emergency Payment’s legislation set several criteria to define the citizens who were entitled to the new benefit, imposing the use of several databases to check their eligibility. However, these were databases created to fulfill other purposes, inscribed in their normative. Besides, they are under the management of different agencies. These circumstances required more coordination and the development of procedures to harmonize (“merge”) the various datasets that were not completely compatible. To accomplish that, the agencies that maintain the dataset sent all of them to one single focal point: the Dataprev. Under the supervision of the MC, this company designed keys to merge different datasets, in a suboptimal procedure to identify potential beneficiaries across the various datasets—this procedure is a consequence of historically problematic identification policies, since Brazil does not have a single identification number or card. Bovens and Zouridis (2002) argue that such an intensive use of data and, as a result, ICT can drive positive structural changes in the public sector. These authors see these changes as positive since, because of them, almost all decisions can be pre-programmed with algorithms and decision trees, reducing arbitrariness and, one can argue, clientelism. To Jansson and Erlingsson (2014), this may be viewed as being in accord with the rule of law in a Weberian sense since it counteracts “arbitrariness and creates neutrality and predictability.” In other words, as the implementation of programs turns into a standardized software, the e-government, an entity created by system-level bureaucracy, will be more predictable and more legitimate in a Weberian perspective. However, the interpretation ignore a plausible possibility that “with public officials of flesh and blood being able to adapt to single cases”—using their discretionary power—, “public administration is considered to become more efficient and democratic, in contrast to the strict, rule abiding Weberian situation” (Hupe & Hill, 2007; Jansson & Erlingsson, 2014). The extensive and intensive use of data allowed the government to pay the first group of beneficiaries just 8  days after Congress passed the new bill—the first

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groups were very well-known because they already were CCT beneficiaries. There was no need to employ a massive contingent of street-level bureaucrats to carry out eligibility analysis, for the intensive use of ICT solutions allowed a system-level bureaucracy to process more than 129 million requests. The use of ICT solutions became evident throughout the entire process, from the use of preexisting databases to the development of new algorithms that verify the eligibility rules. These procedures drastically diminished the need for individual analysis. ICT tools allowed the federal government to process a record number of requests for social assistance, a task that would take many years under normal circumstances. At the same time, due to problems in the official databases, the Ministry had to deal with many exclusion errors (several thousand applicants ended up without access or with cases pending analysis for several weeks). Besides the federal government soon realized that its databases had serious problems, which allowed the occurrence of, at least, 3.6  million cause of suspected frauds (payments that were later blocked and canceled). The extensive use of ICT also gave momentum to a system-level bureaucracy. According to Zouridis et  al. (2020), the prominence of this type of bureaucracy indicates “to the fact that the IT-system may be regarded as the core of the bureaucracy. In system-level bureaucracies, the human organization is built around the information system that implements the core task of the organization” [in this case, the algorithms developed by federal bureaucrats]. Under these circumstances, the authors point out, “the organizations have been transformed into machine bureaucracies: no longer is the operating core the most powerful part of the organization— this role has been taken over by the technostructure, which structuralizes the work to be performed.” As a result, the level of discretion that used to be available to street-level bureaucrats gives way to a new kind of discretion, exercised in designing the IT systems.

4.3  Running the Emergency Payment The operationalization of a new program depended on an apparatus of internal structures and norms—i.e., an institutional framework. Within this institutional framework, the program was absorbed, translated and adapted so that it could be adjusted to existing law and current protocols used by the agencies and actors involved in the implementation process. It means that the new was interpreted based on the known (Lima & D’Ascenzi, 2013). In this context, the implementation of the Emergency Payment cannot be dissociated from Ministry of Citizenship’s frameworks. The starting point of the Emergency Payment operation was the National Registry of Low-Income Household, the Cadastro Único, created in 2001 (Decree no. 3,877/2001). Through a self-declaratory questionnaire, Cadastro Único collects several socioeconomic information, such as family composition, income and other living conditions. This information is used to select beneficiaries and integrate

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social programs implemented by federal government—the most prominent being the Bolsa Familia program. Most of questionaries are filled up at decentralized offices run by local authorities with the support from the state and federal governments. At the federal level, Cadastro Único is the main instrument to identify citizens who are eligible to social assistance programs. The Cadastro Único currently contains data on more than 77 million citizens.2 More than 10  years ago, the Cadastro Único was already considered the most important instrument of the Brazilian welfare system. It could be widely used in social policies due to its essential characteristics: broad census-wise information (for the poor population), comprehensiveness (it includes data on several socioeconomic variables and other practical information, such as family configuration and address) (Barros et al., 2009). Given the Ministry of Citizenship’s policy framework, the Emergency Payment implementation was organized in three groups of beneficiaries, as follow: 1. Those registered who were registered in the Cadastro Único were Bolsa Família program’s beneficiaries; 2. Those registered who were registered in the Cadastro Único and were not Bolsa Familia program beneficiaries; and 3. Citizens who were not registered in the Cadastro Único (also known as “Extracad”). The beneficiaries of the Bolsa Família program were contemplated in an automatic manner, or “by default.” This means that all of those who met the Emergency Payment rules received the benefit automatically, without any need for requests or new application. In this manner, verification routines were established for the beneficiaries who met the Emergency Payment’s requisites. For those who met these criteria, the regular Bolsa Família program was temporally replaced by the Emergency Payment, following the same protocol and respecting the same calendar as the Bolsa Família program. For those who are not beneficiaries of the Bolsa Família program and were registered in the Cadastro Único, the access format is identical; the difference lies only in relation to the way of payment; in this case they received the payment through a Digital Social Savings Account (Poupança Social Digital) or by a checking or savings account (for those with an account in a public bank). Finally, the citizens who not registered in the Cadastro Único (“Extracad”) needed to fill up an application using CAIXA’s website or a mobile application designed for this purpose.3 This close collaboration between CAIXA and the Ministry of Citizenship was made possible because CAIXA is the operating agent of the Cadastro Único and the

 Accessed at https://aplicacoes.mds.gov.br/sagi/cecad20/painel03.php.  https://auxilio.caixa.gov.br/, visited on November 14th, 2020.

2 3

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Bolsa Família program. Another evidence of that the implementation of the Emergency Payment took advantage of preexisting frameworks and instruments. Thus, existing relationships, policy and instruments provided the means to pay the Emergency Payment to two of the three publics of the new policy. “Extracad” beneficiaries were the only ones who need new instruments. New ICT Solutions were developed for the remote registration of those this public: website, mobile app and call center. These instruments helped to identify more than 56% of the public eligible to the Emergency Payment. According to the data in Table 2, more than half of the target public of the Emergency Payment was unknown to the government (because they were not program beneficiaries and were not registered in the Cadastro Único), which generated additional complexity for the implementation of the policy. To make such a massive operation possible, the federal government made an unprecedented effort to expand the use of ICT tools. They were used to enrolled beneficiaries in the program (i.e., file an application form) as well as to verify the eligibility criteria. Because of these instruments, it was possible to place the entire policymaking process in the hands of system-level bureaucrats who automated the access to the Emergency Payment. Around 300  million transactions were operated in a few weeks. Furthermore, about R$295 billion in payments, turns the Emergency Payment 2020 the largest social intervention in the Brazilian history. Moreover, near 1.83 billion site visits combined with more than 127 million downloads of the app show the magnitude of the Emergency Payment.4 Digital inclusion, however, is still a challenge in Brazil and has proved to be the great enemy of implementing the Emergency Payment and the remotely created instruments, due to problems with access and the difficulty of the registration process itself, even though this was designed to be a simplified experience for the user. Over 599 million calls to tele-support system proves that it was not an easy process to millions of Brazilians. At this point, it is clear that ICT tools can process massive junks of data in a very short period, but, at the same time, they can also hinder the access of thousands of digitally illiterate citizens.5 Table 2  Number of beneficiaries by target public Target public Bolsa Família program beneficiaries Registered in the Cadastro Único ExtraCad Total

Number 19,471,715 10,492,369 38,245,066 68,210,150

Proportion 29% 15% 56% 100%

Source: Adapted from https://aplicacoes.mds.gov.br/sagi/vis/data3/index.php?g=2, last visited on June 5th, 2021

  Data available at https://www.gov.br/pt-br/noticias/assistencia-social/2020/11/caixa-supera400-milhoes-de-pagamentos-do-auxilio-emergencial, visited on December 12th, 2020. 5  Data from the 2019 ICT Household Survey, conducted by the Regional Center for Studies of the Development of the Information Society, reveal, for example, that only 83% (61%) of urban (rural) 4

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5  Conclusion 5.1  Findings and Policy Implications A combination of many factors made the Emergency Payment a viable program in Brazil. These factors allowed a quick response to the challenge of providing income to citizens who could not work due to restrictive measures—enforced in 2020 to reduce the spread of the new coronavirus. We highlighted the Ministry of Citizenship (MC) leading role in the process, but most importantly, we emphasized the importance of preexisting policy instruments, such as the existence of several administrative databases that provided information on low-income households; the existence of a conditional cash transfer program (Bolsa Família program), and the existing framework in which Cadastro Unico and Bolsa Familia operate (which established a preexisting relationship between the MC and the bank CAIXA, for example). In this context, we cannot downplay the role of incrementalism and path dependence—two classic concepts used to explain and conduct public policy. The Brazilian experience proves that ICT solutions can revolutionize public administration; however, they interacted with preexisting policies in various ways. For instance, new systems and routines employed existing databases to estimate the number of potential beneficiaries and check eligibility criteria. This example shows how existing infrastructure and policies are important to shape government’s responses to large-scale crises—poor databases and information would lead to worse or slower responses. They also demonstrate that ICT solutions require a set of informational, technological, and institutional conditions. These conditions shape the extent to which data can be helpful in the design and implementation of rapid responses. In the age of information, fostering these conditions should be a basic goal of any country that intends to improve not only response to crises but daily organizational improvements and learning as well. In other words, today’s response to any public problem can be as good as the information previously acquired. As we have seen, preexisting arrangements have been preponderant in making the implementation of this Emergency Payment viable, because without the expertise of the MC in policies such as the Cadastro Único and the Bolsa Familia program (which include previous cooperation with the CAIXA and Dataprev), the complexity of coordinating this new benefit could have made it inviable or could not have led to a satisfactory result in such a short time. These instruments of public action and their routines shaped the implementation of the Emergency Payment, reinforcing the incrementalism thesis. At the same time, the Brazilian experience with the implementation of the Emergency Payment shows that the concept of public policy has acquired a new individuals had regular access to the internet. For internet users, the most utilized device in any of these areas is the cell phone (99%). Acessed at https://cetic.br/pt/tics/domicilios/2019/domicilios/ https://cetic.br/pt/tics/domicilios/2019/domicilios/.

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face through the intensive use of information and communications technology (ICT), as we have verified through the arrangement led by the Ministry of Citizenship, with the participation of Caixa and Dataprev. However, one concern raised by Bovens and Zouridis (2002) is pertinent to this case: this experience reduced the discretionary power of street-level bureaucrats, while increasing system-­level officials’ power. Therefore, it did not reduce discretionary power as much as it changed its locus. Our findings corroborate the notion that, as the use of ICT in public policy expands, system-level officials may exercise discretionary power in selecting criteria and constructing information system rules. In the Brazilian case, federal officials created interpretations to implement the eligibility criteria. These interpretations can be regarded as new regulation, moving beyond the criteria defined by the law itself. In other words, independent of their level, these players/actors, who usually do not have contact with actual or potential beneficiaries, wield discretion over people, and the way the interpreted the eligibility criteria, is an strong example of how their choices can affect the results of a public policy. Jansson and Erlingsson (2014) argue that “the fact that technology does not discriminate, but treats everyone as equal, is both its biggest advantage and disadvantage.” Sometimes, some level of discrimination is necessary (as in the case of affirmative actions). As the role of street-level bureaucrats diminish, new forms of arbitrariness can emerge among system-level bureaucracies. Responsive, democratic societies should worry about this. That should be a concern among public managers on the system-level bureaucracy as well, especially when extensively using ICT to implement social policies. As Busch and Henriksen (2018) pointed out, the scope of street-level bureaucracy is decreasing, and more and more street-­ level bureaucracies are turned into digital bureaucracies characterized by digital bureaucrats operating computers instead of interacting face-to-face with citizens. Therefore, the environment in which ICT is implemented and used is vital for understanding how digital discretion diffuses and how it can impact institution and public policies. The Emergency Payment is an example of what these authors call “mass transactional tasks,” where decisions are made based on schematic rules defined by system-level bureaucrats, and where ICT reduce or even eliminate the space for human judgment. We also called attention to the fact that, as welfare services become increasingly digitalized, citizens unable to use standardized digital technologies start to face new forms of exclusion (Schou & Pors, 2019). The changes promoted by the implementation of the Emergency Payment may encourage public managers to use ICT to interact directly with citizens, without the help of street-level bureaucrats. Before pushing forward these ICT-intensive models, it is necessary to rethink, for instance, the structures of administrative d­ ata/ registry and their interoperability with other administrative registry and policy instruments. Besides, it is necessary to reconcile their updating routines and how they can affect the quality of the service and the quality of the information. The success of ICT solutions in public policy clearly depends on the policy procedures and instruments in place. It also depends on the overall access to technology among the potential beneficiaries (and their ability navigating these technologies).

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Policymakers and system-level bureaucrats need to be aware that some street-level bureaucracy will be necessary to deal with complex cases and support citizens who are digitally illiterate or have no access to the Internet. These concerns have far-­ reaching policy implications. They can be expanded to other public policies which are undergoing digital transformation. They point out to the necessity of designing policies to promote digital inclusion of low-income citizens. They also show that digital transformation, in any policy field, needs to be combined with the creation of open channels where the citizen can appeal against decisions taken by public officials. These mechanisms are vital to realign system-level bureaucracy with democratic values and improve the use of information systems in public policy. They underline the relevance of a research agenda that can help governments to move up the digital ladder, while improving accountability on different levels of the public bureaucracy.

5.2  Future Research The implementation of the Emergency Payment opens a new research venue related to the extensive use of ICT in public policy, especially in developing countries. Since the 1990s, these countries have carried out several experiments with new technologies in public policy, still it is the first time they were needed on a large scale. For us, it is clear that public policy (social policy in special) needs to be compatible with the realities of their intended beneficiaries. The digital transformations experienced and promoted by some governments should be celebrated as a sign of improvement in public management; at the same time, the design of these policies should consider the needs of many citizens who have difficulties in gaining access to (or use) new technologies or who have their access to these technologies entirely denied—poorly designed policies, even using the most effective ICT solutions, can expand their exclusion situation. Moreover, the extensive use of new ICT solutions in public policy should be accompanied by through studies to identify how these technologies affect bureaucratic capacity and accountability. We have show in this chapter that the major social intervention ever implemented in Brazil forewent traditional implementers— i.e., street-level bureaucrats—transferring discretionary power to system-level bureaucrats. The lasting impacts of such experiment on state capacity and accountability are yet unknown.

References Ansiliero, G., et  al. (2020). Análise descritiva das políticas públicas de inclusão previdenciária dos trabalhadores autônomos: O plano simplificado de previdência social e o microempreendedor individual. Texto para Discussão no. 2546. http://repositorio.ipea.gov.br/ bitstream/11058/9853/2/td_2546_sumex.pdf

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Barros, R. P., et al. (2009). Sobre as utilidades do Cadastro Único. Texto para Discussão no. 1414. http://repositorio.ipea.gov.br/bitstream/11058/2653/1/TD_1414.pdf Bendor, J. (2015). Incrementalism: Dead yet flourishing. Public Administration Review, 75(2), 194–205. Bovens, M., & Zouridis, S. (2002). From street-level to system-level bureaucracies: How information and communication technology is transforming administrative discretion and constitutional control. Public Administration Review, 62(2), 174–184. https://doi. org/10.1111/0033-­3352.00168 Brazil. Ministry of Citizenship. (2020). Visdata Plataform. https://aplicacoes.mds.gov.br/sagi/vis/ data3/data-­explorer.php Buffat, A. (2013). Street-level bureaucracy and E-government. Public Management Review, 17(1), 149–161. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2013.771699 Busch, P. A., & Henriksen, H. Z. (2018). Digital discretion: A systematic literature review of ICT and street-level discretion. Information Polity, 23(1), 3–28. https://doi.org/10.3233/IP-­170050 Cardoso, B.  B. (2020). The implementation of emergency payment as an exceptional measure of social protection. Revista de Administração Pública, 54(4), 1052–1063. https://doi. org/10.1590/0034-­761220200267 Giest, S., & Raaphorst, N. (2018). Unraveling the hindering factors of digital public service delivery at street-level: The case of electronic health records. Policy Design and Practice, 1(2), 141–154. https://doi.org/10.1080/25741292.2018.1476002 Gomide, A., & Pires, R. (2014). Capacidades estatais e democracia: Arranjos institucionais de políticas públicas. https://www.ipea.gov.br/portal/images/stories/PDFs/livros/capacidades_ estatais_e_democracia_web.pdf Hansen, H.-T., et  al. (2016). Digitalization, street-level bureaucracy and welfare users’ experiences: Digitalization, street-level bureaucracy and welfare users’ experiences. Social Policy and Administration, 52(1), 67–90. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12283 Howlett, M., et al. (2009). Studying public policy: Policy cycles and policy subsystems (Vol. 3). Oxford University Press. Hupe, P., & Hill, M., (2007). Street-Level Bureaucracy and Public Accountability.  Public Administration 85(2):279–299 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-­9299.2007.00650.x IBGE - Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística. (2019). Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD). Microdados. https://biblioteca.ibge.gov.br/visualizacao/livros/liv101651_ notas_tecnicas.pdf Jansson, G., & Erlingsson, G. (2014). More E-government, less street-level bureaucracy? On legitimacy and the human side of public administration. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 11(3), 291–308. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2014.908155 Lascoumes, P., & Le Galès, P. (2007). Understanding public policy through its instruments. Special issue. Governance, 20, 1–21. Le Galès, P. (2011). Policy instruments and governance. In The SAGE handbook of governance (pp. 142–159). SAGE Publications Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446200964.n10 Lima, L.  L., & D’Ascenzi, L. (2013). Implementação de políticas públicas: Perspectivas analíticas. Revista de Sociologia e Política., 21(48), 101–110. https://doi.org/10.1590/ S0104-­44782013000400006 Lipsky, M. (1980). Street-level bureaucracy: The critical role of street-level bureaucrats. In Classics of public administration (pp. 414–422). Moore Pub. Co.. Lipsky, M. (2010). Street-level bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the individual in public service. Russell Sage Foundation. Lotta, G., & Favareto, A. (2016). Desafios da integração nos novos arranjos institucionais de políticas públicas no Brasil. Revista de Sociologia e Política, 24(57), 49–65. https://doi. org/10.1590/1678-­987316245704 Pires, R. (2016). Intersetorialidade, arranjos institucionais e instrumentos da ação pública. In Cadernos de Estudos Desenvolvimento Social em Debate (Vol. 26, pp.  67–80). Ministério

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do Desenvolvimento Social. https://aplicacoes.mds.gov.br/sagirmps/ferramentas/docs/ Caderno%20de%20Estudos%2026.pdf Powell, W. W., & DiMaggio, P. J. (Eds.). (2012). The new institutionalism in organizational analysis. University of Chicago press. Schou, J., & Pors, A. S. (2019). Digital by default? A qualitative study of exclusion in digitalised welfare. Social Policy and Administration, 53(3), 464–477. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12470 Scott, R.  J., Jr. (2010). The science of muddling through revisited. Emergence: Complexity & Organization, 12(1), 5. Snellen, I. (2002). Electronic governance: Implications for citizens, politicians and public servants. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 68, 183. https://doi. org/10.1177/0020852302682002 Vitalis, A., & Duhaut, N. (2004). NTIC et relation administrative : de la relation de guichet à la relation de réseau. Revue française d’administration publique 110(2), 315–326. https://doi. org/10.3917/rfap.110.0315 Zouridis, S., Van Eck, M., & Bovens, M. (2020). Automated discretion. In Discretion and the quest for controlled freedom (pp.  313–329). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-­3-­030-­19566-­3_20

Implementation of Emerging Technologies in Pandemic Situations: Contact Tracing vs. Privacy in Canada Irma Spahiu Abstract  The COVID-19 pandemic required unprecedented efforts to address the emergency situation in public health in all countries around the world. Governments turned their hopes to technology and its potential to offer reliable solutions in controlling the virus. Contact-tracing apps were introduced to assist health officials in tracking down exposures after infected individuals were identified. Despite the benefits, the design of tracking apps was accompanied by many privacy concerns. The objective of this chapter is to survey what strategies of digital contact tracing have been used to control the spread of COVID-19, what are some of the privacy discussions that surround the choices for those strategies and whether those choices are embedded in the legal requirements of privacy protection. The chapter argues that privacy should be a central feature of the conversations surrounding the implementation of contact-tracing technology—every decision-making should always take place within the legal boundaries of privacy protection. The Canadian case serves as a good example because the public policy makers did not respond to the health crisis by compromising privacy rights for the benefit of protecting public health, even if the situation could have favored such decision. The chapter offers an exploratory review of current measures for COVID-19 contact tracing employed in Canada with the aim of analyzing how privacy concerns shaped the Canadian decision-making in adopting particular measures. The chapter concludes that it is in under situations of crisis when a country’s democracy is put to a test—policy makers will fail the test if they aim to achieve legitimate goals through controversial means, especially if those means weaken fundamental human rights. Undermining privacy in the name of protecting public health could have dangerous implications for future public policy making. It could open the door to the abuse of government powers in times of crisis, and once the crisis is over the changes to our privacy rights could become permanent.

I have no known conflict of interest to disclose. I. Spahiu (*) Department of Political Science, University of Toronto, Scarborough, Toronto, ON, Canada e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 S. Saeed et al. (eds.), Pandemic, Lockdown, and Digital Transformation, Public Administration and Information Technology 7, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86274-9_3

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Keywords  Privacy · Contact-tracing technology · Public health · Public policy The massive spread of COVID-19 in the early months of 2020 very quickly escalated to a global pandemic and brought many public health systems in the world to the brink of collapse. This caused the first major widespread global health emergency of the information age (Fahey & Hino, 2020). To address this emergency in a fast and reliable fashion many governments around the world turned their hopes to technology and what it had to offer in controlling, containing and preventing the frightening spread of the virus. Contact tracing became an important tool in this titanic enterprise which brought countries together in the fight against a common invisible enemy. Many governments approved mobile phone apps that were designed to assist health officials in tracking down exposures after an infected individual was identified. The ‘TraceTogether’ app introduced in Singapore in March 2020 was an early centralized approach to app-based digital contact tracing via Bluetooth (Mello & Wang, 2020). In the following months, a number of public and private initiatives in several countries started to develop solutions for digital contact tracing. To mitigate privacy concerns, many approaches were built on privacy-preserving protocols. The majority of these apps uses randomly generated, frequently changing hash keys to anonymously identify their users and require user consent for reporting the personal identifiers to a central server after being tested positive for the virus (Sharon, 2020). Some scholars have argued that because digital contact-tracing records interactions among people, this might raise concerns about the use of personal data for purposes not agreed upon by the users of digital contact tracing (Altmann et  al., 2020). Such concerns typically include the fear of discrimination by governments, social contacts, employers or health insurers (Acquisti et  al., 2016). All of these concerns tie back to the right of personal privacy. Allen (2000) defines privacy as the inaccessibility of certain aspects related to an individual. One difficulty in finding the ‘right’ level of privacy when implementing digital contact tracing is the measurement of preferences on privacy itself since stated and revealed preferences are oftentimes strongly at odds. Generally speaking, stated preferences for privacy and the protection of personal data are strong. However, Athey et al. (2017) find in an experiment among students that even a small incentive like a pizza significantly increases the probability that students would share their friends’ contact data. Altmann et al. (2020) call this a “privacy paradox.” Acquisti et al. (2015) suggest that the paradox might be explained by the uncertainty, context dependence and the potential for malleability involved in decisions over privacy protection. First, privacy decisions often have to be made in a context of significant uncertainty, for instance, regarding which data is actually collected and for which purpose, as well as an individual’s real value of privacy. Second, privacy behavior seems to be highly context-dependent. Preferences stated about general attitudes and the concrete behavior in a certain situation does not need to be closely associated (Acquisti et al., 2016). Third, privacy behavior is found to often be easily malleable, for instance, by changing decision frames or changing the ordering and default of options. If these

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reasons for the privacy paradox also apply to digital contact tracing, finding an appropriate level of privacy amounts less to a passive and observational activity but more to an active information campaign trying to reduce uncertainty about the technology, rolling it out at the right time and place and finding ways to correct false information. This poses a significant challenge. The privacy aspects in the decision to participate are not only influenced by the design of the digital contact-tracing system and the communication around it but also by the institutions that implement it. According to Vaithianathan (2020), low trust in such institutions (e.g., due to concerns over governmental surveillance) might pose a barrier to adoption, while trust in institutions can be a way to overcome privacy concerns. Despite the benefits and the hopes that accompanied the introduction of contact-­ tracing apps, they were also associated with a lot of controversy. One of the main concerns was about the apps’ implications with privacy rights. There were many arguments that digital “technologies must robustly support democratic principles of privacy to maintain public trust and to enable individuals to make informed choices to help combat the pandemic” (Bengio et al., 2020). Others argue that “Digital contact tracing has endemic privacy risks that cannot be removed by technological means, and which may require legal or economic solutions” (Bengio et al., 2021). The emphasis here is on providing adequate security safeguards: when organizations and institutions collect, use, and disclose personal information, the systems put in place to facilitate these activities should minimize the potential for unauthorized access, thereby minimizing the possibility of unintended use. As technological solutions can only go so far, resolving the impact of many of these risks is thus a matter of policy and law. Canada was one of the countries in which the introduction of tracking apps was surrounded by controversy because of privacy implications associated with the app. However, the involvement of many stakeholders in the early stages of the design and implementation of such apps resulted in a decision by the government of Canada to make the app voluntary for Canadian citizens and also include privacy protections in the design of such apps. Therefore, these apps were designed conforming to the “privacy by default” principle. This chapter is divided in two sections. In the first section, I look at what choice of technology has been adopted by different countries and what are some general privacy concerns regarding those choices. In the second section, I turn to Canada to examine its choice of contact-tracing app and whether it conforms to Canada’s privacy legal framework. I conduct an exploratory review of current measures for COVID-19 contact tracing employed in Canada and compare it with some other models of this technology used in other countries around the world. The aim is to analyze how effective is the use of mobile apps technology to reduce the spread of COVID-19. This chapter looks at some drawbacks in the use of mobile apps in an attempt to achieve a more holistic evaluation of contact-tracing technology in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and offer some possible explanations.

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1  T  he Use of Technology in Controlling the Spread of COVID-19 and Countries’ Experiences Mobile phone data is progressively being used to track human movements and study infectious diseases, such as the current pandemic. Mobile phones allow for a two-­ way sharing of information and can be used for data collection to serve surveillance purposes and for disseminating important public health information to the public. During the COVID-19 pandemic apps for tracking, tracing, and early warning have been implemented in many countries with various degrees of success to control the spread of the virus. As described by Public Health Ontario (2020), “Contact tracing is a process that is used to identify, educate and monitor individuals who have had close contact with someone who is infected with a virus … Contact tracing can help the individuals understand their risk and limit further spread of the virus.” Google and Apple (2020) were involved in several of the contact-tracing applications around the world. In May 2020, both companies released a software tool (Kelion, 2020a) that allows developers to use the Bluetooth capability of smartphones to detect each other, while also maintaining the user’s privacy. Switzerland, Germany, and Italy have already launched apps based on this model. Health agencies from 22 countries and U.S. states are using the tool to develop their own app (Kelion, 2020a, b). Canada’s app, while developed by Shopify, Blackberry, and the Government of Canada, is also using this tool from Google and Apple. Although the tracing app was considered generally effective, there were countries which questioned its potential. For instance, in Iceland, developers launched the “Rakning C-19” app in early April 2020 and it was quickly downloaded by 38% of the population, but its impact was minimal (Johnson, 2020). Senior officials in Iceland admitted the usefulness of the app with some reservation saying that it was not “the game changer” they had hoped for. In the United Kingdom (UK), a contact-tracing app had been a focal point of its response to the virus, with an initial plan to release their app in mid-May 2020 (MIT Technology Review, 2020) but the process was delayed (Kelion, 2020b). The UK government had intended to develop an application without the help of Apple and Google’s software tool, but later changed their minds. The government added that the delays were because the implementation of the app was no longer a priority, as they noticed that people would rather hear any potential bad news from a human voice, rather than a notification on their phone. “One of the things it has taught us is that it is the human contact that is the one most valued by people,” James Bethell, the minister for innovation at the Department of Health and Social Care, told the UK’s Science and Technology Committee. “In fact, there is a danger of being too technological and relying too much on text and emails and alienating or freaking out people because you’re telling them quite alarming news through quite casual communications” (Cousins, 2020). The UK has adopted what is known as a “centralised” approach, meaning that the contact-matching process is carried out on a remote computer server. One

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benefit of this approach is to offer to epidemiologists more data to tackle the pandemic. France and India are other countries to have adopted this model. By contrast, Apple and Google’s “decentralised” approach carries out the matches on the handsets themselves, and this better protects users’ privacy. Poland switched its app from a centralised to a decentralised approach. Switzerland, Ireland, Germany, Italy, and Latvia are among others to have adopted the tech giants’ design. In the United States, Avira (2020) conducted a survey which indicated that more than 71% of Americans would not download a contact-tracing app if it were an option. In early 2021, Rich (2021) argued that these apps “have been a huge failure in the US …. Americans have largely rejected them, and they have played a minimal role in controlling the disease. The key reason for this failure is that people don’t trust the tech companies or the government to collect, use and store their personal data.”   An early study of the University of Oxford (2020) predicted that contact-tracing apps could help stop an epidemic, but only if approximately 60% of the population used them. Even the designers of tracing apps advised for some level of precaution—they admitted that apps would not be a “panacea” for the spread of the virus and that they were only meant to complement the existing tracing efforts (Bay, 2020).

1.1  P  rivacy Concerns Should Be Balanced Against Public Health Protections In a pandemic situation when all other rights are restrained, privacy might seem like the least of all worries. Who needs privacy in their life when the life itself is in danger? The question might sound trivial but it gives rise to a very important conversation in regards to balancing fundamental human rights such as privacy and health, which in many cases are not isolated from one another. Indeed, health information is widely acknowledged to be one of the most sensitive categories of personal information. In the context of the pandemic, there were widespread demands from the public, and intense interest from governments around the world, to use technology—to find a silver bullet app—that will help in efforts to contain the virus (Mcphail et al., 2020, p. 2). At the same time, the pandemic has raised numerous concerns for the protection of personal information. Although tracking methods have helped predict the spread trend of the pandemic and improved the efficiency of prevention to a certain degree, they have been accompanied by various ethical and legal concerns. These concerns are related to contact tracing and their monitoring technologies (Ye, 2020) and how they risk hindering the protection of personal information. Therefore, in addition to using a privacy-preserving contact detection framework, apps should incorporate features to mitigate privacy concerns and ensure compliance with privacy laws and international best practices, especially those enshrined in the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (EU, 2016).

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Such features include encryption of all personal data, explanations in plain language and user consent for data storage and use, restrictions on use of the data outside the public health responses to COVID-19, automatic deletion of data, and the option to delete data at any time (Kleinman & Merkel, 2020). Indeed, because of privacy concerns, contact-tracing apps in many countries have not received a good reception (Cousins, 2020). Amnesty International (2020) conducted a study in June 2020 where they examined 11 contact-tracing apps from Europe, North Africa and Asia. They found some of the apps were “putting the privacy and security of hundreds of thousands of people at risk.” The organization found Bahrain’s “BeAware Bahrain,” Kuwait’s “Shlonik” and Norway’s “Smittestopp” apps to be particularly troubling for the users’ privacy, as they use GPS data and allow for real-­time tracking of its users. Norway has since paused the use of its app. Amnesty International added that apps using a decentralized model of Bluetooth contact tracing, “tend to be less concerning from a privacy perspective.” Although data sharing could be very important in the context of pandemic prevention and control, it cannot exceed the reasonable limits. The disclosure and use of data need to protect the rights and interests of citizens to achieve a dynamic balance between public health and privacy protection. On the one hand, making good use of data technology has been proven to optimize the governance of the public health emergency; on the other hand, personal information and privacy data protection boundaries should be strictly guarded to avoid unnecessary and irreparable damage. The question that might be rightfully raised is: Can a balance be achieved between protection of public health and protection of privacy? When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged many governments felt privacy should be set aside because protecting people’s lives was more important. Given the magnitude and the immediacy of the situation, that was a rightful reaction. Then, the above mentioned question becomes: Can a balanced be achieved between the protection of life and protection of privacy? The answer to this question might sound irrational, and indeed it is, if we depart from a false assumption: either we protect one or the other, without considering that situations of real life when these questions might be raised are very rare. Instead, real life is more nuanced, even when we consider pandemic situations, and privacy does not always have to be balanced with life, but with a much broader concept, that of health. Therefore, when properly designed, tracing applications could achieve both public health objectives and the protection of rights simultaneously. Indeed, the data-first and privacy-first approaches to digital contact tracing … are not binary opposites, but rather represent the extremes of a spectrum of different approaches to the problem (Fahey & Hino, 2020). Technology itself is neither good nor bad. Everything depends on how it is designed, used and regulated (Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, 2020a). Technology can be used to protect both public health and privacy. Privacy and innovation brought about by new technology are not conflicting values and can coexist. Evidence suggests that contact tracing and data protection can go together (Ekong et al., 2000). The Canadian case suggests that reconciling public health and

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privacy is possible—the key is to find a balance between deploying the technology and maintaining data safety and personal privacy. According to Woods (2000), many of the new digital technology approaches appear inevitable and legitimate, given the unprecedented high frequency of the COVID-19 infection spread. However, the emergency situations should not lead to illegitimate measures that can do irreversible damage to the fundamental rights. There are even deeper concerns regarding the usage of these apps in the future. There is a threat that these apps, from voluntary surveillance technologies will become compulsory for any public or social engagement. There is a real danger that employers, retailers, or even policymakers can require that consumers display the results of their apps before they are allowed to enter a store, return to work or use public services. Such dangers are slowly becoming a norm in China, Hong Kong, etc. (Soltani et al., 2020). Therefore, the adaption of technological measures should be always done in a precautionary fashion, so they cannot lead to future irreparable damage to human right protections. In Canada, the federal government introduced the “COVID Alert” app in June 2020, but its implementation was delayed because of privacy concerns. The app became available for downloading only after the Federal Privacy Commissioner concluded their review of the app and confirmed his support. The “COVID Alert” app does not collect personal information or health data, nor does it know or track the location, name or address of any users. The app produces random codes and uses Bluetooth to ping other users phones whenever two people who use the app are near one another - it resembles an electronic handshake.  In Canada, there are three business partners who have contributed to the app: First Google/Apple jointly developed the API being adopted, but they have no access to the data. Canadian Digital Services (CDS is a government agency in charge with the implementation of the app) consults Google and Apple whenever changes to the app occur. Second, Shopify developed a software code compatible with the Google/Apple API. COVID Alert was developed using this source code. At no point did or does Shopify have the ability to add any code into the CDS-managed code repository. Third, BlackBerry provided support in an advisory capacity to review the security of the source code on a pro bono basis. They were given readonly access to CDS source code and testing infrastructure for the explicit purposes of discovering vulnerabilities and weaknesses in implementation. At no point did or does BlackBerry have or require any access to data in order to conduct its security audit (Government of Canada, 2020a). Most provinces in Canada have implemented the COVID Alert app. The only provinces where the app is not available, therefore, people are unable to report a diagnosis, are the provinces of Alberta (which uses its own app “AbTraceTogether” but not integrated in the national app), British Columbia, and the territories of Nunavut and Yukon (Government of Canada, 2020b). As of February 11, 2021, the app was downloaded by 6.2  million people in Canada. See the chart below (Government of Canada, 2020b):

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Considering that the population in Canada is currently 38.1  million (Statistics Canada, 2020), the usage of the app is considered by only 16% of the population. The low number is an indicator that the app is not embraced by the majority of Canadians as a solution to the pandemic crisis. In addition, the one-time key was only used very narrowly. The app is used on a voluntary basis, and even if people get tested positive they are not under any legal obligation to disclose this result with the public officials. In fact, only 2% of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Canada have activated the federal government’s contact-tracing app (Pinkerton, 2021). The Prime Minister, and other higher officials have encouraged Canadians to use the app, however, its usage still remains low. After the Prime Minister Trudeau mentioned the app in his nationally televised address that followed the throne speech in September 2020, the app was downloaded tens of thousands of times. After this, Trudeau resumed his regular COVID briefings to Canadians (Pinkerton, 2020). In addition, Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, have been regularly suggesting that Canadians download the app (Pinkerton, 2021). Despite all these efforts by the government, the limited usage of the app still persists. This resistance could be explained by various reasons. Data suggests that the main reason is the protection of privacy. According to a survey of Statistics Canada “Concerns about privacy and government access to location data are the leading reasons why people would not use a contact-tracing application” (Aitken et al., 2020). Chart 1 includes other reasons as well:

Chart 1  Reasons why people who were unlikely to use a contact tracing app would not install it, June 2020. (Source: Canadian Perspectives Survey Series, June 2020)

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Chart 2  Top two reasons for not installing a contact tracing app among those who would not install it, by age group, June 2020. (Source: Canadian Perspectives Survey Series, June 2020)

Among those who said they would be unlikely to use a contact-tracing application, adults aged 25–64 expressed the greatest concern about the invasion of privacy (73%). They were about twice as likely as their counterparts aged 15–24 (43%) and those aged 65 and older (42%) to say they would not install such an application because they considered it an invasion of privacy (see Chart 2) (Aitken et al., 2020). As the data in the survey suggests, the invasion of privacy is a principal concern for Canadians when they are faced with the decision of downloading the Covid Alert app. Therefore, the protection of this fundamental value in the Canadian legal framework deserves a closer look in this chapter.

1.2  A  ddressing Privacy Concerns: The Canadian Balanced Approach The Government of Canada has continuously reassured Canadians that the use of the “Covid Alert” app will not compromise their privacy rights. It is advising that1 “nobody will get any information about you.” According to the government, the app is considered to be minimally intrusive and intended to be used in combination with other public health measures being taken across Canada in response to the pandemic. COVID Alert takes a fully decentralized approach, which means that personally identifiable information is not being collected and stored in a single central location. Instead, when a user downloads the app and consents to its various functions, their mobile device transmits random IDs that are used to record proximity to

 https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/coronavirus-disease-covid-19/covidalert.html.

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another app user’s smart phone. This contrasts from contact-tracing apps which access a device’s location data and report it to public health authorities. The government recognizes that the app is intended to complement, and not replace existing measures to reduce the spread of the virus, including manual contact tracing. Despite the claims from the government that the Covid Alert complied with privacy protections, privacy watchdogs have raised their concerns regarding potential security risks associated with contact-tracing apps. Initially, in response to the government’s attempt to introduce the app, the Privacy Commissioners across Canada came together in a joint statement in 7 May 20202 advising their respective governments that key privacy principles needed to protect the identity of users and their data. The use of the app is voluntary and commissioners acknowledged it has been developed with robust safeguards, and that they supported its use following initial privacy and security concerns. The commissioners concluded in their review that the federally developed app had met all of their recommendations. In the Joint Statement by Federal, Provincial and Territorial Privacy Commissioners (Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, 2020b) they emphasized that the safety and security of Canadians is of grave concern in the current COVID-19 health crisis when the public health authorities are vastly using technology to prevent the spread of the virus. The focus was on how the choices that our governments make today about how to attain public health protection while complying with fundamental Canadian values, including the right to privacy, will shape the future of the country. Commissioners reflected on how the application of apps raise important privacy risks. While compliance with federal or provincial privacy laws is of great importance, this is not a guarantee that effective levels of protection will be put in place and be suited to the digital environment. At the time when the Joint Statement was made, the governments were planning to use contact-­tracing applications. Therefore, the commissioners took a proactive approach and advised the governments to respect at least the following principles when applying the contact-tracing apps: Consent and trust—The use of apps to be voluntary in order to build public trust. Trust also requires that governments demonstrate a high level of transparency and accountability. Legal authority—Apps to have a clear legal basis and consent be meaningful. Personal information should not be accessible or compellable by service providers or other organizations. Necessity and Proportionality—Introduction of apps be necessary (science-­ based); proportionate (tailored to a specific purpose); effective (at achieving the purpose); least intrusive (rational minimal intrusion to achieve purpose). Purpose Limitation—Personal information be used for its intended public health purpose, and for no other purpose. De-identification—De-identified or aggregate data be used whenever possible, unless it will not achieve the defined purpose.

 https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/opc-news/speeches/2020/s-d_20200507/.

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Time-Limitation—The use of apps be time-limited: any personal information collected during the crisis period be destroyed when the crisis ends. Transparency—Government be clear about the basis and the terms applicable to apps and Canadians be fully informed about the information collected (what; where; how; who; when) Accountability—Governments to develop and make public an ongoing monitoring and evaluation plan concerning the effectiveness of the apps and commit to publicly posting the evaluation report within a specific timeline. Safeguards—Appropriate legal and technical security safeguards be put in place to ensure that any non-authorized parties do not access data and not be used for any purpose other than its intended public health purpose. All of these principles were considered by the federal government when they introduced the app. In addition to the guidelines provided collectively by the Privacy Commissioners of Canada, individual Commissioners also came out with their statements to express their support for Covid Alert. “Canadians can opt to use this technology knowing it includes very significant privacy protections. I will use it” said Daniel Therrien, Privacy Commissioner of Canada in a statement on July 2020 (Office of the Privacy Commissioner, 2020). In addition, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, Patricia Kosseim agreed that the app could be an important tool, among others, to help control the spread of the virus in Ontario. She said: “I am satisfied that there are strong measures built in to help protect individual privacy” (Office of the Privacy Commissioner, 2020). However, despite their support for the app the Privacy Commissioners also noted the risk of third parties who may seek to compel the app’s users to disclose information. To address this concern the federal government agreed to involve the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada in an audit of the app after it was put in place. The audit would include an ongoing evaluation of the app’s effectiveness and security measures. In February of 2021, the government of Canada published a privacy assessment of the “Covid Alert” App (Government of Canada, 2021) in which privacy protections were measured against other important considerations, such as public health protections. Other privacy experts also became part of the discussions on the need of a precautionary approach to address privacy concerns during the health crisis. Generally, experts were saying that the app didn’t raise privacy concerns itself, instead, discussions were developed around broader issues related to the adequacy of Canada’s privacy laws. Michael Geist, law professor and Canada’s Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, explained the reasons why he was in favor of the app and why he himself had already downloaded it. Geist wrote: “The voluntary app does not collect personal information nor provide the government (or anyone else) with location information. The app merely runs in the background on an Apple or Android phone using Bluetooth technology to identify other devices that come within 2 m for a period of 15 min or more.” He added that, “from a privacy perspective, this is very low risk” (Geist, 2020). He admitted that he was persuaded to

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download the app onto his own phone by the privacy safeguards in combination with the public health benefits of having the app. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) has provided its own positive approach on the Covid Alert app. The CCLA Executive Director articulates: “the app itself gives me enough control at every stage in its operation. …. I control when the app is running and I decide whether to follow up on notifications with public health, and, if I test positive, I get to decide whether to ever acquire and upload a code that will trigger notification of others about their potential exposure to COVID through me …. I have full control throughout” (Canadian Civil Liberties Association, 2020). In addition, CCLA Privacy, Surveillance and Technology Director provided very positive comments on the app. According to her “Even at the time of the first launch announcement I was reasonably impressed by the attention to technical privacy protections built into the app; it was clear that privacy was being taken seriously in the design process, to an unusual degree” (Canadian Civil Liberties Association, 2020). The protection of personal information during the use of technology has also been discussed in the Canadian courts, although the body of the jurisprudence for these cases is still underdeveloped. The cases focus on the risk of individual identification when governments create online databases with aggregate information. Although the risk of using un-identifiable information is very low, it cannot be ignored. For instance, the Federal Court in Sig Sauer (Canada (Information Commissioner) v. Canada, 2019) in 2019 found that “to use the serial numbers identify an individual would require either access to restricted government databases that already contain personal information, or a successful effort to trick either the government or the manufacturer into releasing personal information. The evidence does not establish a serious possibility of either occurring.” In this case, McHaffie J was satisfied that there was no personal information at issue.

2  Conclusions Contact-tracing applications have been presented as a desirable and auspicious tool for the prevention of the COVID-19 virus and protection of public health. However, these apps will not serve to any purpose if the majority of people in a certain jurisdiction are not willing to use them. To address public’s reluctance, the governments should pay attention to the underlying factors that lead to citizens’ apathy in response to the apps. As many studies have demonstrated, one of such factors is the concern about invasion of privacy rights and the lack of trust in the governments that proper safeguards will be in place to protect personal information. Therefore, governments must gain the trust of their citizens in order for the system to work efficiently. Citizens must be assured that their personal data will not be stored or used beyond the pandemic and protections will be in line with international human rights obligations.

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The Canadian case and its “Covid Alert” app was brought as an example in this Chapter as a good reference for the successful use of technology in controlling the virus. Covid Alert is viewed to be minimally intrusive from a privacy perspective as it is voluntary and collects very little information, which is only used for the limited purpose of contacting users in the event of a positive test. The Canadian government’s response to the pandemic has been considered successful, and has highlighted that the Canadian policy style is optimized to nudge diverse approaches closer as opposed to creating a single policy response (Migone, 2020). Some of the reasons for this success have been the involvement of Privacy Commissioners, the legal principles that were set as requirements following a “Privacy by design” approach, the concerns of the public about privacy issues and the willingness of the federal government to include various stakeholders in the process of designing the app. However, the Government of Canada recognizes3 that there is no such thing as zero risk when data is being released, and the only way to reduce the risk of releasing data to zero is to not release any data at all. “Taken with the false positive and “griefing” issues outlined above, there is a real risk that these mobile-based apps can turn unaffected individuals into social pariahs, restricted from accessing public and private spaces or participating in social and economic activities” (Soltani et al., 2020). The Government of Canada key server is at the lowest risk end of the spectrum: it is characterized by restricted access, strong IT security measures, and agreements in place. In the broader context of the entirety of the exposure notification app, the IP address is not necessarily a direct identifier; and access is highly restricted—both from an IT perspective and a governance perspective The IP addresses on their own do not reveal individual identities; they’re stored on a secure server that only limited Government of Canada employees have access to, and they’re bound by security obligations to protect that information and not access or use it for nefarious purposes. While privacy has been the primary concern, there are also other considerations that weigh heavily in deciding upon a contacting tracing app. The first is social trust: an effective app needs widespread adoption and so people need to trust its design. The second is technical: apps that use Bluetooth signals will be more effective if they use the Apple/Google API and have decentralized designs (Austin et al., 2020). Indeed, as demonstrated by research, a major issue is that there is insufficient uptake within the population for the app to be effective. Incorporating good privacy design into COVID-related initiatives will help to build public trust in public health measures, in government and in the digital tools that have become so important to dayto-­day life. In conclusion, the measures taken in developing the app, the central key server, and other servers, in addition to the manner in which they collect, exchange, use and retain these data elements, reduce the risk of privacy breaches to the lowest

 See details of the Privacy Analysis at: https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/ coronavirus-disease-covid-19/covid-alert/privacy-policy/assessment.html#a6. 3

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minimum possible. Governments must address their concerns by taking proper steps such as enacting primary legislation to govern the application, placing an independent oversight mechanism to ensure transparency, improving the efficacy of the application, and following the principles of data protection such as data minimization and data anonymity. The pandemic has accelerated the digital revolution—bringing both benefits as well as risks for privacy. As the pandemic speeds up digitization, basic privacy principles that would allow us to use public health measures without jeopardizing our rights are in some cases, best practices rather than requirements under the existing legal framework (Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, 2020a). Choices we make now about information sharing and encouraging the use of technologies for tracking humans as a way of tracking the spread of COVID-19 are going to have an impact on our privacy when the crisis is over. Technology only progresses, and there is a real risk that if we take measures now that we consider necessary in the current state of emergency, it will be difficult to dial them back later unless the right legal, policy, and technical constraints are in place from the start (Mcphail et al., 2020, p. 3). The choices our government makes about protecting public health and fundamental values such as the right to privacy will have longterm impacts for all. Similarly, the path that the government ultimately chooses to take when it comes to legislative reform will have a significant effect on future generations.

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eTourism and Cultural Resilience: Exploring Opportunities for Indigenous Communities in an Extremely Precarious State Tariq Zaman, Gary Loh Chee Wyai, and Shaista Falak

Abstract  Tourism is not spared by the health, economic, and emotional impacts generated by the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). All the indicators demonstrate that we are heading towards a change of norm, a new world that is yet to be discovered, and we must understand it, accept it, and adapt to this new lifestyle. The lockdown measures, on the one hand, brutally limit opportunities for the tourists to physically access and enjoy rural and indigenous tourism services. On the other hand, it offers opportunities to deploy other means of business model, such as the use of digital technology in the tourism sector on a global scale. Taking the problem and opportunity into account, this study explores the community perspectives, the needs, challenges, and opportunities of eTourism for the indigenous communities of Bawang Assan and Long Latei in the Malaysian Borneo. For the last 4 years, the Bawang Assan and Long Latei communities, via Internet, promote tourism products, capacity building on digital literacy, and hosting students of service-learning program from local and international universities. The local tourism industry has encountered unprecedented crises since the outbreak and exercised out of the box and innovative solutions to counter these challenges. This chapter will present the lessons learned and futuristic perspective of eTourism using lenses of the local community and tourism industry. Keywords  eTourism · Case study · eShopping · ePerformance · eVisit · Cultural resilience · Indigenous communities

T. Zaman (*) · G. L. C. Wyai ASSET, University Technology Sarawak (UCTS), Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] S. Falak CONTRIBUTE, University Technology Sarawak (UCTS), Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 S. Saeed et al. (eds.), Pandemic, Lockdown, and Digital Transformation, Public Administration and Information Technology 7, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86274-9_4

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1  Introduction 2020 has been an adverse year for everyone and as an industry, tourism and hospitality have experienced their share of disastrous impacts of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, more commonly referred to by the illness the virus causes, Covid-19. The pandemic has resulted in strict restrictions on individual rights, particularly around the freedom of movement (Yaya et al., 2020). To the extent that all most all the governments, including Malaysia, declared national emergencies to battle the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed as many and resulted in an estimated loss of US$910 billion to US$1.2 trillion in export from tourism and international visitors’ spending (UNWTOa, 2020). Countries like Malaysia, most reliant on tourism for jobs and economic growth are likely to be hit hardest. According to the 11th Malaysia Plan, Malaysia continued to be one of the world’s leading tourist destinations, with an increase in the number of tourists from 24.6 million in 2010 to 26.1 million in 2019. Tourism remained an important source of foreign exchange; tourism brought in approximately RM 86 billion in 2019 (Hanafiah et  al., 2021), which is an increase of 27.4% from 2010 (EPU, 2015). In 2011, RM 15.74 million was generated from the homestay program, which is among the most popular rural tourism offerings in Malaysia (Nair et al., 2015, p. 314). Due to the nature of traveling that facilitates the spread of the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) and national governments imposed the closure of borders resulting in a disruption of tourism activities worldwide (Gössling et al., 2021, p. 1). As of today, UNWTO estimates that in 2020 global international tourist arrivals fell by 72% in January–October 2020 over the same period last year, in which Asia and the Pacific saw an 82% decrease (UNWTOb, 2020). Therefore, the impacts of the pandemic on the local tourism industry in Malaysia are also becoming visible. The reduction in travelers directly affects the local tourism industry in indigenous communities (esp. homestay program) which results in loss of income and increased unemployment (UNWTOb, 2020). Facing the current situation, it is not possible to organize cultural events, festivals, and gatherings and handicraft markets to sell products and goods; therefore, indigenous communities’ revenues have been particularly impacted. Where the state governments are very much focused on providing health facilitates and fighting the virus in health-providing premises, many local and indigenous communities are exploring alternative models of tourism, including eTourism. Using digital technologies and advancing innovation for promoting and facilitating access to tourism services is one of the five priorities for tourism restart as suggested by UNESCO and UNWTO. Carr (2020) discussed the importance of digital connectivity for indigenous entrepreneurs to play their role in revisioning post-COVID 19 future. The study also emphasizes on Government support and resourcing which is needed to provide local communities access to Internet so the interactions with indigenous communities can be strengthened. The Canadian govt. created Canadian Experiences Fund (CEF) which offers funds worth CAD one million to ease the stress on indigenous tourism businesses and launched a Federal Tourism Growth Strategy to look at competitiveness,

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sustainability, the sharing economy and digital platforms, and destination development (Sharma et al., 2021). The goal of this chapter is to investigate the impacts, current experiences, and mitigating measures of the tourism sector in the two local indigenous communities of Malaysian Borneo. In the following sections, first, we are presenting the opportunities in eTourism sector, and then we will discuss the research context of the partner communities that are engaged in this study. In the next section, we will discuss research methodology, followed by research findings and future planning. The last part of the chapter comprises the conclusion of the chapter.

2  eTourism and the Opportunities According to an estimate, almost all the countries have closed World Heritage Sites, with vast socioeconomic consequences for communities reliant on tourism. Further, 90% of museums closed and 13% may never reopen (UNESCO, 2020). Within the current scenario, the tourism industry is promoting virtual or eTourism as an option for tourism destinations. eTourism is known as the traveling business in the network or electronic tourism which focus on the attraction, entertainment, and accommodation for the tourists with operating hours online (Skinner, 2020). Basically, it can be a domestic or an international course by defining the theoretical analysis, implementation of the system, design the features, and applications that are related to the business in a tour. eTourism can help the tourists for using technology for supplies and needs of tourism services. The tourism industry in a digital context influences many aspects of the economic world. The various types of technologies are employed in eTourism, and there are three significant subareas that have emerged (Maiya et al., 2020, p. 1): • Operational tools and systems used by tourism, hospitality businesses, or organizations to increase efficiency and competitiveness. • Consumer platforms adopted by tourists to search information, plan their trips, make purchases, and share experiences. • Distribution and commerce tools that offer distribution channels and mediate the transactions between tourists and businesses. According to Anderson (2006), an important paradigm in eTourism is the “long tail” effect, which argues that technology has changed and we consider the impact of digitization on value creation. This suggests that businesses should look not only at popular products but also at those that are typically ignored by our conventional wisdom. Our key literature on the issue of eTourism has been inspired by these general ideas of value creation in the digital age. For example, the concept of tourism, as an experience, provided a conceptual basis for building a new logic and a new language in tourism information systems (Gretzel & Fesenmaier, 2002, p. 59). Web design opportunities in the aspect of human–computer interaction (HCI) and strategies to incorporate multimedia content, personal stories, and virtual

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communities seem to be necessary as part of the aspects of a tourism product need to be widely explored. In the early stages of the pandemic, eTourism has been promoted with an example of “Greece From Home.” This is a Greek National Tourism Organization and Google’s initiative (Justin, 2020). This site provides multiple virtual experiences such as touring archaeological sites and museums, experiencing beautiful natural scenes and even take “walking” tours and visit. The very least, it is a way to keep in touch with the potential customers or visitors until they are willing (and able) to travel again. Another notable example of eTourism is the “Visit Thailand’s historical parks virtually while staying at home” website. The website is putting all the interesting historical parks in Thailand virtually a way to keep in touch with the potential tourists so that the interest will be continued to be there even they cannot travel for the time being. Borneo is an attractive place and famous for unique natural, historical, and cultural positioning. Keeping in view the above-stated examples, therefore in this study, we would explore the potential products and services of eTourism with and for the indigenous communities of Sarawak Malaysia.

3  Research Context For this research, we engaged with the tourism operators in two indigenous communities: Bawang Assan and Long Latei of Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo. For the last one decade, the local communities successfully promoted homestay program and ecotourism in Sarawak. For example, in the year 2013, Sarawak received an income of USD 654,966 through tourism and (USD 167,472.00 in 2009) catered to about 47,140 tourists (Salleh et al., 2014, p. 407). It is no doubt that the homestay program has become the most iconic rural tourism model highlighting Malaysian cultural and traditional way of life. Currently, Sarawak has 35 homestay programs in 32 villages with 419 operators, offering a total of 549 rooms in traditional individual houses or longhouses. Till April 2016, the number of homestays in Sarawak increased to 35 villages (Falak et al., 2016). One of the successful homestay programs is run by the Bawang Assan community in Sibu, Sarawak. In 2014, the Advanced Centre for Sustainable Socio-­ Economic and Technological Development (ASSET) of University College of Technology Sarawak (UCTS) had embarked on a long-term partnership with the Bawang Assan community. Bawang Assan is located along the Rejang river and is home to nine longhouses that house around 3000 dwellers. The community has primary and secondary schools, an Internet center, a community Methodist church, and a health clinic. ASSET team supported the Bawang Assan community by initiating the first Malaysian rural Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) project for providing Internet access to the longhouses (Nancy et  al., 2021). The project is a multi-stakeholder smart partnership between UCTS, Datasonic Technologies Sdn

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Fig. 1  The smart partnerships model

Fig. 2  Ariel view of Bawang Assan and Design of BPL Infrastructure Project

Bhd, Sarawak Energy Berhad, Sacofa Sdn Bhd and Cornell University USA (Fig. 1). Broadband over power lines is a technology that transforms the standard electric power grid into a communication route to carry broadband telecommunications along its entire length and to every utility device on the grid (Hashiesh & Soukal, 2009) (Fig. 2). With access to Internet service, the community uses digital services to promote tourism products, engaged in capacity building on digital literacy and hosting students of Service-Learning program from local and international universities (Fig. 3). The second site is Long Latei, a Penan village located in the Baram region of Sarawak. In 2019, the first author and his collaborator engaged with Long Latei and the surrounding five villages in investigating the instrumental value of the Penan

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Fig. 3  Service-Learning Students of UCTS in Bawang Assan visiting BPL Infrastructure Project

traditional knowledge system on climate change adaptation (Van Gevelt et  al., 2019). Long Latei is home to five longhouses, 200 households, and 1000 individuals and only accessible on a 6 h 4WD via a logging road from the nearest town Miri. The Penan of Long Latei shifted to seminomadic and permanent lifestyles between the 1950s and 1970s (Fig. 4). The village has a library, primary school, a church building, and home of many youth population. The youth of Long Latei are engaged with the Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Malaysian oil corporation) on Sarawak-Sabah Gas pipeline which crosses Long Latei and the other surrounding Penan villages. The main livelihood activities are agriculture and hunting-gathering. Some women of the village also make handicrafts from rattan which they sell in Long Bedian (a nearby small town). The village has very limited economic opportunities. Therefore, tourism is a source of cash income and ultimately fulfil needs of the settled life such as supporting children education in towns (Falak et al., 2016). The rich cultural heritage of the Penan people and the beauty of the surrounding flora and fauna make Long Latei (and other Penan villages) an attractive place in the era of increasing interest in ecotourism and cultural tourism (Zaman et al., 2016; Zaman & Kulathuramaiyer, 2015). It makes cultural and ecotourism the crux and essential components of the tourism industry development in this area. Long Latei has an access to CONNECTme NOW, a

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Fig. 4  A view of Long Latei village and the longhouses Fig. 5  VSAT of CONNECTme NOW at Samling Layun Camp in Long Latei

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prepaid satellite broadband WiFi Hotspot service (Fig. 5). CONNECTme provides Internet access at 30 Mbps by employing a Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT). It is a prepaid service and can be accessed at community Wifi hotspots with no contract or fixed monthly charges. During the Covid-19 pandemic, both of the sites that operate tourism as an income generation for the communities were badly affected. The community organizations are not trained and equipped to go fully online to maintain their source of income and there are many challenges faced by them. The Covid-19 pandemic had pushed the community to adopt the Internet technology extremely fast and led them to build strong perceptions about eTourism.

4  Methodology We use a case-study approach to understand the indigenous community’s perceptions of eTourism, the needs, potential challenges, and opportunities during the Covid-19 pandemic. The case study is a common inquiry method in the field of tourism and hospitality (Marine-Roig, 2021). We focus on Bawang Assan and Long Latei communities, and three major tourism associations of the community homestay, tour guide, and handicraft makers. Our data collection and analysis are informed by the sociotechnical systems approach, which suggests that eTourism projects need to overcome a range of technical, economic, and institutional challenges to be successful. To develop our case studies, we draw on a novel combination of primary and secondary data. These include site visits, analysis of media reports, press releases and planning documents, and interviews with local community members and tourists. Interviews were conducted, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Data analysis started full data transcription, followed by data familiarization, codes identification, searching, reviewing, and defining themes, and generation of results. Coding was performed manually, through repeated reading of and making notes on interview transcripts. The investigation involved participants, who are the local residents of the longhouses in any of the two sites, have had the experience and knowledge of tourism development in the region and have been affected due to Covid-19. Using the snowball sampling approach (Weiss, 1995), a total of 10 respondents (5 from each site) are selected and interviewed. Whereas, there are no distinctive rule for sample size (Baum, 2016; Patton, 2014), the research usually relies on small numbers with the aim of studying in depth and detail. Of the 10 respondents, 6 were male and 4 female. The majority (6 respondents) are over 50 years old, and none of the respondents are less than 25 years old. The majority (6 respondents) are homestay runners, 2 of them are handicraft makers, and the remaining 2 are tour guides.

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5  Finding The homestay associations and tourism industry in rural Malaysia are heavily dependent on travel tourism, and when a health crisis of this magnitude occurs, people stop traveling, both because of many countries’ bans on the entry and exit of travelers and because of travelers’ fear of catching a disease that currently has no vaccine. In the last 5 years, Bawang Assan received approximately 2000 visitors, of which 40% are international travelers. The results of the pandemic are very visible at the local level where the communities like Bawang Assan are struggling to cope­up with the new situation. According to a participant of the study, who is a homestay runner in Bawang Assan and holds a position in Bawang Assan’s homestay association, “We have almost zero income at the early stages for the last two months, and probably the crisis will continue for the next six months. The uncertain situation makes it hard for most of our visitors to plan for the near future. And thus, how we are going to sustain is a true challenge right now.” Another, participant added, “Previously, business through Internet was a choice and today it is a need of all of us if we want to be in the business. Otherwise, we need to find an alternate source of income.” A young tour guide from Long Latei mentioned that “I was always thinking positively about Internet and ICTs. I was thinking, we can adapt technology easily to transform our businesses but during the pandemic, I realized it is not that easy in rural areas and we really need support and partnerships; partnership with government ministries, NGOs and maybe universities who can teach us how to use ICTs and do businesses from home.” On enquiring about the products that the community can sell online, the participants from Bawang Assan mentioned Tuak (rice wine), Ragi (fermented rice for making Tuak), and handicrafts (Fig. 6). The current pool of customers of Bawang Assan and local from Sibu or the nearest town Kapit and so the community members are using WhatsApp to collect the orders and deliver the items personally. The community of Long Latei mainly mentioned

Fig. 6  Tuak, ragi, and handicraft of Bawang Assan for online sale

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Fig. 7  Handicraft of Long Latei for online sale

handicrafts made of rattan (Fig. 7) that they are selling to the middlemen in Miri while performing the whole deal via WhatsApp and phone calls. In discussions about the potential opportunities and structure of eTourism, few participants elaborated and showed interest in further exploration of the following three product categories: eShopping: The handicraft makers suggested developing an inventory of local cultural products which can be virtually promoted, marketed, and transported locally and internationally. One of the community elders and an influential decision said that “if we can establish an online shop of local products now, it will not just benefit us economically but also socially by promoting our cultural identity. Although, this does not look easy as we will be very much dependent on outsiders and their skills. Previously, tourists come to us and now we will look for them.” ePerformance: The indigenous communities of Sarawak have unique cultural expressions which attract hundreds of thousands of visitors to Sarawak every year. Traditional agricultural practices, the event of Gawai Dayak, cultural dances, and the art of Sape music are some of them. According to a handicraft maker and a grandmother, “I celebrate important occasions with my grandchildren but this year we didn’t celebrate events such as Christmas. My grandchildren are living in Kuala Lumpur so they were not able to visit us and we just celebrated and prayed together on the mobile phone. I am just thinking if the same we can do on Gawai.” eVisit of longhouse: The longhouse (Rumah Panjai) is an iconic component of Iban cultural life. International visitors visit the longhouse, and their interests include the building structure of the longhouse, the family notice boards (depicts the life achievements of the longhouse families), and also traditional skull cages. One of the members of the homestay association usually shares photos of the longhouse, cultural practices, and dances with the tourists who are still in contact with him. Therefore, participants of the study are positive and optimistic to explore the appropriate technology to enhance the “virtual” experience for online visitors. In addition to optimism, there are also worries and concerns about the future. One of the homestay owners from Long Latei mentioned that “Before the virus [Covid-19], we always got tourists roaming around the village. We had

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opportunities to sell our products but now we only have a small number of local community members around. They have limited resources, so we have almost no buyer from the last one year. I can already see that our village is shrinking not just in terms of economy but also population. People are moving to other villages where they can find abandoned land to plant rice and vegetables. Everyone is worried about the future.” This worry also shared by the homestay owners from Bawang Assan and mentioned that “If we couldn’t find an alternate way of doing tourism business, we need to think of closing the homestay and consider finding a job or some contract work to do somewhere outside the longhouse [village], if this pandemic continues, in order to support our family to provide food on the table for them.”

6  Future Planning and Discussion In addition to the empirical data, the study targets developing a framework for eTourism to understand the measures that can enhance collaboration and develop strategic partnership (between academicians, local tourism industry, and community) to support community resilience and socioeconomic condition of the local community and tourism industry in the pandemic situation. The framework will help to devise future research and development collaborative projects between the partner institutions. A detailed study is planned to be conducted once the pandemic is over. Without further application and exploration with extended number of case studies, the results of the study are not targeting any policy implications. The framework (Fig.  8) depicts eTourism components and interrelationships between the stakeholders. The study’s main goal was to understand the situation, current challenges, and the measures that can enhance collaboration and develop strategic partnerships (between academicians, homestay associations, and local cultural groups) to support local communities during this uncertain situation. The underpinning theoretical orientation of the framework is based on the concepts of social and cultural resilience, environmental resilience, digital resilience, and economical resilience (Girard & Baycan, 2012, p. 55; Swartz et al., 2010). The components of the framework are grouped into two: social components that include social capital and good governance, and technological components that include sustainable technologies and digital services. In future studies, we will explore the feasibility of three main eTourism services (eShopping, ePerformance, eVisit of Longhouse). For inquiry and analysis of the eTorusim structure, we propose Socio-Technical System (STS) framework (Hughes, 1989; Carayannis et  al., 2018, p.  147). Contemporary eTourism systems are often highly complex, large-scale, open sociotechnical systems, with strongly interwoven technical systems and social players within a dynamic environmental context that influences both social and technical spheres. Based on the STS approach, the future study can explore the relationship between the social components and technological components. The STS approach fits best in this case as it suggested that the success of eTourism is contingent on

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Fig. 8  eTourism and Cultural Resilience Project Framework

overcoming a set of local and context-specific technical, economic, and institutional barriers (Carayannis et al., 2018, p. 147).

7  Conclusion eTourism requires considerable investments in infrastructure, which is a barrier for many rural and indigenous communities. However, the smart and multi-stakeholder partnerships between local communities, governmental organizations, telecommunication service providers, and academia could provide viable solutions. The Covid-19 pandemic had created a major shift in the economy, especially for the indigenous communities when they had been disconnected from the world. These communities were facing challenges of inconsistent and unreliable Internet and

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telecommunication connectivity, even before the current pandemic. Digital poverty in the rural communities especially in Sarawak is still high (Vong et al., 2017, p. 61) and even by now, the Sarawak state government had been making efforts to build the digital infrastructure with the aim of 100% Internet and telecommunication connectivity by 2030. However, the indigenous communities in rural Sarawak will still need to take time and learn the new technology before they can fully utilize it for eTourism purposes. In addition, accessibility, capacity building, ecommerce platforms, and establishing a supply chain and providing access to the market will be the other challenges that the multi-stakeholder smart partnership needs to take into account while developing eTourism services for the indigenous communities. The chapter elaborated the existing concerns and limited practices of indigenous tourism in the two indigenous communities of Sarawak, and one of the limitations of this chapter is its scope and challenges of research methodology which requires frequent travels to the research sites. Within the current pandemic situation, the authors were able to explore very limited perspectives within our research context. Therefore, future empirical research confirming the propositions made by this chapter would be of high importance. Acknowledgement  We are especially thankful to our interviewees and the community of Bawang Assan and Long Latei for their valuable time and effort. This work was supported by the Service-­ Learning internal grant of University College of Technology Sarawak.

References Anderson, B. (2006). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. Verso. Baum, F. (2016). The new public health (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. Carayannis, G., Ferreira, A., Bento, P., et al. (2018). Developing a socio-technical evaluation index for tourist destination competitiveness using cognitive mapping and MCDA. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 131, 147–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2018.01.015 Carr, A. (2020). COVID-19, indigenous peoples and tourism: A view from New Zealand. Tourism Geographies, 22(3), 491–502. Economic Planning Unit (EPU). (2015). Eleventh Malaysia plan, 2016–2020. ETP. https://www. epu.gov.my/en/economic-­developments/development-­plans/rmk/previous-­plans Falak, S., Chiun, L. M., & Wee, A. Y. (2016). Sustainable rural tourism: An indigenous community perspective on positioning rural tourism. Turizam: međunarodni znanstveno-stručni časopis, 64(3), 311–327. Gössling, S., Scott, D., & Hall, C. (2021). Pandemics, tourism and global change: A rapid assessment of COVID-19. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 29, 11–20. https://doi.org/10.108 0/09669582.2020.1758708 Girard, F., & Baycan, T. (2012). Sustainable city and creativity: Promoting creative urban initiatives (1st ed., pp. 55–96). Routledge. Gretzel, U., & Fesenmaier, D. (2002). Building narrative logic into tourism information systems. IEEE Intelligent Systems, 17(6), 59–61. Hanafiah, M.H., Balasingam, A.S., Nair, V., Jamaluddin, M. R., & Zahari, M.S.M. (2021). Implications of COVID-19 on tourism businesses in Malaysia: Evidence from a preliminary industry survey. Asia-Pacific Journal of Innovation in Hospitality and Tourism, 10(1), 81–94.

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Digital Transformation of Health Systems During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges and Opportunities for Telehealth Mina Ostovari

Abstract  The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted many industries, including healthcare. Health systems rapidly modified their care delivery models and implemented telehealth to protect their patients and staff. The expansion of telehealth helped clinical experts from all over the world connect, share knowledge, and work collaboratively to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The progress made toward telehealth since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic presents a unique opportunity for health systems to transform their care delivery. However, health systems need to consider factors such as the experience and satisfaction of patients and providers with telehealth, technological requirements, and regulations before making decisions about the future of telehealth in their organizations. This chapter explores the digital transformation of the healthcare industry during the COVID-19 pandemic focusing on the role of telehealth. The chapter also provides a framework to support health systems’ decision-making regarding the future of telehealth. Keywords  Telehealth · Telemedicine · e-Health · COVID-19 · Information and communication technologies

1  Introduction Using technology to improve care delivery has a long history (Darkins et al., 2000). In the 1800s, the invention of the telegraph and the telephone allowed healthcare providers to communicate and monitor their patients remotely (Baumann & Scales, 2016). The advancements of information and communication technologies (ICT) M. Ostovari (*) iREACH, ChristianaCare Health Services Inc., Wilmington, DE, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 S. Saeed et al. (eds.), Pandemic, Lockdown, and Digital Transformation, Public Administration and Information Technology 7, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86274-9_5

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has led to many innovations in healthcare, including decision support systems, electronic health records (EHR), and telemedicine. Telemedicine is defined as delivering health services to patients remotely, for example, via phone/video or patient portals. Telehealth is a more recent terminology and refers to a broader scope of remote health services, including medical/nonmedical communications, administrative tasks, and the training of the medical staff (Bashshur et al., 2011).1 Despite the long history of using technology in the healthcare industry, the implementation of telehealth in health systems has been relatively slow (Harvey et al., 2019) and hindered by barriers such as lack of regulatory frameworks to reimburse healthcare providers (Rogove et al., 2012). Implementing telehealth, particularly in developing countries, is impacted by their economy and political goals and would require a collective effort at the national level, a political will, and coordination between different stakeholders (Scott & Mars, 2015). The common barriers of implementing telehealth include the difficulty in getting reimbursed for services (Weinstein et al., 2014), technology infrastructure (Lustig, 2012), privacy and security concerns, costs, and liability issues (de Grood et  al., 2016). Patients from underserved populations, such as minorities and those living in rural areas, may face challenges,  including limited access to broadband internet connections or smart devices. In addition, telemedicine platforms could be challenging to use and not properly designed for patients with disabilities or the elderly (Zhai, 2020). During the COVID-19 pandemic, health systems rapidly changed their care delivery models and initiated/expanded telehealth to protect their patients and staff. The pandemic worked as a catalyst to lift some barriers against the expansion of telehealth. For example, in France, regulations rapidly changed to allow the reimbursement of teleconsultation visits by the National Health Insurance (NHI) for all patients with COVID-19 symptoms or confirmed cases (Ohannessian et al., 2020). In Australia, telemedicine services were expanded and became more accessible (Australian Government Department of Health, 2020). Federal and state governments and agencies across the U.S., such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), removed barriers and waived requirements to encourage the usage of telemedicine. CMS provided higher reimbursement for Medicare patients who used telemedicine and allowed healthcare providers to bill for a wide range of services as well (Hoffman, 2020). Despite the progress made toward telehealth during the pandemic, it is unclear whether health systems will continue to use telehealth on the same scale  in the future. The rapid implementation of telehealth during the  pandemic showed that health systems in many countries have the capacity to provide these services when needs and demands exist; however, there are still many barriers to overcome. Patients still face challenges, such as no/limited access to broadband internet/smart devices or limited technological literacy. In addition, regulations regarding telemedicine may not continue to be as flexible after the pandemic.

 In this chapter, telemedicine & telehealth are both used depending on the context.

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This chapter shines a light on the transformation and digitalization of the healthcare industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of the chapter is not to systematically describe all articles about telehealth, as there is a vast body of systematic literature reviews about this topic (Jennett et al., 2003; Bensink et al., 2006; Polisena et al., 2010; Kruse et al., 2017; Scott Kruse et al., 2018; Orlando et al., 2019; Unholz-Bowden et al., 2020). Instead, the goal is to identify factors that could impact the future of telehealth in health systems. The chapter narratively summarizes the key concepts, such as barriers and drivers of implementing telehealth in healthcare organizations. The chapter concludes with a framework to guide the decision-making process of health systems about the future of telehealth.

2  The Evolution of Telehealth The invention of the telegraph in the 1800s enabled long-distance medical consultations and the remote ordering of medical supplies (Institute of Medicine (U.S.) Committee on Evaluating Clinical Applications of Telemedicine, 1996). In 1879, an article in Lancet—one of the oldest and most well-known medical journals—suggested that physicians could use phone conversations with their patients to reduce unnecessary office visits (Nesbitt, 2012). By 1900, many physicians were actively using the telephone for medical communications (Zundel, 1996). Radio was another effective channel for delivering medical advice to long distances, such as medical clinics on ships (Nesbitt, 2012). The usage of medical video communications started in 1959 when clinicians at the University of Nebraska sent neurological examinations and other information using two-way interactive television to medical students across the campus (Wittson & Benschoter, 1972). By the 1980s, as digital telecommunication became more available and accessible, telemedicine was adopted by many health  systems (Zanaboni & Wootton, 2012). In the late 1960s, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) started several projects to expand telemedicine to rural areas across the U.S (LeRouge & Garfield, 2013). Providing remote care was essential for NASA, as astronauts should be monitored during the flights and may need medical treatments. NASA had a major role in expanding telehealth to rural areas such as Alaska, Arizona, and New Hampshire (Kichloo et al., 2020). Figure 1 summarizes the progress of telemedicine since the 1800s.

Fig. 1  The Development of Telehealth since the 1800s

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Since the 1990s, providing medical care using digital technologies has been promoted as a solution to improve access to care and equity in healthcare. To provide a guide for the assessment of telecommunication in healthcare, the National Library of Medicine asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to develop a framework for evaluating the quality of telemedicine services. In this framework, the IOM defined telemedicine as “the use of electronic information and communications technologies to provide and support health care when distance separates the participants” (IOM (Institute of Medicine), 1996). As telemedicine continues to grow, other terminologies such as telehealth, mHealth, and e-health have been introduced to capture all aspects of healthcare supported by technology, such as health education and administration (Fatehi & Wootton, 2012). Some of these terms, particularly telehealth and telemedicine, are used interchangeably. Telemedicine is an older terminology and refers to providing clinical services to patients remotely. Telehealth is a more recent terminology and covers clinical and nonclinical services, such as educational or administrative communications (Bashshur et al., 2011). E-health (electronic health) describes health services supported by the ICT, such as computers, satellite communications, and mobile phones. The term, e-health, was first introduced by industry leaders to describe the new possibilities that the internet could bring to the healthcare domain (Eysenbach, 2001). MHealth is a more recent terminology and a component of e-health. The Global Observatory for eHealth (GOe) defines mHealth as “medical and public health practice supported by mobile devices, such as mobile phones, patient monitoring devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and other wireless devices” (World Health Organization, 2011). Mobile phones collect different types of real-time data, such as biological, behavioral, and environmental data, and help us understand the etiology of various diseases. MHealth is particularly helpful for managing chronic conditions that are the leading cause of death and disability in the world (Nilsen et al., 2012). Telehealth can improve access to high-quality and affordable care by making services available to people with limited mobility or limited access to transportation (Roh, 2008). Medical care teams can improve their coordination and enhance their communications with patients using telehealth. Moreover, telehealth empowers patients to support their medical journey and self-manage their conditions (Mayo Clinic, 2020a). Telehealth can be delivered through three different modalities: (1) synchronous: real-time interactions with patients via audio using landline/cellphones or video calls using smartphones/tablet/computers, (2) asynchronous: “store and forward” technology, for example, patient portals where messages can be stored, and (3) remote patient monitoring: transmission of the patient clinical measurements to their healthcare provider from a distance (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). The initial purpose of telemedicine was to improve access to care; however, current trends also emphasize convenient care and the expansion of services from acute care to chronic conditions management (Dorsey & Topol, 2016). Ultimately, expanding telemedicine services and integrating them into care delivery models depend on health systems and their policies. A combination of internal and external factors may impact health systems’ decision to implement telehealth services. These factors include the organizational

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mission, affiliations with other institutes, the geographical location of the hospital, the competitors, and so on (Adler-Milstein et al., 2014). Implementing telemedicine services is more challenging in rural areas. Medical centers in these locations do not have operational telemedicine services. Moreover, there is a lack of standardized telehealth education for healthcare providers (Nelson, 2017). In addition, policies and incentives may also impact the implementation of telehealth. For example, in the U.S., telehealth has benefited from the Health Reform Act’s emphasis on Health Information Technology. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 included Health IT and telemedicine and provided government subsidies to modernize Health IT systems (LeRouge & Garfield, 2013). In Europe, telemedicine is considered a health service and is included in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). The European Union has started initiatives, such as the eHealth Action Plan in 2004, to support the adoption of technology in healthcare (Raposo, 2016). The implementation of telemedicine faces more challenges in developing countries. Common barriers are the high cost of initiating services, maintenance costs, shortage of technical support, cultural barriers, medical experts resistance to adapt to the new care delivery models, limited access to the internet (Hassibian & Hassibian, 2016), and inadequate standards and regulatory frameworks (Combi et al., 2016). While there is no denial of these barriers, a collective effort and shifting of the existing resources can help develop telehealth in these countries. Health inequity and morbidity are problematic in low/middle-income countries, and telemedicine—if implemented—could help address such issues (Sayani et al., 2019). In addition, telehealth can expand access to medical education and connect medical professionals in developing countries with their peers and experts from around the world (Edworthy, 2001). In recent years, the advancements of new technologies, such as smart devices and improving access to the internet, have contributed to the expansion of telehealth. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic was a turning point for telehealth. Health systems had to rapidly modify their healthcare delivery models and provide most services remotely to protect their healthcare providers and patients and minimize the disease transmission. In the following sections, we discuss the implementation of telehealth in health systems during the COVID-19 pandemic, challenges and opportunities, how the healthcare industry is transformed through telehealth, and the future of telehealth.

3  T  ransformation of Healthcare Delivery During the COVID-19 Pandemic On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of the coronavirus as a public health emergency of international concern (WHO Timeline—COVID-19, 2020). On March 11, the outbreak was declared as a pandemic by WHO.  By March 31, more than 720,000 cases were reported in 203

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countries (Ohannessian et  al., 2020). The severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes the clinical syndrome Covid-19. COVID-19 is highly infectious and can be transmitted from person to person in close contacts and through droplets (van Doremalen et al., 2020). The number of COVID-19 cases confirmed by WHO was 175,847,347 as of June 15, 2021, including 3,807,276 deaths (WHO Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Dashboard, 2021). Patients infected by COVID-19 experience a range of symptoms, including fever/chills, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, headache, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, nausea, and vomiting (CDC, 2020c). Symptoms may vary from patient to patient; some patients experiencing no symptoms (asymptomatic), some may have milder symptoms, and others could end up with symptoms such as shortness of breath and pneumonia. Certain medical conditions such as diabetes, cancer, chronic kidney disease, sickle cell disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may increase the risk of severe symptoms (Mayo Clinic, 2020b). In addition, the risk of severe illness increases with age. Eight in 10 COVID-related deaths in the U.S. have been adults 65 years or older (CDC, 2020b). Compared to adults, fewer children ( 0.8, the pragmatic quality aspects (perspicuity, efficiency, and dependability) scales were good with score of 1.55  >  0.8, and hedonic quality aspects (Novelty and Stimulation) scales were good with score of 1.21 > 8. While the comparison of the evaluated product (Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) mobile application) results with the benchmark data, it classifies the evaluated product relative quality to the other products as “above average” for attractiveness, perspicuity, and novelty and “good” for efficiency, dependability, and stimulation. Even though the results showed a good user experience in total, we can see that hedonic quality aspects (novelty and stimulation) scales were the areas where the user experience had its lowest scores. We recommend the Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) mobile application developers to improve the interface look, as most of the negative replies were related to the design being usual.

S. S. AlGothami (*) Department of Computer Science, College of Computer Science and Information Technology, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia e-mail: [email protected] S. Saeed Saudi Aramco Cybersecurity Chair, Department of Computer Information Systems, College of Computer Science and Information Technology, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 S. Saeed et al. (eds.), Pandemic, Lockdown, and Digital Transformation, Public Administration and Information Technology 7, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86274-9_6

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Keywords  Digital transformation · Usability · Saudi Arabia · Design implications · User studies

1  Introduction During the end of 2019, coronavirus emerged in the city of Wuhan, China, which spread all over the world, and it was declared as pandemic on 11 March 2020 by World Health Organization (2020). The first confirmed case in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was reported on 2 March 2020 (Ministry of Health, 2020). In order to control the virus spread, government of Saudi Arabia imposed lockdown and curfew. Government authorities encouraged individuals to use Tawakkalna application, which was approved by the Saudi Ministry of Health (Ministry of Health Portal Team, 2020). The second largest Arab country is Saudi Arabia with over 35 million population mid 2020 (General Authority for Statistics, 2020). Millions of Muslims from all over the globe visit the city of Makkah in Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah and Hajj. Umrah is an Islamic ritual that is performed daily by thousands of Muslims, while Hajj is held annually. The huge gathering of pilgrims can form a spread point of the pandemic. Saudi Arabia is also a party in the WHO international health regulations (IHR). The Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) mobile application is the official application to limit the spread of Covid-19 in Saudi Arabia. It provides an instant and live track meter of the number of Covid-19 infections in the kingdom and early detection of possible infections, allows requests of movement permits for citizens and residents during curfew in cases of necessity and the follow-up on the status of their permit request, also, notifies the user when he/she is close to infectious areas, and reports any Covid-19 suspected case with the help of GPS to track the users’ movements. Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) application was created by the National Information Center and is available on both Android and iOS platforms (Ministry of Health Portal Team, 2020). Lately, it has been made mandatory to enter in any office or shopping center by the public. To enable the application users to achieve their goals effectively, we must evaluate the system and its services usability (9241-20 I, 2018). Effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction are the main dimensions of usability determined by users’ experience. Effectiveness is measured by task completion and accuracy with which users would accomplish a specific goal. Efficiency is measured by resources such as time, costs, and human effort used to accomplish specific results. Satisfaction is measured by the users’ emotional, physical, and cognitive responses that result from the product usage to meet the users’ expectations and needs (Quesenbery & Design, 2003). However, satisfaction became more important today that it might be the most important measure of usability as some would say. That is because, meeting the users’ expectations for satisfaction determines if the user will refrain or reject using the product (Barnum, 2020).

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The ISO 9241-11 standard at clause (3.1.1) defines usability as “the extent to which a system, product or service can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use” (9241-20 I, 2018). Usability testing has two main types based on the time at which it is conducted and the study goal: formative testing and summative testing. Formative testing takes place in the development process of the product with the goal of diagnosing and fixing problems. While summative testing takes place when the product is finished or nearly finished, with the goal of validating the product meets the requirements. The ISO 9241-11 standard at clause (3.2.3) defines user experience (UX) as “user’s perceptions and responses that result from the use and/or anticipated use of a system, product or service” (9241-20 I, 2018). User experience includes usability testing and many other research tools. It describes the usability testing task, the usable product goal, and research to discover or validate users’ engagement with the product (Barnum, 2020). Deployment phase tools assess the product effectiveness in the users’ real environment or gather the requirements for the next version release or even for the development of a new product. These tools include field testing, website analytics, search query analysis, customer service, chat logs, social media monitoring, surveys, and benchmarking usability testing (Barnum, 2020). The Covid-19 pandemic outbreak particularly in Saudi Arabia enforced the developers’ society to make sure that the used applications during this crisis work as intended while user convenience was maintained to help prevent the spread of Covid-19 disease. As the Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) mobile application was developed specifically to manage and monitor the recent pandemic, meeting the users’ expectations for satisfaction determines if the user will refrain or reject using the product (Barnum, 2020). And if the application is not user friendly, it could create unpleasant consequences related to pandemic management. There is no published study to date about the user experience while using the Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) mobile application. This study evaluates the user’s satisfaction in a nonexperimental way by conducting a questionnaire across Saudi Arabia. The research question(s) of this study are: • How was the user experience while using the Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) mobile application? • How much were the users of the Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) mobile application satisfied? The rest of the chapter is structured as follows: in Sect. 1.1, problem statement will be discussed. In Sect. 2, related work will be discussed. Section 3 will state the methodology used in this study. Section 4 will state and discuss the data analysis and findings of the study. And lastly in Sect. 5, the conclusion.

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1.1  Problem Statement Usability was less important when the products of the personal computer first appeared and users had to put up with these products difficulties to get the benefits that cannot be found in others, but with the evolution of devices and software, the users can finally have the freedom to choose the devices and software that are most compatible to his/her needs (Dumas & Redish, 1999). Furthermore, when intuitive system addresses wide audiences to operate without direct support and training, the usability becomes very critical to increase its usage (Gafni, 2009). Satisfaction becomes more important today that it might be the most important measure of usability as some would say. That is because, meeting the users’ expectations for satisfaction determines if the user will refrain or reject using the product (Barnum, 2020). Covid-19 pandemic enforced the developers to make sure that all the applications that concern the pandemic are user friendly, to make the connection with the related sectors (health and government) much easier. And if the application is not user friendly, it could create unpleasant consequences related to pandemic management. Questionnaire (survey) is a commonly used tool in the user-driven assessment of usability and quality of software. It measures the user experience quickly in an immediate and simple way while covering the user experience overall impression of the product (Laugwitz et al., 2008). This study evaluates if users were satisfied during the usage of the Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) mobile application which is the official application in Saudi Arabia to manage the Covid-19 pandemic, in a nonexperimental way by conducting a questionnaire across Saudi Arabia.

2  Literature Review This study draws on the previous work at the intersection of usability research, user experience (UX), and user experience research methods and tools. User experience includes usability testing and many other research tools. It describes the usability testing task, the usable product goal, and research to discover or validate users’ engagement with the product (Barnum, 2020).

2.1  Usability Research Zhang and Adipat (2005) see that there are various guidelines for testing the usability of desktop applications and approaches that are commonly used, due to the wireless networks and mobile devices mobility feature and other unique features, and these approaches are not always applicable on mobile applications. Ideally, to cover all mobile environment possible situations, usability testing should be carefully

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designed for mobile applications (Zhang & Adipat, 2005). Considering that, Coursaris and Kim (2006) had conducted a qualitative review study of 45 empirical usability studies, published from the year 2000 till 2006, to provide the future mobile usability research a roadmap to follow. They stated that the usability measurement’s core constructs are: effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. These three dimensions also reflect ISO 9241-11 standard (Coursaris & Kim, 2006). These three dimensions were approved, as Hussain et al. (2020) conducted a lab experiment with 14 participants (11 male, 3 female) to examine the mood tracker application (Daylio app), effectiveness, efficiency, and reliability-in-use. The study was held in a lab and the participants were given a set of four tasks to carry out and encouraged to think aloud. The outcome of this study reveals that the Daylio application was effective, efficient, and reliable-in-use. However, to further improve the quality of the Daylio app, some issues needed to be fixed (Hussain et al., 2020). Similarly, Schrager et al. (2020) conducted a cross-sectional usability study over 24 h to determine whether the 877 participants were able to understand and recall the recommendations given by a Covid-19 web-based, self-triage tool. The study was among the faculty, staff, and students of the two involved universities, and they were recruited via email for voluntary participation. The participants received the instructions and the link to the Covid-19 self-triage website through email. A prescripted patient description was assigned to each participant randomly. The participants were directed to feedback form, once they had inputted the scripted information into the website and received a recommendation. This form consists of questions about their ability to understand the recommendation and their experience of the usage of the website (Schrager et al., 2020). This study (Schrager et al., 2020) falls under the online usability testing (remote) approach as it uses the Internet to gather both participants and their user experience data and to enhance the results from usability testing and expert evaluations it used questionnaires. Similarly, there have been many usability studies carried out on websites belonging to different domains such as e-government (Saeed et al., 2013b), educational institutions (Saeed & Amjad, 2013), security agencies (Saeed et  al. 2013a), and nonprofit organizations (Saeed & Shabbir, 2014; Saeed, 2019).

2.2  User Experience (UX) Satisfaction became more important today that it might be the most important measure of usability as some would say. That is because meeting the users’ expectations for satisfaction determines if the user will refrain or reject using the product. User experience includes usability testing and many other research tools. It describes the usability testing task, the usable product goal, and research to discover or validate users’ engagement with the product (Barnum, 2020). In the same context, Laugwitz et al. (2008) used an empirical approach to develop a questionnaire “user experience questionnaire UEQ” that measures the user experience quickly in an immediate and simple way while covering the user experience overall impression of the product.

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The constructed questionnaire contains 26 items including six factors: attractiveness, efficiency, perspicuity, stimulation, dependability, and novelty. Studies that were conducted for both language versions (English and German) indicated a satisfactory level of construct validity and reliability (Laugwitz et al., 2008). Lee et al. (2012) agreed with the use of questionnaires to measure user experience, as they developed CityViewAR, an augmented reality (AR) touring mobile application, and did a user study to know if AR enhanced user experience. They recruited 42 participants (27 male, 15 female) dividing them into two groups (one group with AR-enabled, the other AR-disabled), and the study ended with a questionnaire that includes game experience questionnaire GEQ and general usability questions. The result of general usability questions showed that there were no significant differences between the two groups (Lee et al., 2012). Similarly, but for another type of application, Engl and Nacke (2013) examined the user experience of mobile games and the contextual influences on play experience for two different mobile games. They used the German version of the game experience questionnaire GEQ along with ad hoc interviews and even conducted an experiment. They were able to recruit 110 participants for the GEQ to understand two contextual categories: mobile and home. The results showed that in both games, the mobile context had a significantly higher influence than the home context on the user experience (Engl & Nacke, 2013). Furthermore, Schrepp (2015) as coauthor of the (Laugwitz et al., 2008) study has published a “User experience questionnaire handbook” to illustrate how to apply the user experience questionnaire (UEQ) in other projects. By 2019, the UEQ is available in more than 30 languages and Arabic is one of them (Schrepp, 2015). Similarly, Santoso et al. (2016) developed an adapted Indonesian version of user experience questionnaire (UEQ) and evaluated and measured the user experience of a learning management system (SCELE). There were 213 computer science students who participated in this study, and the result showed that in aspects of pragmatic quality (efficiency, perspicuity, dependability), it was good, but for hedonic quality (stimulation and originality), it was neutral (Santoso et al., 2016). Fajar and Pandu (2019) agrees with the implementation of user experience questionnaire (UEQ) to find the employees’ user experience of the usage of the Edmodo e-Learning website. The researcher conducted the UEQ on 10 participants and resulted in some of the participants facing some problems using Edmodo such as the Internet access and support infrastructure for those who work from outside Jakarta other than that the website was good in total (Fajar & Pandu, 2019). Similar to Santoso et al. (2016) and Fajar and Pandu (2019) studies, the goal of this study is to evaluate and measure the user experience while using the Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) application by the employment of UEQ among 87 participants. Furthermore, Duh et al. (2006) said that heuristic evaluations, usability testing, comparison against guidelines, and cognitive walkthroughs represent the different methods for usability evaluation. While, researcher’s objectives, and the strengths and weaknesses of the evaluation method, decide which evaluation method is most suitable to use (Duh et al., 2006). The studies in Sects. 2.1 and 2.2 are analyzed and compared as shown at Table 1.

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Table 1  Comparison between Hussain et  al. (2020), Schrager et  al. (2020), Lee et  al. (2012), Santoso et al. (2016), Engl and Nacke (2013), Fajar and Pandu (2019) studies Study Hussain et al. (2020) Schrager et al. (2020) Lee et al. (2012) Santoso et al. (2016) Engl and Nacke (2013) Fajar and Pandu (2019)

Type of application Mobile application Website

Mobile application Website Mobile application Website

Type of study Usability testing

Method of research Lab usability experiment

No. of participant 14 participants

Usability testing and user experience (UX) User experience (UX) User experience (UX) Usability testing and user experience (UX) User experience (UX)

Remote usability testing and questionnaire

877 participants

Game experience questionnaire (GEQ) User experience questionnaire (UEQ) Usability testing, game experience questionnaire (GEQ) and ad hoc interviews User experience questionnaire (UEQ)

42 participants 213 participants 110 participants in GEQ 10 participants

Questionnaires are cheap tools but it provides high efficiency for quantitative measure of products’ user experience (UX). However, to decide whether the result shows if a product satisfies a specific quality or not is not an easy task. Benchmark can help by comparing the result of the evaluated product to a large set that contains 452 studies concerning different products (Schrepp et al., 2017). However, there is no published study to date about the user experience while using the Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) mobile application, which gave the researchers the motivation to conduct an empirical, cross-sectional, nonexperimental study to evaluate the user experience in light of the ongoing pandemic.

3  Methodology This study is an empirical, cross-sectional study, to evaluate and measure the user experience while using the Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) application in a nonexperimental way by collecting questionnaires (surveys) from the intended users. Online user experience questionnaire (UEQ) was the most suitable way in light of the current pandemic in both Arabic and English versions of UEQ (Martin, 2020). The assumed time to complete the questionnaire is 5–10 min. The questionnaire (survey) is a commonly used tool in the user-driven assessment of usability and quality of software. It measures the user experience quickly in an immediate and simple way while covering the user experience overall impression of the product (Laugwitz et al., 2008). User experience questionnaire (UEQ) is suitable when the study is concerned to evaluate a single product and with the purpose to measure the user experience

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Attractiveness

Pragmatic Quality

Perspicuity

Efficiency

Hedonic Quality

Dependability

Stimulation

Novelty

Fig. 1  UEQ scale structure (Schrepp, 2015)

quality. The outcome of the study will help to improve the usability of the Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) mobile application. User experience questionnaire (UEQ) contains 26 items that include six factors attractiveness, efficiency, perspicuity, stimulation, dependability, and novelty. Attractiveness is a pure parity dimension. Efficiency, perspicuity, and dependability are goal-directed dimensions (pragmatic quality). And stimulation and novelty are not goal-directed dimensions (hedonic quality). Figure 1 shows UEQ scale structure (Schrepp, 2015). Quantitative measurement cannot directly determine the areas of improvement in a product to improve the user experience; instead, it is required to build a connection between product features and the measurement. However, UEQ could provide educated guesses of the areas with a high impact on improvements. UEQ provides a pattern of the product with six user experience measured qualities, from the overall look of the pattern, a possible assumption of the areas where improvement is needed could be determined. Figure  2 shows UEQ items for the English version (Martin, 2020). In the Arabic version of the UEQ, there were some mistranslated, unclear, or repeated phrases (six attributes) that required to be fixed for the sake of better comprehension of the Arab participant. The mistranslated or unclear attributes were dull, inferior, leading-edge, secure/not secure, and conservative while unlikable/ pleasing attributes used a repeated translation (with unpleasant/pleasant attributes) even though they had different meanings. From the Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) application intended user’s population, 87 participants were randomly and voluntarily recruited from all over the country (KSA) by WhatsApp and email invitations. The participants were informed about the purpose of the questionnaire and the study. They did not have to provide any private information for the questionnaire. The questionnaire could be completed within 5–10 min. Out of the 87 participants, only 75 had prior experience in using the Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) application (the focus of this study). The 87 participants were distributed (20 male, 66 female) who took the Arabic version of UEQ and only one (1 male) participant took the English version of UEQ. The study collects quantitative data from the intended users all over KSA, to evaluate their user experience while using the Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) application. User experience is the main goal and focus of this study. The independent variables are:

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annoying not understandable creative

enjoyable

1

understandable

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difficult to learn

4

inferior exciting

5

not interesting

interesting

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unpredictable

predictable

8

slow

9

coventional

10 11

easy to learn valuable boring

fast inventive obstructive

6

supportive

good complicated unlinkable usual unpleasant secure motivating

bad easy

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pleasing

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leading edge

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pleasant

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13

secure demotivating

meets expectations inefficient clear

18

does not meet expectations

19

efficient confusing

20

impractical

practical

21 22

organized

cluttered

23

unattractive unfriendly

24 25

conservative

26

attractive friendly conservative

Fig. 2  UEQ items (English version) (Martin, 2020)

attractiveness, efficiency, perspicuity, stimulation, dependability, and novelty. And for the dependent variables, it is the user experience. Quantitative data were collected to evaluate and measure the user experience while using the Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) mobile application in a nonexperimental way by collecting online questionnaire (survey) UEQ from the intended users all over KSA. The items of the UEQ each consist of a pair of attributes with an opposite meaning with a seven-stage scale, as the following example:

Fast

1 o

2 o

3 O

4 o

5 o

6 o

7 o

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Each item is represented by two attributes and scaled from −3 to +3. Scale −3 represents the most negative response, 0 a neutral response, while +3 represents the most positive response. The scale between −1 and −3 indicates a negative impression of the product while the scale between +1 and +3 indicates a positive impression of the product. The order of the attributes is randomized per item, as half of the items begin with a positive attribute while the other half of the items begin with a negative attribute. Due to answer tendencies in questionnaires (extreme answer categories avoidance), values between −2 and +2 are good observation quality. The values between −0.8 and +0.8 corresponds to neutral evalaution, values gretaer than +0.8 refers to positive evaluation and values less than −0.8 means negative evalaution (World Health Organization, 2020), and negative evaluation with values  0.8, the pragmatic quality aspects (perspicuity, efficiency, and dependability) scales were good with score of 1.55 > 0.8, and hedonic quality aspects (novelty and stimulation) scales were good with score of 1.21 > 0.8. Figure 4 shows the pragmatic and hedonic quality score. The precise score for each scale as follows: perspicuity scale (1.54), efficiency (1.58), dependability (1.52), stimulation (1.40), and novelty (1.00). The only scale value that was strictly equal to one was the novelty 3 2 1

1.51

1.55

1.21

0 -1 -2

y

ity

lit

al

cQ

ua

Qu

Fig. 3  Distribution of answers per UEQ Item

He

do

ni

ic at m Pr ag

At tra ct iv en es s

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1.51

1.54

1.58

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D ep en da bi lit y

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Ef fic ie nc y

2

1.40

1.00

0 -1

N ov el ty

io n St im ul at

Pe rs pi cu ity

At tra ct

iv en es

s

-2

Fig. 4  UEQ pragmatic and hedonic quality score

scale, which is not a bad evaluation in fact it is a good evaluation (1.00 > 0.8) but compared to the other scales, it seems that this property is not quite important for the users of the Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) mobile application. Figure 5 shows UEQ six scales score. The UEQ scales reliability is high as the Cronbachs Alpha-­ Coefficient measures the consistency of a scale and showed for attractiveness (0.94), perspicuity (0.92), efficiency (0.91), dependability (0.88), stimulation (0.91), and novelty (0.59). Government of Saudi Arabia has enforced the use of the Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) mobile application for entering in any commercial or governmental office in KSA; therefore, it is important that this application is usable, so that normal users can use this without any difficulty (Gafni, 2009). However, satisfaction becomes more important today that it might be the most important measure of usability as some would say. That is because, meeting the users’ expectations for satisfaction determines if the user will refrain or reject using the product (Barnum, 2020). User-centric design focuses on improving system usage by designing applications which are aligned with the user practices (Saeed et al., 2016). Our study has analyzed Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) mobile application to understand user interaction problems for future enhancements. In Santoso et  al. (2016) and Martin (2020), UEQ was used to measure the user’s experience of two different websites. Santoso et al. (2016) developed an adapted Indonesian version of user experience questionnaire (UEQ) and evaluated and measured the user experience of a learning management system (SCELE). There were 213 computer science students who participated in this study, and the result showed that in aspects of pragmatic quality (efficiency, perspicuity, dependability), it was good, but for hedonic quality, (stimulation and originality), it was neutral (Santoso et al., 2016). Similarly, Fajar and Pandu (2019) agrees with the implementation of user experience questionnaire (UEQ) to find the employees’ user experience of the usage of the Edmodo e-Learning website. The researcher conducted the UEQ on 10 participants and resulted in some of the participants facing some problems using Edmodo such

Fig. 5  UEQ six scales score

0%

annoying/enjoyable

not understandable/understandable

dull/creative

difficult to learn/easy to learn

inferior/valuable

boring/exciting

not interesting/interesting

unpredictable/predictable

conventional/inventive slow/fast

obstructive/supportive

bad/good

complicated/easy

unlinkable/pleasing

usual/leading edge

unpleasant/pleasant

not secure/secure

demotivating/motivating

does not meet expectations/meets expectations

inefficient/efficient

confusing/clear

impractical/practical

cluttered/organized

unattractive/attractive

unfriendly/friendly

conservative/innovative

10%

20% 1

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Distrbution of Answers per Item

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as the Internet access and support infrastructure for those who work from outside Jakarta other than that the website was good in total (Martin, 2020). There is no published study up to date about the user experience while using the Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) mobile application. And the results of the UEQ (75 out of 87 participants who had prior experience in the Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) mobile application) showed that the evaluated application pragmatic quality aspects (perspicuity, efficiency, and dependability) scales were good with score of 1.55 > 0.8 and hedonic quality aspects (novelty and stimulation) scales were good with score of 1.21 > 0.8.

5  Conclusion The first confirmed Covid-19 case in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was on 2 March 2020 (Ministry of Health, 2020). Regarding the pandemic, the government suspended aviation and enforced curfews and lockdown of varying degrees to prevent the spread of the virus. Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) the official mobile application to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in Saudi Arabia, approved by the Saudi Ministry of Health (Ministry of Health Portal Team, 2020), and to make the connection with the related sectors (health and government) much easier. And if the application is not user friendly, it could create unpleasant consequences related to pandemic management. This study was conducted to evaluate and measure the user experience while using the Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) application in a nonexperimental way by collecting questionnaires (survey) from the intended users. Online user experience questionnaire (UEQ) was the most suitable approach in light of the current pandemic circumstances using both Arabic and English versions of UEQ (Martin, 2020). In case of Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) application intended user’s population, 87 participants were randomly and voluntarily recruited from all over the country (KSA) by WhatsApp and email invitations. And after data collection from the users, UEQ data analysis tool (Excel-sheet) was applied on the result of the UEQ (75 participants who had prior experience in the Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) application); it showed that the attractiveness of the application was good with score of 1.51 > 0.8, the pragmatic quality aspects (perspicuity, efficiency, and dependability) scales were good with score of 1.55 > 0.8, and hedonic quality aspects (novelty and stimulation) scales were good with score of 1.21 > 0.8 which mean that the users were satisfied in general. While the comparison of the evaluated product (Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) mobile application) results with the benchmark data, it classifies the evaluated product relative quality to the other products as “above average” for (attractiveness, perspicuity, and novelty) and “good” for (efficiency, dependability, and stimulation). Quantitative measurement cannot directly determine the areas of improvement in a product to improve the user experience; instead, it is required to build a connection between product features and the measurement. However, UEQ could provide

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educated guesses of the areas with a high impact on improvements. UEQ provides a pattern of the product with six user experience measured qualities, from the overall look of the pattern, a possible assumption of the areas where improvement is needed could be determined. In this study, even though results showed a good user experience (users were satisfied) in total, we can see that hedonic quality aspects (novelty and stimulation) scales were the areas where the user experience had its lowest scores. As stimulation concerns about the user impression on how exciting and stimulating to deal with the product, while novelty concerns about the user impression on the product’s design such as the interface look and if was able to catch the user’s attention. We recommend the Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) mobile application developers to improve the interface look, as most of the negative replies were related to the design being usual. The limitation of this study was that we were not able to reach more participants, so we suggest for future work to apply the UEQ on a wider range of participants. There is a need to adopt user-centric approaches to design appropriate technology artifacts. Such user-centric design approaches ensure that the technologies are aligned with the user practices and foster a successful usage. Furthermore, these artifacts need to be rolled out in practice to evaluate their effectiveness and potential refinements.

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Digital Transformations to Challenge-­Based Learning in the Context of COVID-­19 and Beyond Peter Szyszlo and Salar Chagpar Abstract  The COVID-19 pandemic has forced significant changes to academic activities, while at the same time highlighting inequalities, opportunities, and challenges to the way scholars, practitioners, and policymakers alike respond to the new realities in peri- and post-pandemic times. This chapter explores digital transformations to challenge-based learning by examining three Prepr case studies to consider how digital-enabled interventions can mitigate disruptions to education. These collaborative initiatives provide rich examples of academic developments at the intersection of innovation and knowledge production. We argue that digital capacities and knowledge policies must be developed not only as a temporary stop-gap measure during periods of disruption but should explicitly foster learning pathways to complement and strengthen knowledge acquisition beyond COVID-19. Keywords  Challenge-based learning · Digital learning platforms · COVID-19 · Disruptive change

1  Introduction COVID-19 has had multidimensional impacts on education. In a matter of weeks, the pandemic radically changed how millions around the world study and learn. As a result, the crisis is expected to have a major and lasting impact on education systems globally. The scope and scale of the pandemic have made multifaceted impacts across the academic enterprise affecting critical areas of education and challenge-­ based learning in particular. Furthermore, the sudden and unprecedented disruption exposed the fragility of current learning models and challenged the ways in which P. Szyszlo (*) Independent Scholar, Ottawa, ON, Canada e-mail: [email protected] S. Chagpar Prepr Foundation, Oakville, ON, Canada e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 S. Saeed et al. (eds.), Pandemic, Lockdown, and Digital Transformation, Public Administration and Information Technology 7, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86274-9_7

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educational institutions approach online learning. Perhaps more importantly, the pandemic accelerated the need to rethink how challenge-based learning is leading digital transformations. The objective of this chapter is to capture digital transformations in challenge-­ based learning by critically examining the outcomes of three Prepr case studies. These digital-enabled interventions aim to provide learners with skill-building opportunities. Furthermore, the cases presented cast light on digital transformations and challenge-based learning in applied contexts. They also facilitate critical data on the scope and scale of digital interventions grounded in participatory approaches. By providing learners and educators the opportunity to focus on a challenge of global significance and apply themselves to developing solutions, Prepr creates a space where participants can direct their own research and critical thinking on issues important to them. This chapter outlines the tenets of Prepr’s signature PIE (project leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship) framework and its application to three case studies which address a range of real-world challenges. In a similar vein, the authors identify innovations and best practices which can be incorporated into challenge-­ based learning beyond COVID-19. This inquiry provides a valuable contribution to the scholarly literature by addressing a research gap on current approaches to digital interventions in challenge-­ based learning. Although challenge-based learning has become ubiquitous in the recent past, there is a dearth of critical scholarship and conceptual models to gauge the institutional shifts associated with the phenomenon. Literature reviews informing a research program on digitalisation policies and challenge-based learning revealed significant gaps in data. Furthermore, the insights obtained from this inquiry could help inform public policies and empirical analyses on future directions of higher learning. It has further value by expanding understanding of future skill development in accordance with the changing needs of an increasingly globalised knowledge economy. Based on previously unpublished data presented here, this chapter will attempt to facilitate a more robust understanding of challenge-based learning and its applications to develop real-world solutions. Furthermore, it provides evidence-based research to foster and support future knowledge policies.

2  The Current Context of Digital Challenge-Based Learning According to UNESCO estimates, some 1.37 billion students in 138 countries worldwide have been affected by school and university closures due to COVID-19, and approximately 60.2 million school teachers and university lecturers are no longer in the classroom (UNESCO, 2020). The global pandemic and the resulting lockdown provide a unique opportunity to rethink the value proposition of digital platforms and their impacts on digital transformations to challenge-based learning. Challenge-based learning is defined as ‘collaborative and hands-on, asking students

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to work with other students, their teachers, and experts in their communities and around the world to develop deeper knowledge of the subjects students are studying, accept and solve challenges, take action, share their experience, and enter into a global discussion about important issues’ (Apple Education, 2008). Challenge-­ based learning has the ability to create inclusive educational solutions based on a common mission and standard of effectiveness and relevance, as well as harness the outcomes of intellectual work. Challenge-based learning has become something of a buzzword over the last decade. While this approach is not new, tertiary institutions have been slow to adapt to the changing needs of students and researchers. Despite the renewed sense of urgency in light of COVID-19, the broad-based educational response to match the immediacy of learner needs is often lacking or simply does not exist. Traditional teaching methods are becoming increasingly ineffective under lockdown conditions. This is evidenced by many tertiary institutions finding themselves unprepared to meet the changing demands of educators and learners by reverting to a rote ‘Zoom University’ approach by default or adopting digital platforms as a band-aid solution. Our research suggests tertiary institutions often lack an integrated approach to their educational delivery methods and curricula which bring collective knowledge to bear on real-world challenges. We also observe a degree of institutional resistance and unpreparedness to implement change. Further, while educators may desire a better approach, they often lack the frameworks, resources, and tools to implement change independently. The pandemic represents an enormous challenge for education providers worldwide, but it is also a driver of innovation and pragmatic solutions. In this regard, tertiary institutions must position themselves strategically to emerge even stronger beyond the crisis and with increased resilience. Many of the world’s greatest challenges are global in nature, requiring collective action and solutions to solve issues ranging from the current pandemic, climate change, and resurgent nationalism to gender inequality, food security, and peacebuilding. Accordingly, these challenges have a global dimension which no country can solve on its own. From this perspective, higher education is increasingly called upon to play a central role to address societal problems and has immense potential to prepare for the next crisis, collectively. This inquiry takes its cue from the ‘Preparation for Future Learning’ paradigm (Bransford & Schwartz, 1999) and forms the theoretical framework for this chapter. This archetype focuses on an individual’s interpretation of, and response to, their context and ability to draw on prior learning as a building block for constructing new knowledge (Jackson et  al., 2019). As such, digital-enabled platforms and challenge-­based learning provide the opportunity to develop skills transfer within an immersal model allowing participants to shift between classroom, project, and/or professional settings. Finally, the inquiry builds upon an emerging body of scholarly research carried out by UNESCO on imagining alternative models of knowledge organisation (UNESCO, 2021).

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3  Methodology This chapter identifies and interprets how digital transformations in challenge-based learning are adapted into structural innovations. The timing of this study is equally important, since it captures real-world project data approximately 1 year after the closure of in-person academic activities. This situates the study in a position to better understand and explore how digital innovations can mitigate disruptive change and improve learning outcomes and policy directions on the adoption of technological innovations. A mixed-method design was the basis upon which this inquiry was conducted (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011). This approach draws upon multiple perspectives on data gathered from three Prepr projects (see Johnson et al., 2007). This chapter builds upon these discourses in an effort to foster critical reflection and evidence-informed knowledge policies. Therefore, the main research question guiding this inquiry asks: 1. How can transformative digitalisation be leveraged to support educators and institutions to create compelling challenge-based work-integrated learning experiences? 2. How can these approaches help learners gain a deeper appreciation for present and future global challenges?

4  Prepr Case Studies The following section explores three Prepr case studies by unpacking their respective challenge-based learning approaches and outcomes. These digital-enabled interventions include: the United Nations Sustainable Goal Challenge, the Beyond COVID-19 Global Open Innovation Challenge, and the Flexible Upskilling Network (FUN) Skills Catalyst Program, respectively. For the purposes of this inquiry, the three cases represent a selective sample of digital challenge-based learning initiatives undertaken by Prepr. In agreement with Lincoln and Guba’s (1985, pp. 199–200) assertion that sub-units should be chosen in accordance with their inherent value to the study and aligned with the research objectives, the rationale behind the choice of these case studies include their common approach to challenge-based learning, the application of the PIE framework, as well as the use of the Prepr digital platform. By examining the case studies from this perspective, one can differentiate and allow for a range of critical, comparative analysis. The datasets provide a robust sample of digital intervention and the participatory approaches used to gauge skills transfer experiences. The inquiry will unfold by exploring the aforementioned digital interventions, followed by a discussion on future research directions. The concluding remarks offer additional reflection to support the role of ICT for educators and learners.

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5  United Nations Sustainable Goal Challenge In February 2019, Prepr launched its inaugural United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Challenge at Wilfred Laurier University (Waterloo, Canada). Through this 2-day in-person event, Prepr provided 25 user experience (UX) design post-secondary students with the opportunity to gain problem-solving skills while tackling challenges of global significance. Most notably, participants were introduced to Prepr’s PIE framework, which combines project leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship to support challenge-based learning.

5.1  Challenge Tackling complex and multifaceted challenges such as those set out in the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) can be overwhelming for learners. Covering topics range from poverty to access to education to peace and justice, and these are complex, multidisciplinary issues. However, they also present an opportunity for youth to become global citizens who can think critically about important world issues. Further, engagement with these challenges can empower youth to realise that while they cannot solve access to education, they may be able to tackle one component of that challenge. Through this initiative, Prepr took on the challenge of creating an innovative work-integrated learning experience for students.

5.2  Approach As this event was hosted in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Prepr team offered in-person workshops over 2 days with hands-on mentorship and coaching. The venue was primarily driven by these in-person interactions and supported by Prepr’s digital platform, the Prepr network, that had been recently released in Beta. The team’s approach focused first and foremost on delivering a challenge-based learning experience that introduced the right tools and mindset. Once that had been established, technology was introduced as a supporting element. The challenge was offered in partnership with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Initiative for Global Prosperity. As such, the SDGs were framed around four different challenge themes: sustainable energy, digital divide, rural transformation, and sustainable cities. In addition, clear evaluation criteria were provided at the outset of the challenge. Our approach to creating an impactful learning experience was driven by the PIE framework. PIE is an interdisciplinary problem-solving framework with three phases, and 15 steps that provide learners with a clear, repeatable set of steps to breakdown problems and create solutions. It combines project leadership,

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Fig. 1  PIE framework. (Source: Prepr.org)

innovation, and entrepreneurship (Fig. 1) that can be applied to tackle a wide range of challenges. The participants were introduced to the PIE framework through micro-lectures to introduce the concepts, starting with ‘Think Agile’ and ‘Build Team’ as part of the Project Leadership Phase. This provided the context and foundation for learners to think about what they were trying to accomplish and to form teams based on which of the four challenge themes was of the greatest interest. Once teams of 4–6 learners were established and the major challenge areas were identified, they were tasked with breaking down their challenge using the innovation phase of PIE. During this phase, participants were asked to start by engaging with the community they wanted to support. Critically, this also encouraged them to think about what aspect of the challenge they could feasibly tackle. If they wanted to take on the ‘Digital Divide’ challenge, for example, they realised that could involve creating solutions for people in other countries, but it could also mean tackling the challenge of rural Internet access in northern areas of Canada. Through the innovation phase, they worked towards creating a narrowly defined challenge statement that answered the questions of, ‘Who are we helping? What do they need? Why does it matter?’ Once the framing was established, students were able to move into prototype development and evaluation of prototypes. Notably, a number of teams received feedback through that evaluation process that encouraged them to go back to the drawing board and rethink their solutions. Once they had framed their solution, participants were tasked with tackling the entrepreneurship phase to address the questions of both feasibility and sustainability. Learners were supported not only with hands on mentorship but also with ‘PIE

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Kits’ that included canvases for brainstorming, workbooks for deeper thinking, the PIE Book for reference, and more. The technology platform was provided as a supporting layer to the event providing information about the challenge and providing a mechanism for participants to create and share their projects with other learners.

5.3  Outcome Through the event, four teams formed to create viable solutions, one for each of the four challenge areas. All teams presented their solutions to the group explaining the challenge they were tackling, the proposed solution, and their approach to bringing it to the people they were trying to help. A notable example of one of the teams was digital divide, which proposed to use a teacher tool kit that would help engage and assist with teaching youth key concepts for digital platforms. Due to the lack of technology and electricity in some developing regions, the kit would include pre-set presentation boards, stickers, and other supplies that will help to replicate digital platforms. Accordingly, we are working to develop a network of teachers in those regions to share the kits based on grade levels and/or enhanced learning, which will help to ensure there is a consistent application for the kits. From a learning perspective, both educators and students highlighted the tangible learning experience they gained from the project: What I really love about the PIE method is that it takes Design thinking and entrepreneurship, and it puts them together in a nice, seamless, and iterative manner... I’ve been watching the students and watching them wrestle and watching them pivot and I can see learning happening. —Dr. Abby Goodrum, Professor and Professor and Program Coordinator, User Experience Design. [Regarding the PIE Framework| I liked that it was incredibly iterative, so in each phase you are going back constantly, and it allowed you to reinforce your thoughts. —Student participant [Regarding the overall learning experience] It was great getting to collaborate with my peers and work on such big broad problems and work towards bettering communities and making the world a better place. I also learned the PIE method which is very useful for prototyping and coming up with ideas because in previous hackathons I’ve been in I know it took a lot longer to figure out what to do and how to tackle that and the find method really helped with that. I really liked that it was broken down into many steps and there are specific methods you could use in each of the steps. That was really helpful in guiding us toward really every aspect of the project from pricing to customer base to demographics. —Student participant

A key takeaway from this work is the importance of establishing the right tools and frameworks first, and then leveraging technology to support—particularly for early initiatives or pilots. By taking this approach, an individual overseeing digital transformation can deliver meaningful challenge-based learning experiences, even in the early (beta) stages of platform implementation.

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6  Beyond COVID-19 Open Global Innovation Challenge March 2020 marked an unprecedented situation with the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic. While the world, including many fundamental institutions grappled with how to move forward, the Prepr team mobilised to launch the Global Open Innovation Challenge. This collaborative initiative was designed to bring together the public and private sector, along with mobilising individual citizens who wanted to make an impact and contribute to solutions. This presented the opportunity to create a global, virtual challenge-based learning leveraging a digital mobile-­ first platform—the Prepr Network.

6.1  Challenge Through this initiative, Prepr sought to engage a diverse group of participants in a virtual learning and innovation experience. By bringing together students, educators, entrepreneurs, start-ups, employees, and global citizens, Prepr’s Beyond COVID-19: Global Open Innovation Challenge offered a unique collaboration opportunity. The Beyond COVID-19 initiative leveraged the foundational principles of challenge-based learning along with key lessons learned from past initiatives, such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Challenge outlined above, to create a completely virtual experience that spanned more than 30 days. This presented the opportunity to create a model for international collaboration and solution development built on a challenge-based approach and driven through a digital platform—the Prepr Network.

6.2  Approach The Open Innovation Challenge was designed around four major areas affected by the pandemic: community, education, prevention, and business. Each of these categories aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, goals to make the world a better place by 2030 by improving global issues like poverty and inadequate healthcare. Participants were challenged to create lasting solutions in the aforementioned thematic areas to go beyond COVID-19. The learning experience was designed to be fully virtual and relied heavily on both Prepr’s challenge-based ‘learn by doing’ platform—the Prepr Network, along with video conferencing tools. As with previous challenge-based iWIL initiatives, the PIE framework was central to the learning experience. A key difference between the previous case study and this was the need to deliver all learning virtually and support collaboration at a distance.

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Prepr supported its participants throughout their journey, giving them valuable resources daily and hosting the month-long ‘Daily Slice of PIE’ webinar series to guide challenge teams through their project creation process with the PIE methodology. Webinar sessions also included presentations from expert guest speakers on various topics helpful to young aspiring intrapreneurs, such as social finance, digital marketing, innovation, privacy compliance, open-source licenses, and more. The Beyond COVID-19 innovators also enjoyed one-on-one personal support at multiple Open Mentor Sessions, as well as virtual events where teams received feedback from expert mentors who reviewed their developing projects. A major element in the team’s ability to execute the initiative was the use of the Prepr Network. Through the platform, the entire process was managed from registration to team creation to project creation and evaluation. Furthermore, as a mobile-­ first platform, Prepr was able to support learners from across the globe, including those who had limited or poor access to the Internet. This mobile-first digitalisation approach should be strongly considered by educators and institutions as there remain connectivity issues not only abroad but also in remote parts of North America.

6.3  Outcome The Beyond COVID-19 Challenge inspired over 140 project submissions, 1000+ participants from 105 countries, and 30 partners engaged in the initiative. The use of the Prepr Network was a major driver of the collaboration and success that arose from the initiative—including supporting team creation of participants who had never met in person and were from diverse backgrounds. Furthermore, given the platform was built with challenge-based learning at the forefront, it provided participants with a seamless all-in-one experience that provided all of the information needed in one place, as well as a place to create and develop projects. Unlike traditional open innovation challenges or hackathons, participants were encouraged to create a project at the start of the initiative and then continue developing it over the course of the 30 days. This aspect of evolution allowed for both (1) additional collaborators to join the project and (2) the team to refine their idea as they leveraged the PIE framework. The 140+ solutions submitted to the challenges reflected the participants’ learning by offering thoughtful, original, and feasible solutions to COVID-19 issues. In addition to supporting the learner experience, the platform played a pivotal role in engaging partners and industry professionals in evaluating projects. When creating a project on the platform, participants were required to complete a pre-­ defined pitch, along with uploading files that showed how they worked through the challenge leveraging PIE.  Projects formed a key engagement point as they also offered other participants visibility to peers’ work and the ability to elevate their own learning and experiences through commenting and voting.

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The challenge awarded the top 20 innovation projects with invaluable prizes to help them take their project to the next level. For some that meant turning their passion project into a business—a major accomplishment. The first-place winners in each category were provided with a cash prize along with a FASKEN start-up program seat to provide legal advice and support. In addition, $25,000 of Amazon Web Services (AWS) credits was awarded to all winners. Moreover, all completed projects were awarded an AWS Activate credit package of $5000 AWS credits, $1500 in business support, 80 credits for self-paced labs, and access to Amazon’s virtual start-up workshop series so that they could jumpstart their socially conscious entrepreneurship success. The Beyond COVID-19 Challenge was an inspiring global initiative that brought together many diverse minds, all passionate about helping the world in a collective crisis. It was a global collaboration of social good, uniting innovative minds across borders in order to enact lasting prosperity for the world, together. For organisations looking to implement virtual challenge-based learning, or innovative work-integrated learning with a diverse group of participants, having technologies in place that support collaboration is essential. In this case study, the Prepr team demonstrated how a purpose-driven technology implementation that managed the process end-to-end was highly beneficial. That said, for organisations looking to transition challenge-based learning initiatives online, or to implement a new program there are several key tenets to success including: (1) creating virtual collaboration spaces and implementing tools for individuals and teams to connect both privately and with others, (2) planning the learning experience across the various devices available to users, giving special consideration to the role of learning and collaborating on mobile devices and/or with limited connectivity, and lastly (3) consider implementing an existing platform solution rather than building a custom solution to allow for a faster time to launch and more robust user experience.

6.4  Fast Forward: A Glimpse at Some of the Initiatives Today The following section outlines the winning projects and their respective categories submitted to the Beyond COVID-19 Open Innovation Challenge. 6.4.1  W  inner of the Education Challenge Category: COVID-19 Drug Evidence Initiative—https://cdei.ca/ The emerging scientific literature on COVID-19 continues to grow rapidly. This initiative makes it easy for healthcare providers to access the relevant studies on drug therapies to treat those afflicted by the pandemic. Furthermore, it facilitates an accessible and trusted resource with up-to-date summaries and critical appraisals for all randomised controlled trials for COVID-19 therapies to aid healthcare professionals.

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In addition, this initiative was recognised by multiple organisations after forming a company which is currently collaborating with the University of Toronto’s renowned Centre for Research and Innovation Support, Trillium Health Partners and University Health Network. Additionally, this project-turned social-enterprise was recognised by such prominent associations as the Canadian Healthcare Network, the Ontario Pharmacists Association, and the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists. It was also the recipient of the University of Toronto’s prestigious COVID-19 Student Engagement Award. 6.4.2  W  inner of the Community Challenge Category:Initio—https:// www.init-­io.com/ Initio is a cross-cultural online publication and communication platform created to showcase and celebrate small business innovation and resilience during the pandemic. Through a series of case studies featuring small and medium business owners in various locations, its globally based team of students and young professionals hope to inspire local businesses in their reopening. Since its inception, the Initio team has expanded from 2 to 23 entrepreneurs and is preparing to submit the project to additional challenge-based competitions. 6.4.3  W  inner of the Business Challenge Category: COVID-19 Shelter Design ‘SpaceEra’ Created by a 20-year-old architecture student from India, the vision of this project focuses on the provision of shelter/isolation spaces for presumptive COVID-19 patients, hospitals, portable washroom and testing units, shelters for migrant workers, and other applications. The project has been recognised by the international community with multiple accolades including The One in a Million Award by Multiplying Good Award (New York), the Smart Habitat Foundation (Delhi). In addition, the project won third prize in the International Creativity competition which came with an IDR 1,510,000 bursary from Telkom University (Indonesia). Additionally, the project won the D’source Corona Challenge at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. Most recently, the inventors worked with architects in Nigeria to provide shelter for COVID-19 patients. Winner of the Prevention Challenge Category: Dawa Health—https://www. dawa-­health.com/ Over 830 mothers die daily from pregnancy complications with 99% of cases in the Global South. Dawa Health is a digital health platform reshaping access to maternal health for pregnant and nursing mothers leveraging on web-mobile-USSD/SMS technology and wearables.

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Since winning the competition and receiving support from Prepr and the consortium of partners, DAWA Health has refocused their product roadmap and aligned key resources and established an agreement with MEDCROSS Hospital in Lusaka, Zambia, to run a pilot. Furthermore, the project was featured in such publications as Tech in Africa, Impact Capital Africa, and Tech Trends. Furthermore, it has received the Southern Africa Startup Award, as well as the BongoHive Accelerators People’s Choice Award. Through this collaborative initiative, Prepr was able to provide over $500,000 in prizes across the selected projects from AWS, the Linux Foundation, the City of Brampton, Coast Capital Savings, York University’s Lassonde School of Engineering, Namecheap.com, Fasken, and others.

7  F  lexible Upskilling Network (FUN) Skills Catalyst Program First launched in mid-2020, the Flexible Upskilling Network (FUN) was a blended learning program where youth participants received opportunities to combine valuable work-integrated learning experiences with digital skill development training. The objective of the project was to support youth to gain employability skills, including soft skills such as communication, collaboration, and problem-solving. Furthermore, it aimed to provide students with exposure to real-world business challenges by applying Prepr’s PIE framework.

7.1  Challenge The challenge was to support 180 Canadian youths (aged 18–30) with an innovative work-integrated learning experience that fosters skill development. In addition, the participants accepted into the program had diverse backgrounds ranging from being students to recent graduates to newcomers to Canada. Further, their previous educational experiences ranged from having design or marketing experience to software development to business studies. They were united primarily by their desire to attain better career prospects and gain hands-on work experience. At the outset, this project was expected to leverage a blended learning model when it was first proposed pre-pandemic. However, when the project got underway in April 2020, the world had changed, and with it the approach to the project needed to change. The entire project transitioned to digital delivery from student recruitment to learning delivery.

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7.2  Approach Building on the success of the Beyond COVID-19 Global Open Innovation Challenge, the Prepr team set out to create an impactful learning experience online. A 5-week intensive learning model was selected, including 4  weeks of hands-on training supported with a series of challenges and a fifth week for presentations. A series of five challenges were created, which include: (1) landing page creation, (2) website development, (3) marketing strategy, (4) business case development, and (5) personal brand development. Assessments were solely driven through the challenge submissions. As such, no quizzes or other assessments were used in order to emulate real-world work experiences. Further, participants worked in interdisciplinary teams throughout the challenges after self-identifying as being interested in the web development stream, the digital marketing stream, or both. Building on the digital implementation efforts from the Beyond COVID-19 Global Open Innovation Challenge, this project leveraged the Prepr Network while optimising its use. Of particular note, was the team’s greater focus on creating ‘Learning Labs’. These virtual collaboration spaces delivered through the Prepr platform allow educators to share curated challenges and resources, as well as provide frequent updates to participants. As noted above, creating a cohesive online learning experience was critical, given this project included a series of challenges. Further, the capabilities and functionality of the Prepr Network had been extended substantially from the previous initiatives based on our learnings. Key needs identified in delivering successful challenge-based learning online included creating an enhanced team-matching function, as well as being able to maintain regular and frequent communication with learners in a centralised place. For educators, the assessment functionality was also enhanced to allow for easy tracking and feedback for learners. This project was delivered in tandem with several partners including the Linux Foundation, Magnet at Ryerson University, and the Network for the Advancement of Black Communities at York University. Collectively, the partners contributed valuable insights that supported the successful implementation of the project.

7.3  Outcomes The introduction of digital learning labs supported learner engagement and the creation of a seamless experience for participants. In a post-program survey, 95% of participants indicated they were satisfied or very satisfied with their experience in the program (Prepr Foundation, 2020). Further, 85% reported that they agree or strongly agree that their skills improved and 79% of participants gained employment as a result of the intervention (Ibid). The Prepr team is proud of the work accomplished over the course of the project, both in terms of tangible skills

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development, and helping participants identify their career pathways. Below are some testimonial highlights from participants: I was interested in digital marketing before, but the program has encouraged me to learn more and expand on that. I learned how to connect my creative and design skills to the business world. The program showed me what kinds of opportunities were open to me. I definitely have a more concrete understanding of strategy now. The program definitely is sending me in another direction… I want to keep working with data, but now I have a sense of how that can be applied in the marketing work.

From a technology perspective, the Prepr Network platform provided an accessible, engaging, and easy-to-use solution for participants and program instructors. This further validates the benefits of having a purpose-built platform that was designed with challenge-based learning at the forefront.

8  Discussion on Future Research Directions Given rapidly changing learning patterns and labour market demands for graduates that can successfully function in a range of work environments, skills transfer can no longer be framed in a linear pathway. This has become abundantly clear in light of COVID-19. Skills transfer may be augmented by closely aligning learning environments to workplace contexts designed to emulate professional settings thereby significantly improving work-readiness (Davids et al., 2017). The findings indicate the important role of digital learning platforms and challenge-based learning by taking a holistic approach to skills and knowledge transfer as students transition from the classroom to workforce and beyond. This chapter also highlighted the importance of ICTs to increase skills transfer. Higher educational institutions and policymakers alike need to develop their digital capacities not only as a temporary stop-gap measure during lockdowns but also explicitly foster learning pathways to complement and strengthen knowledge acquisition achieved through classroom-based learning and WIL across different institutional frameworks and epistemic communities. These complex and adaptive processes require intellectual risk-taking and monitoring, given the evolving nature of knowledge mobilisation strategies and institutional dynamics. It is hoped that future inquiries can build on the conceptual and empirical insights gained in this study in order to reconceptualise challenge-based learning discourses for application in different educational contexts (Table 1). As higher education institutions adapt to the new realities and the digitisation of learning accelerates globally, Prepr will continue to develop inclusive ways to ensure no educational institution is left behind in accessing the tools and resources needed to build the future of the next generation of changemakers. In addition, Prepr will expand its scope of work to support knowledge mobilisation and innovation exchange beyond Canada to the global learning community. Additionally, as the Prepr Network becomes more data-rich through user and partner engagement, the

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Table 1  Case study synopses Challenge United Nations Sustainable Goal Challenge

Overview At this 2-day in-person event Prepr provided 25 user experience (UX) Design post-secondary students with the opportunity to gain problem-solving skills while tackling complex and multifaceted challenges such as those set out in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Outcome Participants were introduced to the PIE framework through micro-lectures to introduce the concepts, starting with ‘Think Agile’ and ‘Build Team’ as part of the project leadership phase Participants were tasked with breaking down their selected challenge using the PIE method and explaining the proposed solution and their delivery approach The Beyond COVID-19 initiative leveraged The Open Innovation Challenge Beyond was designed around four major the foundational principles of challenge-­ COVID-19 based learning to create a virtual experience areas affected by the pandemic: Global Open Community, education, that spanned over than 30 days. A model Innovation for international collaboration and solution prevention, and business Challenge The challenge inspired over 140 development built on a challenge-based approach was developed through the Prepr project submissions, 1000+ participants from 105 countries, Network’s digital platform and 30 partners engaged in the initiative The 140+ solutions submitted to the challenges reflected the participants’ learning by offering thoughtful, original, and feasible solutions to various COVID-19 issues Real-world work experiences The FUN Skills Catalyst Program was a Flexible were emulated, and participants blended learning program where youth Upskilling worked in interdisciplinary Network (FUN) participants received opportunities to Skills Catalyst combine valuable work-integrated learning teams throughout the various experiences with digital skill development challenges presented Program The program was delivered in training tandem with Prepr partners and targeted newcomers to Canada, racialized and vulnerable youths The Prepr Network validated the benefits of having a digital platform designed with challenge-based learning at the forefront

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organisation will be designing enhanced trials to further evolve the way it delivers positive behavioural interventions and supports (PBIS), considering both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for learners.

9  Concluding Remarks The world has forever changed in 2020. The future of learning is today but communities and countries around the world are not all prepared equally for this change. With the realities of the digital divide and the need for nearly 1.5 billion home-based learners, the call to action has become clear for organisations that can support and alleviate the repercussions of this gap. Despite the global lockdown, the Prepr Network and its partners empowered over 5270 learners by engaging in real-world, challenge-based learning opportunities in 2020–2021. There has never been a time where the private and public sector need to collaborate to innovate forward and take action to tackle the challenges the digital divide presents in a world, where now more than ever, every aspect of life has been touched by digital technologies. With a network of partnerships established, and with the physical and digital learning capabilities developed over the last decade, it is critical that Prepr scale its resources to support as many individuals, communities, and countries as possible, so that they can accelerate efforts in closing the digital learning gap. This will require increased support and funding from government, public, and private sectors taking action through the adoption of new and innovative learning experiences to support youth in obtaining digital skills and becoming a workforce which is prepared for the future of work that is here today. At the same time, this shift has deep implications for public policy and research discourses on the digitalisation of challenge-­based learning. These questions represent a larger challenge for educators and policy makers requiring adequate support at multiple levels. In this regard, the dearth of credible data and scholarly investigation on the subject represents an area of growing interest. This emerging knowledge discourse has important ramifications for the future development of digital-enabled interventions, given policy implications and change management processes. It is hoped that future inquiries can build on the conceptual and empirical insights gained in this case study in order to reconceptualise challenge-based learning discourses for application in the context of COVID-19 and beyond.

References Apple Education. (2008). Challenge based learning. https://www.apple.com/ca/education/docs/ Apple-­ChallengedBasedLearning.pdf Bransford, J., & Schwartz, D. (1999). Rethinking transfer: A simple proposal with multiple implications. Sage.

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Creswell, J. W., & Plano Clark, V. L. (2011). Designing and conducting mixed methods research (2nd ed.). Sage Publications. Davids, A., Van den Bossche, P., Gijbels, D., & Garrido, M. (2017). The impact of individual, educational, and workplace factors on the transfer of school-based learning into the workplace. Vocations and Learning, 10(3), 275–306. Jackson, D., Fleming, J., & Rowe, A. (2019). Enabling the transfer of skills and knowledge across classroom and work contexts. Vocations and Learning, 12, 459–478. Johnson, R., Onwuegbuzie, A., & Turner, L. (2007). Towards a definition of mixed methods research. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 2(1), 112–133. Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Sage Publications. Prepr Foundation. (2020). Archived project data. UNESCO. (2020). 1.37 billion students now home as COVID-19 school closures expand, ministers scale up multimedia approaches to ensure learning continuity. https://iite.unesco.org/ news/1-­37-­billion-­students-­now-­home-­as-­covid-­19-­school-­closures-­expand/ UNESCO. (2021). Thinking higher and beyond: Perspectives on the futures of higher education to 2050. UNESCO.

Change Management in Digital Environment Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scenario from Malaysian Higher Education Institutions Simin Ghavifekr and Hua Yeh Fung

Abstract  The entire world has been affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic. In the education sector, the current crisis brought upon by this pandemic is a quintessential adaptive and transformative challenge without a preemptive measure or standard operational procedure in place. Leaders in education are required to precipitously strategize and plan responses as the pandemic runs its course. To ensure academic success amid the COVID-19 pandemic, effective change and transition management needs to be an area that leaders of learning institutions focus on. The management of educational institutions is to derive a framework to support the academic learning of students as well to alleviate issues for at-risk students due to this crisis. Therefore, this chapter aims to explore change management procedures and digital transformation in higher education institutions (HEIs) amid the current COVID-19 crisis. In addition, the chapter provides elaborations on the issues and challenges encountered in the implementation of e-learning during the pandemic from the management’s perspective. A qualitative approach with a single case study design was used in this research. Data was collected through purposive sampling technique from three members of the top management team in a private higher education institution in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In-depth thematic analysis of the findings explored five dimensions which included the journey of implementation, the leader’s role in managing change, policies and procedures, best practices, and preemptive measures as the key practices of change management in the implementation of digital environment amid the pandemic crisis. Furthermore, several prominent themes have been identified reflecting the issues and challenges in the implementation of e-learning during the time of COVID-19: technology resource and funding, stakeholders including staff and students, assessments and learning outcomes, mental health as well as practical courses and research work.

S. Ghavifekr (*) · H. Y. Fung Department of Educational Management, Planning & Policy, Faculty of Education, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 S. Saeed et al. (eds.), Pandemic, Lockdown, and Digital Transformation, Public Administration and Information Technology 7, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86274-9_8

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Keywords  Change management · Digital environment · e-Learning · COVID-19 pandemic · Higher education institutions · Higher education · Digital transformation · Pedagogy · Assessment · Policies and procedures.

1  Introduction The year 2020 has caught the global community off-guard with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic which has affected all aspects of human life, from the decline and shutdown of the biggest industry players to the adaptation of academic structures within all learning institutions around the globe (Favale et al., 2020). The stakeholders and the management of educational institutions were thrust into imminent change and having to navigate the use of e-learning as the sole mode of instruction to ensure continuity of academic activities (Demuyakor, 2020). Higher education institutions (HEIs) are now faced with a tremendous challenge, with the COVID-19 crisis and trepidations of a worldwide recession. A large number would suffer from the aftershocks of the pandemic with the decline of student enrollment, especially those with international students. As such, this is the perfect time for HEIs to take charge and ensure a smooth transition. Based on reports from the World Economic Forum (WEF), the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted over 1.2 billion kids across 186 nations. UNESCO reports show that by the second-half of 2020, the closures of learning institutions have affected 1.06 billion students, approximately 60% of learners with active status. Zooming into the Malaysian context from a global macro perspective, the Malaysian government enforced the first lockdown or Movement Control Order (MCO) effective from 18 March 2020. This move has disrupted operations in over 1.2 million of those in HEIs and an overall of 4.9 million across nationwide schools. Malaysia makes an intriguing case study for digital transformation in higher education (Times Higher Education, 2020). The country has been applauded by the global community for its swift comeback to the pandemic, as they roll out new modes of digital learning in real time. Chow (2020) states that the pandemic offers the perfect window of opportunity for businesses and entrepreneurs to be innovative in navigating their way through the setbacks that come with COVID-19 in efforts to fast-track the digital transformation of the country. This, he mentioned, should begin with prominent, high impact sectors which prominently include online education. Nevertheless, the transformation was no easy feat. For HEIs in Malaysia, with the majority of new enrolling students opting for deferment to wait out the COVID-19 pandemic, HEIs face unprecedented fiscal challenges and the expenditure for operations had to be adjusted on the go in order to sustain the business and retain human resources as campuses remain shut. The initial 3 months since the first MCO saw HEIs in Malaysia veering towards free distance learning platforms online such as Coursera to enhance the quality of digital lessons. Over the course of this pandemic, Coursera has made its way to more than 3000 universities globally students totally up to over two million.

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The pro vice-chancellor of a renowned private higher learning institution, concurred that it had indeed been a trying year as universities had to migrate online almost overnight. It was a huge leap as the same standards of that of face-to-face teaching are expected. The vice-chancellor of yet another prestigious private HEI also shared that they were fortunate to have had in place the necessary resources to put the online teaching plan into execution. However, it was mentioned that professional development was key in transitioning from the regular face-to-face lectures (Times Higher Education 2020). Additionally, the vice-president of research and development and commercialization at University Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), stressed that the disparity and gap in access to digital learning was an integral part of the country’s journey through digital transformation. It was recommended that HEIs work with technology companies to gain access to resources. In efforts to subside the effect of the pandemic, the university offered portable computers at discounted prices to its students, with the availability of different modes of payment or installments so as to enable the majority of students to participate in online learning (Times Higher Education 2020). Similarly, Adedoyin and Soykan (2020) also stated that as part of their corporate social responsibility, telecommunication companies can work with educational institutions to either help finance the cost of internet subscriptions or offer free browsing data to learners and educators. Furthermore, the sudden shift towards digital learning has impacted the nature of assessments and evaluations. Educators have turned to blending learning to accommodate the form of evaluation they must now conduct. The advantage of this is that it has thrusted universities into radically rethinking and reinnovating online education in its wake. In the education sector, the crisis brought upon by this pandemic is a quintessential adaptive and transformative challenge without a preemptive measure or standard operational procedure in place. Therefore, leaders in education are required to precipitously strategize and plan responses as the pandemic runs its course (Katz, 2020). To ensure academic success amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Murphy (2020a, b) asserted that effective change and transition management needs to be an area that leaders of learning institutions focus on. The management of educational institutions is to derive a framework to support the academic learning of students as well to alleviate issues for at-risk students due to this crisis (Murphy, 2020a, b). Equally important in to note is that e-learning is taking over education rapidly despite whether or not educational practitioners today are ready for it. It is therefore crucial that more studies be conducted to facilitate the enhancement of pedagogical methods in the online realm (Picciano, 2017). Presently, there is a void that needs to be filled (Demuyakor, 2020; UNESCO, 2020). It is suggested that studies focusing on in-depth analysis of the practices that should be adopted, such as online instruction, implementation process, and course design, are well in need seeing the predicament that most institutions are facing in an unprecedented time of crisis. Moreover, Almaiah et al. (2020) reported that change management is one of the key

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challenges during the implementation of e-learning during the pandemic and hence requires further investigation. In addition to that, Hall (2020) posited the challenge for researchers to look into the question of whether we could use the COVID-19 pandemic as a learning moment to let go of learning institutions-as-is and rethink education as will-be. He urged leaders of educational institutions to also look into the real-life struggles of academic laborers, professional service staff, and students. We are to look into the indignation of dealing with the pandemic and the leaders in this industry are responsible for how they respond to and manage the transitional change amid the crisis (Ali, 2020). As most institutions in Malaysia are still navigating their way through the digital transformation amid the COVID-19 pandemic, this calls for studies and research to be conducted in the Malaysian context. Therefore, to address the gap stated in the paragraphs prior, this study aims to discover the issues and challenges in the change management of a digital environment during the COVID-19 pandemic from the angle of Malaysian HEIs. The following are the objectives of the study: 1. To explore how change is managed in the implementation of e-learning in HEIs amid the COVID-19 crisis. 2. To investigate the issues and challenges encountered in the implementation of e-learning in HEIs during the pandemic from the management’s perspective.

2  Literature Review 2.1  Digital Transformation in Higher Education Institutions Digital transformation is seen as a disruptor that essentially alters institutions and businesses in its entirety (Grab et al., 2019). The process of digital transformation involves ample premeditated groundwork, building of trust, incorporation and support from different stakeholders, as well as knowledge both collective and individual (Cameron & Green, 2019). Additionally, Rodrigues (2017) identified other elements in the process of digital transformation including people, processes, strategies, structures, and competitive dynamics. Five dimensions of obstacles were classified by Kopp et al. (2019) towards the digital transformation in HEIs. They consist of the following aspects: change, pace, technology, competences, and funding. Further, Burgos et al. (2020) believe that digital transformation in HEIs which focus on revamping their businesses is aligned with technological trends. Having said that, a social dimension in the transformation process is just as crucial as it is purposed for improving customer experience, products, and services. Bresinsky and Von Reusner (2017) posited that establishments that are digitizing themselves

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should look into both the technological and social aspect so that transformation is successful. Faria and Nóvoa (2020) suggest a potential of digital transformation in creating interactions between higher education institutions with businesses including clienteles, competitors, and providers. In the education field, endless possibilities can be seen integrated in instruction, learning, and institutional operations (Fleaca, 2011; Thoring et al., 2018). As such, COVID-19 has instigated the digital transformation in HEIs, which would have otherwise taken years to initiate (Strielkowski, 2020). Online learning has gained the reputation of being a “hero” as opposed to being “disruptive.” 2.1.1  Pedagogy Past studies show that educational institutions need to move with the times and begin utilizing tools that are aligned with modern standards of learning (Bozhko et  al., 2016) and most of all the tools offered by digital technology (Henriette et al., 2018). Advances in pedagogical digitization go beyond just the technical facet; it also involves academic, curricular, institutional, and structural improvements (Bond et al., 2018). Fleaca (2011) believes this allows increased autonomy for both students and educators and promotes the opportunity for increased collaboration. Today’s digital economy calls for a professional work force equipped with digital competency and communication skills (Azarenko et al., 2018). Bond et al. (2018) believe that educators in higher education institutions require further professional development in technical and methodology practices. In a study conducted by Tay and Low (2017), they have found that higher education institutions made use of digitization to afford feasibility in learning so as to convalesce internal instructional procedures and improve the quality of education. 2.1.2  Content and Curriculum Azarenko (2018) purports that the swift ability to respond to current and future work force demands ought to be the main purpose of improving (digitizing) educational programs. Bond et  al. (2018) agree by stating that institutions should update and reform their curriculum to suit contemporary standards of teaching and learning, build a curriculum of global standards, seek new ways of instruction through online learning, and expand the use of ICT tools and applications. Students, on the other hand, are increasingly demanding a “everything digital” in their experiences with educational institutions including administrative processes, unlimited round-­the-­clock access to study materials and information as well as the accessibility of products, and services on various online and social platforms (Burgos et al., 2020).

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The research field is obligated to go along with the wave of digital transformation so as to meet the prerequisites and anticipations of stakeholders who are part of the research procedures (Rodrigues, 2017). 2.1.3  Administration Digital transformation is also seen as pertinent in optimizing existing work and operations. HEIs are said to move towards digital to improve the methods used in current workflow in order to employ modifications in value creation and to mirror the influence of digital transformation; that is, to meet modern needs of the workforce and the proliferating expectations from students to revolutionize the way they learn, educate, research, and manage (Rodrigues, 2017; Faria & Nóvoa, 2020). However, funding and access to the latest ICT resources is a huge barrier in ensuring the success of digital transformation (Gama, 2018, Rodrigues, 2019, Faria & Nóvoa, 2020). Hence, in order to succeed, administrative units in higher education institutions have to be revamped and this is done by restructuring the hierarchy of administrative and academic governance. They must act with promptness and precision in generating new ideas coupled with an adaptable and supportive environment, beginning with a change mindset aiming at an entrepreneurial outlook (Gama, 2018, Stolze et al., 2018). In addition, to further improve administrative operations, Faria and Nóvoa (2020) posited that analytics and digital reports used alongside artificially intelligent business systems will help an institution to postulate a comprehensive look of the direction it is on and an acute perspective for a more informed decision-making. With regards to human resources (HR), the relationship between digital transformation in HEIs and HR is a two-way street. On the one hand, digital transformation affects the productivity of HR counterparts (Betchoo, 2016), meanwhile the digital competencies of the actors in HR are huge drivers in the success of digital transformation in universities (Sandhu, 2018). 2.1.4  Governance There needs to be a certain level of regulation and understanding of digital innovations with regards to high-tech institutions because any sort of change is deemed a crucial element in determining the success of digital implementation (Bresinsky & Von Reusner, 2017; Sulllivan & Staib, 2018). This includes factoring in risk management in order to diminish the effects of these changes on the participants of the process within the organization (Grab et al., 2019; Bresinsky & Von Reusner, 2017). Apart from that, digitized institutions will also benefit from digital marketing as it will enable a greater market reach to potential clients and student pool (Gama, 2018, Zulfikar et al., 2018). Moreover, from a commercial perspective, digital transformation gives an institution a new face-lift by replacing conventional practices

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and services with online ones, simplifying the activities pertaining to educational services and operational intricacy (Burgos et al., 2020). In brief, it would suffice to say that the primary stakeholders to partake in the process of digitizing universities and colleges would be the educators and the learners seeing that the express purpose of higher education institutions is to educate. However, the priority may differ contingent on the areas discussed above. Kaminskyi et al., (2018) suggests that the digital transformation of HEIs is the reconstruction of corporate IT architecture management because it may open doors for the restructuring initiatives in education.

2.2  I ssues and Challenges in Digital Transformation During COVID-19 Joshi et  al. (2020) acknowledged multiple challenges affecting the teaching and learning from home process during the COVID-19 pandemic which encompass digital disparity, insufficient training, minimal institutional support and facilities, family and external distractors, and virtual classroom management difficulties. It had also been observed by Verma et al. (2020) that institutions are bogged down by untrained teachers and resistance in accepting the migration to online learning. The view that teachers lacked adequate training resulting in technical complications in times of COVID-19 was concurred by Sudevan (2020) and Almaiah et al. (2020). Similarly, Chow (2020) stated that some of the prominent challenges that may serve as a barrier of blockade towards digital transformation in these times might be the cost of technology resources, the disposal of the right people, and the speed of implementation. Fast-tracking fiber connection and deployment is an important component in the digitizing of businesses in both the public and private sectors. As funding is a challenge in acquiring ICT resources, particularly in times of recession during the pandemic, institutions may end up procuring cheaper versions of technologies to save cost. This sentiment is echoed by Abdulrahim and Mabrouk (2020) who cited Samar et  al. (2020) stating that financial destitution and special needs would pose a challenge for students to gain access to the necessary technology tools. Further, Adedoyin and Soykan (2020) cited through personal communication with Yates (2020) that learners with dated ICT tools might struggle to keep up with the technical necessities of online learning. Mhlanga and Moloi (2020) also highlighted that one of the biggest challenges in digital transformation during the COVID-19 was the targeting of students in remote areas, particularly the ones with no internet accessibility. Fixed wireless access has been identified as a probable answer for low density areas with poor internet access. The goal is to afford internet access to all so teaching and learning could continue taking place (Chow, 2020). In addition to that, another area that is identified as a possible challenge in this time is talent upskilling and reskilling. Although the wave of Industry 4.0 is sweeping through the nation, manpower and skills are still very much necessary for

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high-­impact activities. Machines and robotic technologies are designated for the tedious and arduous. Hence, this gives the more reason for workers to be equipped with digital competencies in order to remain relevant in a vastly growing digitized world. It is also worth noting that Rais (2020) claimed that the prevalent hurdle in digital transformation is the “fear of all things digital.” To support this view, Ribeiro (2020) identified one key issue of migrating online during this pandemic to be the inevitable behavioral change of the institution’s management, teachers, and students towards the weight of online learning. The transformation would bring about unwelcomed change, and often institutions would deem it implausible or taxing. Topped with additional risks, this leads to a natural resistance towards the transformation. That said, risks are a given in any commercial grounds. In Malaysia, the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) works on alleviating said risks as well as influencing change through their many upskilling programs. On the status of education in the country during Covid-19, Ya (2020) mentions that the pandemic has revealed a flaw in the education system in terms of digital preparedness. Nonetheless, it was noted that this issue affects the majority of nations worldwide struggling to move teaching and learning to an online platform. She claims that educators are largely lacking in digital competencies and are dragging their feet to adapt to and adopt this sudden change of teaching methodology. While online tools have all along been a supplementary means to instruction, it is now the sole channel through which instruction can be delivered. Further, a by-product of the pandemic is its effect on the mental well-being of students. Winthrop (2020) stressed the need to provide support for learners so as to lower anxiety and secure their mental well-being considering the circumstances. Being taken out of their natural environment, kids have the tendency to feel depressed and entrapped now that they are grounded at home due to the pandemic. Adedoyin and Soykan (2020) consolidated this with the observation that the increased email communications directed toward the teachers, especially during the times of the pandemic may very well lead to mental health problems. It is also worth noting that conducting and attending classes from home have proven to come with its own set of challenges. Adedoyin and Soykan (2020) found that disruption and intrusion in the learning environment at home include the presence and intrusion from family members and in some instances, even pets. Moreover, according to Fishbane and Tomer (2020), a student’s overall socioeconomic condition could greatly impact their accessibility to reliable internet access and have the odds stacked against them in catching up with the rest of the class, thus causing them to fall behind. What is more, assessing students online during this pandemic will prove to be the biggest challenge yet, as suggested by Kevin Gannon, the Director of Center for Excellence in Teaching, Grand View University (Flaherty, 2020). It was concluded that online learners are not going through the same learning opportunities and experiences in this time of crisis; hence, revision of current grading systems is utmost necessary. Adedoyin and Soykan (2020) suggested the need for edu-tech to channel

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encroachment of studies towards developing alternate ways of assessment to curb academic dishonesty such as plagiarism and cheating. Lastly, a highly considerable issue is compatibility concerns with regard to practical courses and research work. Online learning may offer virtual labs and simulations, which could only meet the theory-to-practice gap and it is not practical in some fields or disciplines (Iqbal et  al., 2015; Adedoyin & Soykan, 2020). According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, medical apprentices were instructed to withhold any form of physical contact with patients when the pandemic hit. They are, however, to return to face-to-face clinical practices required for the completion of their clerkship once the restrictions for COVID-19 were lifted. This example illustrates that higher education studies involving clinical practices are not compatible with the framework of online learning (Murphy, 2020a, b; Adedoyin & Soykan, 2020). To add, the Malaysian Higher Education Ministry had submitted a proposal to seek the approval of the government to allow postgraduate students to resume work grounded in research. It was argued that research and development are the means that propel the growth and prosperity of the society, and as such, the halting of university operations would render months or even years of research work useless (Razak, 2020). HEIs have also demanded clearer guidelines for the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) pertaining to universities (The Star, 2020).

3  Methodology 3.1  Research Design This study adopts a qualitative case study approach since the core of this research was to inquire and interpret the meaning-making process (Patton, 2015). Based upon real-world situations, case studies often lead to a rich and holistic collection of an experience. It offers insights and illuminates meanings that expand its readers’ experiences. The qualitative approach is best applicable in studies attempting to answer questions pertaining to the how’s or why’s. Because the subject of COVID-19 and managing change implementation in e-learning is still budding, it is expected that most studies would be take on the qualitative approach.

3.2  Instrumentation, Sampling, and Data Collection The core of a research finding comes from a selected population to research on. This study employs purposive sampling method. The researchers who participate in qualitative studies tend to go with the way of purposive sampling (Merriam, 2009). Purposive sampling is crucial when a researcher intends to concentrate on the respondents who possess certain criteria or characteristics or geographical

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proximity which benefits the relevance of the study (Patton, 2015). As such, this is defined as the target population or actual population. The participants of this study were a total of three members of the Management Team from private higher education institutions in Malaysia. The reason for selection of the participants was their involvement in managing the implementation of technology and digital environment in the case study. A crucial criterion is also that the respondents must have been with the institution for a minimum of 2 years to ensure that they are familiar with its culture and operations. Owing to the existing limitations in this field of study and topic, this research collects data from these select respondents only. Despite the small sample size, a qualitative inquiry poses no restrictions to sample size, and sample sizes are subjected to the goals and practicality of the study alongside time and resource constraints. Identification and selection of individuals who are proficient and well-informed with the significance of the study is the core of a purposeful sampling (Miles et al., 2014). It is also important to note that narrowing down the samples assist in the generalizability of this study. Semi-structured interviews, document review, and participant observation approaches were be used to collect data for this qualitative research design. Due to the pandemic situation, the interviews were conducted online using online platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet considering the convenience of the participants. Based on themes that coincide with the research questions and related studies, these semi-structured questions were constructed. The advantage of this is that it allows interviewees the flexibility to further expand on their responses where need be. As a result, the data gathered would more likely yield more interpretation and hence, leading to new insights in the findings. In this study, document review refers to a wide range of written, visual, digital, and physical material relevant to the focus of the study as management of digital environment. Official records, newspaper reports, government documents, videos, and photographs were some of the data sources (Merriam 2009) categorized under document review in this study. Data was also gathered based on the method of participant observation. Patton (2002) underscores that “experiencing the case as an insider accentuates the participant part of participant observation. Simultaneously, the observer remains aware of being an outsider.” The interview protocol designed was semi-structured and retrospective. It was created as such in order to gather information that can later be compared and contrasted. Semi-structured interviews are often best conducted toward the end of a study (Fraenkel et al., 2012). The interview is also retrospective as it draws on the respondents’ memory and past experiences in some cases. The interview protocol consists of two parts relevant to the research questions and different themes found in the literature; however, constant probing is necessary to gather more detailed information. The kinds of questions projected in the interview protocol are knowledge questions, experience questions, and opinion (or values) questions (Fraenkel et al., 2012). The interviews were recorded with permission from the respondents. The respondents, of course, will be assured beforehand that all information conveyed would be kept confidential.

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3.3  Validity and Reliability The use of triangulation through a variety of instruments increases the validity of the findings (Fraenkel et al., 2012, p. 458). The researchers’ reflexity was practiced during the interviews; that is, recording personal thoughts while conducting observations and interviews in order to be checked against other remarks and observations. The semi-structured interview protocol that was used is paired with detailed probing. This helped to keep the findings more focused and facilitated a clearer analysis and emergent themes. The data was triangulated by using multiple data sources from the interviews. Triangulation was also presented through multiple methods of data collection— interviews, participant observation, and document review. To ensure internal validity and credibility, the strategy of member checks (also called respondent validation) was used to solicit feedback from respondents on emergent findings. Maxwell (2005) purported that this is the “single most important way of ruling out the possibility of misinterpreting” what respondents say as well as a way to check your own biases or misconceptions of what was observed. Validity of research findings was also established through audit trail. It is a qualitative strategy with an in-depth approach to show that the results were derived from narratives of respondents instead of researcher bias and preconceived notions.

3.4  Data Analysis The data was analyzed through thematic analysis. The flexibility of thematic analysis affords rich, detailed interpretations. As Joffe (2011) denotes, thematic analysis is the most methodical and evident forms of such work, partially because it holds the prevalence of themes to be so important, without sacrificing depth of analysis. This study employed the Miles and Huberman (1994) Qualitative Data Framework. The framework suggests that qualitative data analysis comprises “three concurrent flows of activity: data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing/ verification” (1994, p. 10). The majority of researchers support that data reduction and condensation, that is, the process of seeking meaning, ought to begin and persist throughout data collection. The purpose of data analysis was to uncover patterns, concepts, emergent themes, and meaning garnered from the interviews. By applying thematic analysis, open codes were produced and subsequently clustered into multiple categories (Miles & Huberman, 1994; Creswell, 2008). Qualitative research can be intricate; hence, this research follows the logic of the Carnel’s Ladder of Analytical Abstraction, also mentioned in Miles and Huberman (1994), to frame the qualitative nature of the study. At the first stage, the data

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collected (interviews and other texts) were summarized and coded. The next stage involved ascertaining themes and trends within the data, establishing key concepts and variables. Lastly, the third stage is where the researcher attempts to delineate the “deep structure” of the study by mapping patterns and proposing explanations.

4  Results and Discussion 4.1  M  anaging Change and Digital Transformation amid the COVID-19 Crisis Analysis of the findings revealed several emergent themes under the first research question. The themes can be categorized under five dimensions: journey of implementation, the leader’s role in managing change, policies and procedures, best practices, and preemptive measures. 4.1.1  Journey of Implementation The respondents of the study revealed similar experiences in that the implementation of e-learning in their higher education institutions during the COVID-19 was very abrupt and that their faculties were under prepared. The change to migrate fully online took place almost overnight leaving minimal to no time to devise a proper plan to be put in motion. This also meant that aside from dealing with unchartered online territory, lecturers were also asked to work from home which poses a trial in terms of coordinating this change. For most institutions, the semester had already begun and they were well on their way into the study term, with arrangements being made prior to assignments and assessments. In an instant, all that had to be modified and adapted. The responses garnered suggested that the implementation of such a hasty and drastic change was met with much struggle. It was also noted that the challenge came in part because most of them had no prior experience in conducting online-based learning. R1 “It was really challenging because we were asked to immediately try to convert everything online.” R2 “When that announcement was made, we had only one and a half day to put everything in place.” R3 “...and so when this whole thing happened, it was very difficult we had been doing certain things physically. We had nothing online. And then suddenly, we have to go fully online.”

In the early stages of implementation, respondents disclosed that they were very much left up to their own devices in deciding which platforms to use for the purpose of online learning. Educators were told to cope with the situation with what they have as long as instruction and lesson delivery continues. This evidence of the lack

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in digital preparedness was also evident in the works of Joshi et  al. (2020) and Almaiah et al. (2020). R1 “Probably would have been nice if all lecturers used the same platform at one institution, but then that’s not necessarily the case.” R3 “Regarding the platforms, we were left entirely up to our own devices.”

4.1.2  Leader’s Role in Managing Change When asked about what they thought were a leader’s role in navigating the team through this change, respondents had several substantial viewpoints to share. One of the biggest indicators of leadership trait commonly agreed upon by all respondents was that communication and transparency are the keys. Findings tell us that during the uncertain times of a crisis, implementation of a huge digital change such as this requires that all parties be on the same page and if there were many layers to the management, they need be consistent with the message being conveyed. It is also crucial that the underlying reasons behind these changes be made known to relevant stakeholders in the institutions. One respondent mentioned that clear communication is vital not only between lecturer and students but also among lecturers themselves so that teething problems can be quickly resolved and the same message is represented by the institution. It is ultimately crucial that those in administrative or managerial positions in HEIs be aware of what message is being sent when explaining the need to substitute physical instruction with online alternatives. Minimized resistance will inadvertently facilitate the implementation of e-learning particularly during these times of the Covid-19 pandemic (Ali, 2020). As a leader too, it was said that it is pertinent that one rises above the bureaucracy at the time. In times of crisis, employees often appreciate a caring voice or a certain amount of empathy from their immediate supervisors or representatives of the management. Leaders checking on their staffs will increase employee motivation and offer the much-needed encouragement especially when everyone is working remotely from home, lacking in the usual interpersonal connection. R2 “We have one of the directors that will send out letters or emails to all staff to just keep everybody…” R3 “So if I were to look back now, I would see the leaders that I do remember during the height of this or when it the lockdown, the true leaders were the ones who we knew by name or face.” “So one of rules of the leader, in my view, is always the leader must rise above bureaucracy.”

Respondents also expressed that being a leader in a middle management position, there is a need to be able to consider both ends, the needs of the staff and the standing of the senior management. People management is never easy. Educators,

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for example, may have their set of qualms with seemingly (from their end) senseless decisions made by the senior management. It is then the task of a leader in middle management to carefully navigate the circumstances and ensure that intentions are well communicated. As much as that may be a challenge, it is important for a leader to remain impartial in order to ensure a smooth transition. R2 “Being the middle person, I see from the point of view of the staff. But I also see the point of view from the management.”

Another notable point made by one of the respondents was that leaders must have a contingency plan for crisis management. This would warrant a smoother transition during times of change, avoiding loss of time and resources. R3 “…you should have some backup plan for crisis management.”

4.1.3  Policies and Procedures Ad hoc changes in policies were also observed in the implementation of this change. Procedures were adjusted to suit the circumstances that came with COVID-19, and temporary policies were enacted surrounding the areas of study duration, grading, attendance, and academic administration. As a result of the pandemic, teaching and learning was moved online, and the management needed to make swift and prompt decisions to lift the online programs off the ground. Therefore, short-term policies were enacted to keep everyone in line and ensure that everyone knew the direction which was being taken. R1 “…a few short-term policies were decided and implemented. So obviously, most of these things came from top to bottom…And to be fair to the management, we also needed to act quickly.” R3 “When there is a crisis, democracy needs to work alongside decisive and also very clear-headed decisions.”

Other perspectives revealed that the management met on a weekly and when-­ needed basis to discuss policy-related decisions. It was mentioned that some decisions, which may appear unthought, were actually deliberated over several weeks before a final consensus was reached. A lot of thought and consideration were actually put into these decisions made. R2 “This is not something we discuss over a weekend and a decision is made. It can be over a few weeks before anything is decided.”

Another finding shared was that despite the meetings that were held to reach a consensus, democracy sometimes gets in the way, resulting in lack of a prompt decision and a much-needed solution.

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R3 “So… they have these meetings and there’s a lot of democracy; democracy meeting all to be discussing their complaints…but my understanding was that there was very little solution.”

Taking into account challenges surrounding digital disparity, the policy around student attendance has also been revised to take into account students who may struggle with being present throughout or at all for online classes. With that in mind, some of these institutions have taken the policy on barring due to attendance off the table for the period of e-learning during COVID-19. R1 “We implement no barring of attendance at this time.” R3 “The University decided students will not be barred because of attendance.”

Additionally, a common policy implementation shared by all respondents was in regards to assessment and evaluation due to the teaching and learning process now being in a virtual setting. These institutions did away with final examinations, and traditional assessments were replaced with on-going projects and evaluations. R1 “Instead of giving them normal grades, ABCDE until F, we just give them pass or fail.” R3 “So the biggest change by far since COVID-19 is no more exams.”

For some institutions, adjustments were made to the length of study and duration of synchronous online classes, hence altering what constitutes the program structure. Studies reveal that learners are only able to retain focus for less than an hour at a time when studying online; thus, by that logic, most online classes were shortened and coupled with asynchronous e-learning activities through the help of blended and flipped classroom approaches. R2 “Program structure has changed, duration has changed over policies concerning…”

Over time, changes were also managed in terms of the administration of academic activities surrounding online teaching. Lecturers adhere to new procedures with regards to types of virtual learning tools, format of materials, class recordings, and so on. R3 “We have got a huge truckload of tech policies to implement…”

To elaborate further, findings from Almaiah et al. (2020)‘s study indicated that cyber security is a key factor that influences the adoption of e-learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study’s respondents were convinced that HEIs are responsible in ensuring that the e-learning system deployed by the institutions is trustworthy. This includes protection of the learning platforms, reliability of e-­learning systems as well as data protection and privacy. From the same study, it was also disclosed that it is crucial for institutions to regularly keep security systems

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up-to-date and ensure that all learning activities are conducted in line with policy and privacy regulations. Observations from the researchers also reveal similar practices within the HEIs investigated in this chapter. Online learning systems are periodically maintained and updated. Backups are also run regularly to ensure that data and information are saved in the event that there is a threat to the system. One of the institutions studied uses an in-house social learning platform with a unique login code for each student. Students would log onto to online classes and access course materials using the login info provided. Zoom Pro IDs were purchased by the institution for instructors to ensure that online class activities and recordings are streamlined and can be easily monitored. Students sign a letter of understanding which informs them of the protection of their data. However, as some students are attending the online classes from their home countries, internet browser and application restrictions from countries such as China pose a challenge for certain class activities. To overcome this problem, students have resorted to obtaining virtual private networks (VPNs) which allow them to bypass the system so they could access the learning materials. At the height of any successful implementation of digital transformation is the foundation of a solid policy to guide its execution. Stakeholders and policy makers in educational institutions have been found to revamp policies and procedures to ensure successful integration of ICT into online teaching and learning (Igbokwe et al., 2020). This sentiment is echoed by Ya (2020) who purported that education policies in response to the pandemic ought to adopt a long-term perspective. Administrators of institutions are urged to rethink the purpose of education and to move beyond exam-based assessments. 4.1.4  Best Practices When asked about some of the best practices conducted or observed in implementing digital change during the time of COVID-19, round-the-clock ICT support from the tech team was on top of the list of commonalities among all respondents. They all agree that there is a need for institutions to invest in and to ensure that the staff is given adequate support not only to safeguard the quality of instruction and delivery but also to help the team realize that they are not on their own and hence making it that much easier for them to cope with and survive the changes being implemented. Hands-on and immediate training to upskill technological competencies should be something that practiced not only during a crisis, but rather one that is continuous over time. R2 “The fact that the (ICT) support system is there, it makes everybody comfortable to adopt a change.”

Another crucial notion for best practice under these circumstances was the community building aspect or community sourcing of ideas. Respondents shared that

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their institutions conducted a number of surveys with instructors and students to identify their needs and get a better picture of what they are thinking. Crowdsourcing is not a new idea and has been proven to help promote innovation and creative ideas. In some cases, a solution can probably be found twice as quickly or all the more effective if the faculty’s viewpoints were taken into account. R2 “…meetings with other leaders or management of the institution and other universities… and what are the best practices that had been implemented.” R3 “And the last best practice is also on the issue of community building or community sourcing of ideas.”

Apart from that, having a leader capable of showing empathy was also another best practice behavior which was observable. It is important for a leader of a team, a department, or a faculty to touch base with their subordinates so as to reassure them they were not alone in dealing with the virtual environment during the pandemic. R3 “So he had emails where he would be like, ‘Hey guys, how are you doing?’ Just a shoutout to make sure you are okay, you know, just to touch base. And also the human touch. I think it was the only one who remembered we are people.”

Other best practices mentioned include online assignments and presentations. Students being more comfortable and confident giving presentations because it is online instead of a physical presence. Students have become more accountable and responsible in taking ownership of their own learning because there is now no excuse to not learn. Recorded lectures and course contents are put online for student access to study resources. It is accessible anytime and anywhere. Furthermore, cultivating a culture of people who are open to changes and learning to listen to opposing views has also been found helpful in these times. It was claimed that staff members are more accepting towards change when this trait is present. Last but not least, it is important to have a clear ideology regarding how a leader intends to communicate and whether or not you want to practice transparency. 4.1.5  Preemptive Measures A huge part of managing a crisis and sudden change is not only attributed to how well things are handled at the time but also how much foresight and thought had been put into planning and preparation for unforeseen circumstances. Varying opinions were gathered from the respondents, each of whose institutions have put in place different plans to preempt similar events in the future. One response highlighted that the institution has been investing time and financial resources in enhancing their online platforms and resource materials. They see e-learning as a way forward that affords learning in some sort of a hybrid module

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even post-pandemic. By pouring more into improving the virtual learning environment at their institution, they stand to gain positives should they be faced with a similar crisis down the road. Another respondent insisted on the importance of having some backup plan for crisis management—a plan that kicks in the moment the crisis hits. The respondent also implored university managements to peruse the talent and experts on the matter present in the university. Respondents also cautioned that in times of crisis, it is crucial to take heed and not to jump on the bandwagon in resuming physical classes even though institutions were allowed to reopen post lockdown. R2 “…that schools are allowed to open, but we decided not to because we foresee that this will happen. We will shut down and everybody, has to, you know, revert back to online and we have decided that that is not the best model.” “And even if we were to go face to face, I think we are looking at or planning for something of a hybrid model. So we are investing more time and money in our platform, resources, and materials.”

Another finding indicated that as part of an effort to prepare for the future, continuous training and professional development to up-skilled faculty members on digital competence were initiated. R1 “The management has organized quite a number of training events and workshops to, first of all, introduce different online platforms. And we have also had training sessions or workshops where we invite from among staff who are much more, you know, based on feedback that we receive from students, those who actually excel better when it comes to online teaching.”

Ali (2020) posited that there is a great need for institutions lacking in digital preparation to have in place a preemptive plan to avoid the extra demands and stresses that accompany such a drastic change in times of crisis. Research draws on the examples of universities such as New York University and Duke Kunshan University that successfully adapted and swiftly deployed the use of edu-tech applications. Universities with prior experience in digital preparedness seem to adapt better as they were not beginning from zero with new and untested digital solutions (Czerniewicz, 2020). Similarly, technophobia is a component that needs to be tackled to ensure smooth implementation of e-learning in HEIs, and one of the most effective ways is indeed to provide adequate training, professional development, and support to staff members in need. It will not only benefit the faculty in this time of crisis, but this continuous growth will be an advantage to the institution post-Covid (Igbokwe et al., 2020). Most educational institutions that managed to stay afloat in these times were those with the foresight to have invested in ICT infrastructures and trained their team of staff to be tech-inclined.

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4.2  E  -Learning Implementation During COVID-19: Issues and Challenges The study has also brought to light a number of pressing issues and challenges that ought to be given focus to. Based on the data collected, several prominent themes have been identified and the issues surrounding the implementation of e-learning in HEIs during the COVID-19 pandemic can be grouped into the following categories: technology resource and funding, stakeholders including staff and students, assessments and learning outcomes, mental health as well as practical courses and research work. 4.2.1  Technology Resource and Funding In terms of ICT resources, findings returned a mixed bag of replies. In one institution, lecturers had requested for the management’s support in subscription fees for videoconferencing tools but were turned down due to restrictions in funding. In almost all responses, it was found that digital disparity among staff was a valid concern. Some faculty staff members did not have working computers or personal laptops that could handle the capacities of online learning activities. In some institutions, educators cannot afford videoconferencing and e-learning software. It was shared that in some institutions, this was resolved with help from the institution with paid Microsoft services and others offered their on-site facility as an option for a working station so long as the center was within the permitted travel distance during the lockdown. R1 “What is often perhaps neglected is digital disparity among staff. Not all lecturers, I would say, have internet connection at home or even their own laptop.” “We did have many lecturers who asked if the management or the institution can support subscription fees for Zoom or Webex, but we had to tell them no, we really don’t have any financial resources to cover for that.” R2 “Staff has issues with like equipment; they do not have the necessary tools and this will be provided by the institution.” R3 “It was a decision that made a lot of sense because the university basically bought free Microsoft Office for every staff and student.”

Few education systems and even the highest performing may struggle to offer e-learning for all learners at such an unprecedented scale. The advancement of ed-­ tech is often too rapid for institutions and the decision-makers within them to keep up with particularly in terms of cost and infrastructure support (World Bank, 2020b). This is echoed by the concerns raised by Ya (2020).

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4.2.2  Team of Staff All respondents reported similarities in the challenges for staff who are parents working from home. With the enforcement of the Movement Control Order (MCO) in the country, schools are shut and hence schooling children are also staying home. Working parents find themselves navigating homeschooling, spending more time with their kids than usual, fighting over the internet bandwidth, all while trying to keep a job and coping with the changes that come with it. It is a stressful time. Respondents revealed that the teaching staff face disruption with conducting online classes due to these environmental factors at home. It is typically hard to conduct an online class while you have a toddler seeking your attention every few minutes or so. R1 “Lecturers who have small children shouldn’t because now they cannot send them to day care centres, you have to take care of your of your kids and do all the work at home, household duties and so on, cooking, cleaning at the same time. Also try to continue with online teaching so these are challenges that we have to take into account.” R2 “We have staff that has got small kids at home is also another issue.” R3 “…they do have a great not only stress, but burden of guilt. They’re not paying attention to their children and things like that. So that is another big issue moving forward is overwhelmingly a lot. Teachers are women as well. Of course, I’m not saying men are not doing childcare, but doing less.”

In line with that, respondents also feel the need for class times and schedule blocks to be adjusted to suit the capacity and attention span of students learning online and to better suit the dynamics of working from home. R3 “We need to think about how to create something better, make the timetable shorter, because a lot of our times our lectures are like three hours, two hours. We need to, like, change fundamentally the teaching time slot… So I think those structural issues are not addressed in any way, shape or form.”

Most prominently, the issue of digital competence is the most undeniable challenge facing the faculty of staff throughout the implementation of this precipitous digital transformation as a result of the pandemic. One would think that in this day and age, most people, educators nonetheless, would be comfortable navigating the use of educational technology tools. But research findings tell us that institutions struggle with senior lecturers who have almost never incorporated ICT in their instruction having to move fully online. These lecturers are most often at loss and warped in frustration. Generational gap in technology competence aside, there are groups of teaching and administrative staff in general who struggle with adapting to basic features of working with online documents and applications. These can stem from a general resistance towards the use of technology and lack of continuous training. R2 “Not being too IT savvy is also another issue.” R3 “The main issues and challenges, which I also mentioned is the generational issue, the digital native versus the analog folks. I think that will be the biggest generational issue. And I don’t see that being addressed at all currently because in order to reach these analog folks...”

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A study conducted by Ali (2020) revealed that actors in higher education institutions have been working around ICT in teaching and learning, but a considerable number (92%) still lack the confidence to fully integrate technology into their lectures. This could be attributed to the way that ICT tools are and learning platforms are administered and managed. Hence, staff members who are making a shift to a virtual platform needs to be trained and equipped with the skills to effectively execute and prepare for the demands of online learning (Ali, 2020; World Bank, 2020). This point is further consolidated by Igbokwe (2020) stating that some educators and the majority of students may not be computer literate and this poses a major challenge because if the participants have little knowledge of how e-learning works, then the solution has limited effectiveness. 4.2.3  Student Challenges As much as the lecturers are dealing with issues related to tech resource, students are no better and those who come financially destitute backgrounds struggle the most. These students are reliant on the university’s ICT resources (strong WiFi connection, computer lab, etc.) and with the lockdown being imposed, most have either moved back to their hometowns or lost access to these amenities. Some institutions face issues with students who were newly enrolled but were still in their home country, compounding further problems including poor internet connectivity and regular power outages in the city. R3 “I think the biggest challenges and also other kinds of resources, not just money, but resources in terms of learning environments.” “On a practical level for students it’s also about affordability of the devices for online learning.”

The generation of learners today is exposed to tech gadgets from a very young age regardless of where they are located in the world (Shava et al., 2016). A study by Jesse (2015) concluded that a majority (99.8%) of students have some form of access to mobile phones. However, the conception that access to digital tools equals digital literacy is a far cry from the truth. The World Bank (2020) noted that just pointing students to large online repositories, without the necessary skills and guidance, will not pan out well especially in times of a pandemic isolation. O’Sullivan (2018) agrees that the majority of youth does demonstrate limitations in digital literacy. In addition, there is also a shared sentiment from students across institutions regarding the amount of school fee paid during the period of online learning in times of the COVID-19. Complaints were received from students or student bodies pertaining to the fact that tuition fees ought to be reduced seeing that lectures were now online and that fees for certain services and amenities should not be included.

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R1 “In addition to the tuition fees, also charged is resource fees. So the resource fees are paid every semester. The resource fees, as you would imagine, would cover the student’s facilities that we have on campus computers, a software library, and also the facilities that are non-academic like the multi-purpose hall, sports facilities and things like that. So now the students are at home. Parents and students make the suggestion or to complain why?” R2 “There’s another group of students who feel that they should not be paying the same fees as face-to-face because this is an online class.”

According to the respondents, another downside of having students studying online is that it is difficult to ascertain whether or not the student was truly present in class because often, turning on the webcam is an option, especially with a larger class size. The other challenges posited with regards to e-learning during the pandemic is a drop in enrollment as classes migrate online. International borders are closed and new students are held back from entry, and existing students may have opted out of the online module for various reasons. 4.2.4  Assessment and Learning Outcomes Assessments and evaluations are an integral part of the current education system. The arrival of COVID-19 has forced educational practitioners to redefine what assessments mean in the online realm. As mentioned earlier, most institutions have halted the final examinations and opted for a more on-going model of assessment and evaluation. Even so, there are those who are concerned that the shift in learning models may affect the quality of learning outcomes, the repercussions of which may only be visible in years to come. On top of that, it was mentioned that plagiarism is another major aspect to consider when it comes to assessing students online without a proper policy around academic honesty and the right tools to conduct the assessments. R1 “The other important challenge, which students also when it comes to online teaching, would be when it comes to assessment, especially the tests and examinations, because we don’t see them.” “So when it comes to supervising or invigorating, we don’t know whether they actually copy or peace. So we use a lot of Google, Google Drive or Google Form for the online assessment. So it’s difficult really because if it’s a large class, it’s difficult to track whether students have copied and pasted from the Internet.” R2 “There are some doubts in certain teachers in terms of the whole evaluation criteria, whether students are meeting the quality.” R3 “I worry whether they are able to learn as much or as effectively in this kind of environment, which in the learning outcomes…”

4.2.5  Mental Health The emotional and mental well-being of those affected are often overlooked and overshadowed by other factors that seemingly take much more precedence because it is often unseen. The issue of mental health had been anticipated to become the

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second most common health issue in Malaysia following cardiac disease in the year 2020. According to the most recent National Health and Morbidity Survey, 30% of those from the ages of 16 and above are expected to experience some form of mental health complications (CodeBlue, 2020). To support, The Centre, a Malaysian think tank company conducted a study on the mental health well-being of participants during the lockdown period (MCO), and the findings were not encouraging. Close to 50% of the respondents reported having gone through mental health concerns with varying levels of severity (Malay Mail, 2020). With e-learning, online instruction will lack the social factor present in face-to-face learning. Igbokwe et al. (2020) posited that this could very well lead to emotional and psychological breakdown aside from isolation. Most institutions have reportedly no proper SOP or measures in place to help students cope with mental health issues while experiencing distance learning in this time. R3 “The last one is the emotional, psychological issues, because I did have a few students with those issues and because everything is online, those who prefer like a human touch…I probably could not reach out to them. I did have one student who almost committed suicide…”

This view is echoed by Hall (2020) who strongly advocates that mental health is a major aspect that is often overlooked in times of crisis. Inside the collective uncertainty generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, he says, the anxiety machine feeds on the perpetual energy and its internal integrity, regardless of the stress of individuals and the collective. “Well-being is an oversight in seeking to maintain the validity of academic commodity fetishism through business continuity strategies” (Hall, 2020). To further consolidate this view, similar opinions were indicated by Winthrop (2020) as well as Adedoyin and Soykan (2020). Hall (2020) also mentioned that the pandemic has diminished the importance of relationships as it is overcast by discourse about employability, entrepreneurship, excellence, impact, satisfaction, and value-for-money. What is overlooked and should be at the core of attention are the traumas, griefs, alienation, and reflections of people as they are forced to redefine themselves and their priorities. In managing change of digital transformation in times of crisis, an important factor to consider is how educators and staff members are handling the drastic changes that are happening. An employee who may never have had to use e-learning features could suddenly be tossed into the deep end of the ocean, drowning in a sea of unfamiliarity. In order for transition to be smooth, staff members (and students) need to be kept in-check and ensured that they are feeling capable and ready to navigate through these unchartered waters. 4.2.6  Practical Courses and Research Studies As most lectures can be feasibly migrated online, not all programs and courses have the same affordances for long-term virtual learning environments. Findings revealed that some courses which are more practical based had to be restructured and

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postponed until a time that physical classes are possible. During the brief Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO) period, some institutions had resumed physical studies for certain faculties and research candidates so that they are able to conduct activities within the physical compound of the university. R1 “The other ones for students would be when it comes to conducting practical based courses… we have also a program in our school on entertainment arts. So we have subjects which is basically teaching about movement and dance and singing. So that one we could not we could not do.” R3 “Other issues that we don’t face but science people definitely face is the researcher. All the R&D people are suffering because they cannot go and do the R&D. So that becomes a major challenge going forward because how to migrate R&D online for certain people is impossible.”

In May 2020, the proposal by the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) was granted the approval to allow postgraduate students to resume research work. The Defense Minister at the time, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced that the permission was granted to over 30,000 students from 462 HEIs across the nation (Povera and Harun 2020). The types of research activities allowed were research and testing, analytical services, research audit, maintenance of research equipment, and calibration activities. Participant observations from the researchers confirm that partial lab openings were carried out for faculties such as engineering as well as agriculture and forestry. Research students are allowed on campus to use the labs for research based on scheduled sessions adhering to COVID-19 SOPs. Examples were also given of student researchers from architecture faculties replacing physical research methods with simulation software. The findings from such methods, however, required additional validation techniques. Razak (2020) called for changes at the policy level to attend to the needs of HEIs. It was argued that the policy surrounding research work at the postgraduate level should not be equated with rules that govern schools or undergraduate studies. It was said that it cannot be “subjected to an on-off system as per the MCOs.” He disagreed with the opinion of policy-making authorities who believe that the issue with work grounded in research or practical courses can be mitigated if not conducted optimally solely through the deployment of e-learning technology. To conclude the findings, what we learned from this research is to see the current situation as an opportunity to speed up the digital transformation process and enrich change management practices specifically in HEIs. Similarly, Ya (2020) believes that COVID-19 has given the world a chance to rebuild its education systems pertaining to digital transformation. The findings from this study will further benefit the administration and the management of higher learning institutions in preempting and preparing for future decision-making with regards to the implementation of e-learning to suit the needs of diverse students (Demuyakor, 2020). As highlighted by Peters et al. (2020), these data gathered at the height of the pandemic may not be able to provide systemic answers to the obstacles the world is encountering; nevertheless, the experiences and perspectives recorded are vital sources of input for future post-pandemic global dialogue.

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5  Conclusion The COVID-19 pandemic has come with its set of issues and challenges especially in terms of digital transformation within HEIs. This chapter has highlighted ways in which the adoption of online learning during a pandemic or crisis can be better managed and how leaders of institutions can respond. This chapter has also shed light upon issues and challenges within the context of HEIs in Malaysia, as well as an array for plausible preemptive measures that institutions can set up in preparation for similar adversities in the future. Findings of this study have revealed that a leader’s role is crucial in ensuring a positive experience during a crisis for a more successful outcome. It has also indicated that policies and procedures surrounding courses, attendance, and assessments need to be adapted and revised to suit the needs of the crisis at hand. Preemptive measure is also a key component in ensuring that this type of change can be well-managed. Additionally, the challenges in digitally transforming learning in HEIs during the COVID-19 pandemic have been discussed in detail based on several themes: technology resource and funding, team of staff, student challenges, assessment and learning outcomes, practical courses and research work, as well as mental health. The implication of this study is that it can serve as a guide for the management of higher education institutions to recognize possible barriers and better prepare for them in the future. For educators, it is evidence that adoption of technology and the competence in it is no longer just an option, but a prerequisite. It also shows that institutions are capable of digital change within a short amount time and more can be achieved if resources and energy were channeled toward the e-learning initiative. Further, it is also hoped that the findings can serve as a foundation for clearer steadfast planning among policy makers, both macro and micro, in future decision-­ making during a crisis within the setting of HEIs. Further studies can be conducted in other settings so that we help build a repertoire of best practices for the management of digital transformation in the face of a world crisis. Future research could look into the management of this at different levels of study, scales, or learning institutions. Apart from that, studies could also center on the steps HEIs have taken to manage courses involving practical training, such as in the field of medicine, culinary, security, applied sciences, and engineering. Additionally, advancing studies in cyber security is another possible vantage point that brings implications necessary for governments, ministries of education, and standard setting bodies in order to strengthen the infrastructure that educational institutions rely on as well as to provide secure future proof solutions for the downstream entities, such as universities and colleges, to derive fit-for-purpose learning delivery systems efficiently, safely and securely. Not to mention, future studies can venture into the financial strategies and budgeting plans that address the financial adversity within HEIs and its various counterparts, brought upon by the pandemic. Finally, perspectives from other actors and stakeholders within educational institutions regarding this topic would also be of great contribution to the literature pertaining to one of the most tragically momentous events in history.

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Challenges and Implications of Digital Transformation in Higher Education: A Student Perspective from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia Madeeha Saqib, Tooba Nasir, Hina Gull, Dina A. Alabbad, and Sardar Zafar Iqbal Abstract  COVID-19-related lockdowns have changed the human work practices in all spheres of life including the higher education sector. Conventional classrooms have had to be transformed to online classrooms, which required readiness from technical infrastructure and human usage perspective. In this chapter, we present the results of a qualitative study conducted in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, and these results highlight challenges faced by students with online education during the pandemic. Majority of the students mentioned that online classes, due to COVID-19, have affected their learning; however, they still prefer online exams and lecturing, which indicate advantages of online exams for students. The results of the study also show the students’ preference at the end of the pandemic to enroll for on-­ campus classes. The study population was dominated by students from Pakistan which may have biasness on the results. In the future, more qualitative studies may be carried out in order to understand the issues in more depth with a balanced set of samples. Keywords  Higher education · Digital transformation · Technology adoption · Online learning · Student engagement

M. Saqib (*) · H. Gull · D. A. Alabbad · S. Z. Iqbal Department of Computer Information Systems, College of Computer Science and Information Technology, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] T. Nasir Department of Computer Science, Iqra University, Islamabad, Pakistan e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 S. Saeed et al. (eds.), Pandemic, Lockdown, and Digital Transformation, Public Administration and Information Technology 7, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86274-9_9

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1  Introduction Due to the unavailability of approved medicines against COVID-19, social distancing is considered as optimal approach to reduce the rapid spread of this virus. To enforce social distancing, different countries have taken different actions which include curfews, quarantines, closure of business activities, and movement restrictions. Such measures have affected the business continuity in every domain and as a result digital transformation has been rushed in different business environments (Gull et al., 2020b). Educational institutions, as with everything else, have had to adopt to life during the pandemic, with closures around the world bringing the shift to e-learning (SAR Higher Education Team, 2020; World Bank, 2020). When the educational institutions started to shut down at the start of the pandemic during March 2020, according to UNESCO, 1.37 billion students in 138 countries across the globe were out of school. Soon after schools and higher education institutions in 188 countries moved teaching online, which brought with it many challenges (Basilaia & Kvavadze, 2020; Bao, 2020; ESN & IAU, 2020; Toquero, 2020; Yan, 2020). Technological adoption is a complex process, and rapid adoption rates pose additional challenges for the stakeholders. Education is one of the important sectors where digital transformation has already resulted in a specialized area known as e-learning. Before the spread of COVID-19, however, e-learning had been relatively less popular. Pandemic outbreak has brought new challenges to education including the most important question: how to continue education while maintaining physical distance? This has resulted in transformation of physical classes to e-learning (Mladenova et al., 2020). Because of the risk of widespread of virus, thousands of educational institutions across the globe have had to shift to e-learning and have consequently faced challenges in using technology to provide education to their students (Toquero, 2020). Due to different geographical, technological, and sociocultural backgrounds, each region is confronted with their own unique set of challenges. In literature, there have been some studies focusing on different geographical regions such as China and Hong Kong (Mok et  al., 2021), Germany (Zawacki‐ Richter, 2021), and India (Muthuprasad et al., 2021). There is still, however, a need to further enrich the body of knowledge by presenting empirical studies from more geographical regions to develop best practices to foster good e-learning experience. Keeping this in view, in this chapter, we present the findings from our study conducted within higher education sectors of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, like other countries, have also adopted e-learning approach to maintain social distancing and to stop the spread of virus while continuing the educational activities. In countries such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, where education is one of the highest priorities for the governments, there is an innate need to understand and investigate the student’s perspective related to online education (Abdulrahim & Mabrouk, 2020). Saudi Arabia is ranked 34 in digital competitiveness out of 63 countries ranked by the IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking (IMD, 2020) showing it as one of the better performers in digital competitiveness at

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global level, whereas Pakistan being a developing country is not in the list, so our study takes both countries under consideration. This chapter is aimed at identifying the challenges and implications of digital transformation in higher education and dealing with these in the future. The rest of this chapter is structured as follows: Sect. 2 presents background of research, followed by the empirical data in Sect. 3. Section 4 provides a discussion on the empirical findings, and finally Sect. 5 draws conclusions on these findings.

2  Background of Research The paradigm shift from on-campus classes to online education occurred abruptly due to emergence of COVID-19 in educational institutions across the globe. The institutions and faculty members faced challenges in this transition to set up and deliver course contents and assessments online. There are several factors that have affected online learning including teachers’ preparations for online classes and assessments, “teacher-student and student-student engagement” in terms of teachers’ timely responses to students’ queries, and a more balanced workload for the students (Anifowoshe et al., 2020; Aristovnik et al., 2020b; Sun, 2016; Wu & Liu, 2013; Bao, 2020). Many faculty members were not trained for providing such online education, or lacked training with efficient use of computing equipment, and perhaps the biggest challenge of all has been the unreadiness to shift totally online (Ali, 2020; Händel et al., 2020; Mladenova et al., 2020; Toquero, 2020). For students, the total shift to online education has added to the challenges brought about by the pandemic with social (physical) distancing, movement restrictions, and their part-time odd jobs coming to a halt. In addition to these difficult circumstances, university students were also faced with dealing with a lack of access to infrastructure and equipment, electricity and internet connectivity issues, especially for those who had to leave their urban accommodations and move back to rural areas, and an increase in economic hardship (Adnan & Anwar, 2020; Aristovnik et al., 2020b; ESN & IAU, 2020; Mahdy, 2020; Demuyakor, 2020; Owusu-Fordjour et al., 2020; Wan, 2020; UNESCO, 2020a, b). Furthermore, Aristovnik et al. (2020b) noted e-learning, on the students’ part, requires more discipline and motivation than on-campus learning. Some researchers have observed negative impacts of e-­learning on students, due to lack of equipment and physical academic supervision more commonly among students in developing and underdeveloped nations, as opposed to more students satisfied with online learning and outcomes thereof who were from Europe and Oceania (Anifowoshe et al., 2020; Aristovnik et al., 2020a, b; Gonzalez et al., 2020; Kapasia et al., 2020; Owusu-Fordjour et al., 2020; Wang & Zhao, 2020). Changes in personal circumstances and emotional aspects of living in these unprecedented times of pandemic pose more challenges and affect students and their learning (Brooks et al., 2020; Händel et al., 2020; Ho et al., 2020; Pan, 2020; Shuja et al., 2020; Wang & Zhao, 2020). In their study with over 31,000 students from 133 countries, Aristovnik et  al. (2020a, b) noticed higher anxiety levels in

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students from developed countries compared to low anxiety and frustration levels in students from developing and underdeveloped countries. Händel et al. (2020) studied how (German) students were affected by socioemotional factors by COVID-19, focusing more on emotional and social loneliness, the relation between these emotions, and the effects thereof on studies and outcomes. They found that students with good equipment and better technical skills and experience were less stressed and felt less social loneliness. Establishing quality of online teaching, given individual differences, and access to educational and technical resources is a difficult task and more so during a pandemic (Händel et al., 2020). Adding into this equation a lack of finances, inadequate access to expensive mental health support, and access to necessities such as electricity, only ensures further stress and frustration for students. Some work has contributed toward making recommendations to ease the hardship of e-learning. Toquero (2020) and Barr et al. (2020) have suggested the inclusion of environment and public health courses into the curriculum, reinforced health policies on campus, and ensure more accessible online mental health and medical services. An important issue remains, however, training the faculty to deliver online education more proficiently and productively, ensuring they understand workload balance for the students so they are not left feeling overloaded with work, which in turn could possibly raise quality of learning and student satisfaction with e-learning (Adnan & Anwar, 2020; Bao, 2020; Händel et al., 2020). Healy et al. (2020) have recommended a three-stage “Respond, Recover, Thrive” methodology to battle future uncertainty that COVID-19 has brought along with other challenges faced by higher education institutions. Their proposed approach suggested institutions setting up short- and long-term goals, enacting a response team to deal with the daily challenges of teaching and learning, investigating novel teaching/learning plans, and setting up strategies to handle possible future crisis. To add further complexity, each academic discipline brings additional inherent challenges. Chatziralli et al. (2021) have carried out a study on the impact of virtual training on ophthalmology students and found huge challenges but also concluded that experience gained by teaching during pandemic may bring new opportunities for ophthalmology education in future. García-Alberti et al. (2021) have analyzed three Universities delivering civil engineering education in Peru and Spain and found the digital divide as one of core shortcomings. They concluded that there is a need to develop policies to support students for better adaptability to online learning. Luck et al. (2021) have documented their experiences and highlighted that augmented reality-based teaching approach can help in imparting surgical education during COVID-19 pandemic. Iwanaga et al. (2021) have highlighted that anatomy education has mainly relied on cadavers as main learning approach, but due to COVID-19 there is a need that anatomy educators develop new teaching methods to enhance learning in virtual environments. Ratten and Jones (2021) argued that entrepreneurship educational discourse could benefit from COVID-19 pandemic by putting more emphasis on integrating entrepreneurial education within society. Similarly, different researchers have explored and documented the empirical studies from different geographical regions to highlight the regional implications in

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combating COVID-19-related challenges faced by the education sector. Mok et al. (2021) explored mainland China and Hong Kong regions, Zawacki‐Richter (2021) highlighted German education sector, and Muthuprasad et  al. (2021) focused on Indian education sector. These works have contributed toward identification of challenges brought around by an abrupt switch from on-campus to online education in these specific geographic localities. However, there is still an innate need to document more case studies from different geographical regions to pool up the best practices that could aid educational institutions to select practices which may suit their own requirements and preferences.

3  Problem Statement and Methodology We were specifically interested in studying the student’s perception of the total shift to online learning and assessments. Since students are important stakeholders in the learning process, the answer to this question could help decision-makers to implement suitable measures to keep the students more engaged and motivated with learning. The findings in this chapter are based on a cross-sectional study where qualitative data was collected from university students in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The convenience sampling method was employed to get the online questionnaire filled. The questionnaire was developed by domain and item generation through precise study of literature (Abdulrahim et al., 2020; Adnan & Anwar, 2020). Content of questionnaire was validated through expert review as all items were analyzed by senior faculty members of universities in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, within an acceptable range of difficulty. Five Likert Scale model was used for main question statements. Questionnaire was divided into information regarding demography, education/knowledge of respondents, mode and extent of technological use, and then main questions about the impact of digital transformation. The survey was self-­ administrated and was conducted during November 2020. There was a total of 294 participants from Pakistan (78%) and Saudi Arabia (22%), and 80% of these were resided in urban areas while 20% were from rural residential areas. The participants’ ages ranged from 18 to 33 years, and there were 70% male participants with only 30% females. Majority of the students (73.8%) belong to Applied Sciences and Engineering disciplines. The findings of this study are presented in the next section.

4  Empirical Findings In this section, we document the findings from our empirical study.

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4.1  The Impact of COVID-19 on Learning Figure 1 shows students’ responses to how they perceive COVID-19 has affected their performance. When asked if they thought their university has taken adequate steps to respond to and tackle COVID-19, 23 respondents strongly agreed, 98 agreed, 66 remained neutral, 64 disagreed, and 43 strongly disagreed that their respective universities have taken adequate steps. About the resources provided by educational institutions, about 36% of the students remained neutral about the measures taken by their universities to ensure their learning is less impacted by COVID-19; however, around 57% were satisfied with their teaching staff. It was interesting to note the difference in online and on-campus registrations for courses. Most of the students said they registered for less courses online than they normally would on campus. A small number of students said they cancelled or dropped out of all their online classes because of COVID-19. Majority of students agreed that COVID-19 has had a significant effect on their performance in studies. Regarding the changes in workload with online learning, 41% of the students were satisfied with their workload; however, 66% of the students thought that online workload has increased significantly than on-campus workload. Most students, 64.3%, believe lack of campus facilities with online lectures, such as good computers, labs, and internet connection, has had a negative effect on their learning. 67% students reported they believe lack of infrastructure with online labs has had a negative impact on their learning.

4.2  On-Campus Lectures The bar-graph in Fig. 2 shows the responses of students’ experience with on-­campus lectures. Majority of students said they prefer on-campus lectures because (a) mandatory physical attendance in lectures ensures they are present both physically and mentally (76.5% students); (b) they feel compelled to pay more attention to the lectures with face-to-face interaction with faculty (75.85% students); (c) face-to-­ face interaction also makes it easier for them to understand lectures (83.33% students); and (d) they find on-campus lectures easier as they do not have to struggle with poor internet connections (67.34% students).

4.3  Online Lectures The questions about online education were divided into three subcategories, online lectures, online exams, and general aspects of online education. Figures 3 and 4 are based on data collected about online lectures.

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Fig. 1  COVID-19 has affected the student performance

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Fig. 2  On-campus lectures’ advantages

Fig. 3  Online lectures’ advantages

Figure 3 shows how students have been attending online lectures. 74.48% students attend online lectures at the scheduled times, and 26.8% students said they do not bother with online lectures at all. Figure 4 elaborates on the reasons for students to prefer online lectures. 46.59% of the students prefer online lectures because they can go at their own pace with the lectures and not the lecturers’. An obviously popular reason for 67.34% students to prefer online lectures was that they can choose to listen to the recorded lectures multiple times and correctly form concepts. Time flexibility remains another popular reason for choosing online lectures over on-campus with 65.98% students.

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Fig. 4  Online lectures’ advantages

Strongly Agree

Agree

Neutral

More difficult than on campus exams

Strongly Disagree

84

Lengthier than on-campus exams

65

Give me a better chance to pass the exams

61

Easier to attempt due to less stress of exam halls

75

10

34

80 92

52

38

86

82

84 47

87

87

100

Easier to attempt due to less hassle of getting to campus on time Easier to cheat on

Disagree

22

42 54

103

49

84

63

29 25

31

23 27

48

Fig. 5  Opinion about online exams

4.4  Opinions on Online Exams Online assessments are vulnerable to cheating and may not reflect the true performance level of students. Therefore, we wanted to know the perception of students regarding online assessments. Figure 5 presents students’ opinions on online exams. 51.7% students find online exams lengthier than on-campus exams; 54.08% students find online exams more difficult; however, 48.63% students think online exams provide them with a better chance to pass their courses. Moreover, 37.7% students insist online exams are not easier to cheat on. In addition, 63.6% students said they find online exams easier to attempt with less hassle of getting to campus for the exam, and 65.3% said they find online exams easier with reduced stress of exams halls.

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Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Leaves me feeling lonelier Lacks effective communication

Leaves me with less motivation to participate in lectures Makes it easier for me to lose interest in studying/learning

Is more stressful

84

75

33

66

40

78

57

29

26 22 32

55

89

70

29

66

83

78

85

54

63

59

57

69

43

Is not a substitute for campus life

Is more enjoyable

91

71

21

28

46

90

109

25 17

63

92

97

28

30

65

84

87

Is more boring due to less interaction with other students and the lecturer

I would recommend online education to other students

Strongly Disagree

57

48 48

Fig. 6  Opinion about online education

4.5  General Opinions About Online Education Online education requires more focus and dedication from students to perform well in their studies. Figure  6 shows students’ general opinions on online education. 44.89% students find online education more enjoyable, while 54.08% find it more stressful. 55.44% of the students think online education is no substitute for campus life, and 42.51% would not recommend it to other students. 54.08% students said they have found they lose interest in studying more easily, and 55.10% feel less motivated to participate in lectures, while 67.68% find online education more boring due to lack of interaction with other students and faculty; this is highlighted further with 58.16% students saying they feel lonelier with online education. 64.42% students think online education lacks effective communication.

4.6  Recommendations *If COVID-19 Was Not a Threat* We also asked students several questions about their motivations for continuing online education if the COVID-19 was no longer a threat. Figure 7 shows 75.51% students feel being on-campus helps them stay more physically active and 61.22% say they stay up-to-date with current affairs when they are on-campus. 65.98% students miss being on campus since they have been shifted to online education. 57.14% students say they would like to shift back to solely on-campus education once the pandemic is over, with 45.91% wanting a hybrid of on-campus and online education, followed by only 39.9% students wanting to stay totally online given the choice.

Challenges and Implications of Digital Transformation in Higher Education… Strongly Agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

I feel I stay more active physically when I am on campus I feel I stay uptodate with current affairs when I am on campus I miss being on campus when we shift to online education

A hybrid of online and on-campus education Solely on-campus education Solely online education

Strongly Disagree

127

95

96

I find it easier to do group-study on campus

84

44 1612 72

20 22

105

89

67

17 16

102

95

59

18 20

49

86

73 52

169

81

95 65

38

81

81

51

40 25 20 45

Fig. 7  Opinion about continuing online education

5  Concluding Discussion Online education is a paradigm shift for all stakeholders. Educational institutions need to update technological infrastructure and train human resources, whereas students need to get used to digital learning. Furthermore, COVID-19-associated lockdowns have added additional mental distress for all stakeholder making this digital transformation further complex (Gull et  al., 2020). Despite all the complexities, educational quality need not be compromised to foster better learning among students (Mumtaz et al., 2013; Siddiqui et al., 2015; Gull et al., 2020a; Almuhaideb & Saeed, 2020). As COVID-19 disruptions are not going to be over anytime soon, there is hence a need to carry out detailed empirical studies to continuously improve the students’ learning experience. Majority of the studies in the literature provide instructors’ perspective (Gull et al., 2018; Saeed et al., 2011); however, it is important to study the student’s perspective as well. In this study, the focus has been specifically on understanding how students are experiencing online learning and assessments. We have found that students find some positive aspects in online learning, such as being able to listen to the recorded lectures multiple times for better understanding of concepts and finding online exams easier due to less stress and hassle of exam halls. They do, however, face many technical and social challenges with online education as well. These findings dictate there is an elemental requirement to employ effective strategies to aid students in getting more accustomed to online learning and assessments. Furthermore, the responses show appropriate infrastructures are vital in fostering better learning, and the impact of digital divide can also be seen within responses. The respondents from Pakistan reported poor internet connections as one of the more important problems whereas respondents from Saudi Arabia reported these problems to be of much less impact. It was also evident that asynchronous teaching strategies are more beneficial than synchronous teaching strategies. Therefore, it is recommended to have both synchronous and asynchronous

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strategies simultaneously applied to enhance students’ learning. Online assessments are widely considered prone to cheating and that could be a possible reason for students to prefer online assessments. The data collected highlights students have an interest in online assessments so there is a need to design online assessments more appropriately. These assessments could include problem-based questions, and online exams could be virtually proctored to minimize cheating. Furthermore, the findings will help the governments to establish better learning environments in higher education sector of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Our study did not have an equal sample size from both countries which may have an impact on the findings of our study; therefore, in future more detailed studies with bigger sample size could improve our understanding of the problems and implications on the part of students. Moreover, we intend to study the implications and challenges that management has faced while transiting from conventional learning to online modules. It is scientifically very interesting to understand how problem-solving abilities of students are impacted with this transition to online learning and whether online learning is a way forward for academia. Keeping the view, the long-term presence of COVID-19 disruption in education sector, there is also a need to develop strategies to satisfy accreditation requirements of different accreditation bodies such as Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) and Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). Acknowledgments  The authors would like to thank Mr. M. Usman Asif, student in the Department of Computer Science at Iqra University Islamabad Campus, for helping with setting up the survey form for this research.

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Digital Transformation in Higher Education: Impact of Instructor Training on Class Effectiveness During COVID-19 K. Lakshmypriya

, Rashmi Rai

, and Pallavi Kudal

Abstract  Digital technology is transforming society and business like never before. Digital technology has made inroads into all sections of society, especially with the pandemic restricting interaction and movement in the physical space. Education systems and institutions have witnessed a drastic change in their pedagogy. Education institutions adopting digital technologies can become drivers of growth and development for their ecosystems bringing significant changes in education, engagement, and management of class activities of educational institutions. The education system will have to adapt and evolve to take advantage of the new technologies and tools and develop strategies to play an active role in the digital transformation process. In the wake of the COVID-19 situation, higher education institutions have adopted digital platforms for teaching and learning. The study attempts to understand the instructors/academician/teachers training process adopted by selected higher education institutions in India to facilitate migration to digital platforms. Further, the study analyses the challenges faced in the new normal of education and the levels of training process initiated by institutions for teaching faculty. The authors have tried to analyse how this has enabled instructors to meet the challenges of conducting online classes and increase class effectiveness. The study unfolded the impact of high-level institutional training on class effectiveness and how individual digital preparedness is essential in engaging virtual classrooms. Further, the positive impact of training in reducing anxiety in engaging online sessions and the extent of motivation to continue online teaching as it has become inevitable with the second wave of the pandemic were examined across age and gender. An attempt is made to suggest few strategies for continued effective online class engagement as India battles through the second wave of the pandemic.

K. Lakshmypriya (*) · R. Rai School of Business and Management, CHRIST University, Bangalore, India e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] P. Kudal Dr. DY Patil Institute of Management Studies, University of Pune, Pune, India © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 S. Saeed et al. (eds.), Pandemic, Lockdown, and Digital Transformation, Public Administration and Information Technology 7, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86274-9_10

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Keywords  COVID-19 · Digital transformation · Teacher training · Online classes · Class effectiveness

1  Introduction The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted people’s lifestyles worldwide, with education being no exception. One hundred sixty countries have temporarily closed educational institutions leaving 1.6 billion young children to stay at home. Extended days of closure have resulted in the disassociation of children with academics and loss of human capital due to diminished economic opportunities lost in the long term (Choi et al., 2020). Their research on Bangladesh mentioned that teachers are having difficulties engaging in online classes due to a lack of proper technical skills and awareness. Since most teachers are not well versed in remote teaching and lack accurate information about pedagogy for online classes, they face serious challenges (Emon et al., 2020). Since both teachers and students connect first time via online courses, they also face difficulty in proper communication between them (Lapada et al., 2020). Many African universities faced severe challenges pivoting to remote teaching and learning and administration using online platforms at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many people were hampered by a lack of digital infrastructure, capacity, and connectivity, making the transition difficult. Before the pandemic, only 16% of African respondents said that online teaching was used in all or most departments. Still, according to a survey conducted by the Association of Commonwealth Universities in May 2020, 74% of respondents said that all or most of their teaching and learning is done online in the New normal (Zeleza & Okanda, 2020). At the same time, emerging economies such as Egypt, Kenya, and South Africa have made decisions to develop and complete the infrastructure of digital systems and Internet networks due to the pandemic. India has the most extensive school system after China in the entire world. Shutting down of schools and Universities amid the pandemic and lockdown have a negative impact on students’ learning and development. A report by UNICEF, based on a survey done in 2017–2018, the Ministry of Rural Development stated that only 47% of families in India receive electricity for more than 12 h a day. More than 36% of schools do not have electricity supply and function without it. This clearly states that while students belonging to better-income families can easily transition to remote learning, the challenge was for students from deprived backgrounds. They were unlikely to adopt remote learning due to inaccessibility and parents’ educational level, guiding them with technology. Azorin (2020), equates this unexpected change in the education field to nonscheduled fireworks across countries that surprises society. From the teachers’ perspective, this forced transition was quite challenging, and they had to start using the latest online tools with little or no training

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(Dwivedi et  al., 2020). The sudden shift from the physical classroom to virtual classrooms required teachers’ willingness to use various pedagogies with specific proficiencies (Marinoni et al., 2020). COVID-19 has altered the traditional chalk-­ talk teaching methodology towards virtual classrooms. This digital disruption in various pedagogies in education pushes the instructors to analyze how to keep the students engaged in an inclusive e-learning space. Many countries have started pursuing remote teaching and learning options to mitigate this academic engagement gap during the pandemic. According to the report (World economic forum report, 2020), today’s education system is influenced by the first and second industrial revolutions, whereas the world is gearing for the industrial revolution 4.0. Today’s students would be working in a space where digital, social, and emotional skills will be in high demand. They would manage and work with a more distributed workforce and interact and collaborate over the digital space. This context opens up an opportunity before us during the pandemic; educational institutions can incorporate deep learning elements and build innovative capabilities through collaborative efforts rather than passive memorization and articulation. The education sector is slowly embracing the change by adopting various teaching techniques and learning, reconfiguring, and recreating the learning and teaching experience for all its stakeholders. The accelerated pace of digitization and its impact on the education sector needs to be understood and reflected upon. Its effect on the stakeholders, namely educational institutions, teachers, students, parents, and other supporting staff needs emphasis. Many regions have adopted “local intelligent digitalization” through multidimensional interventions where multiple stakeholders are involved (Brunetti et al., 2020). Interestingly, the adoption of digital technology has led to transforming the education sector from teacher-centric to student-centric. Various online tools and platforms have enhanced the engagement of the virtual classroom (Fullan et al., 2019). The new normal has been daunting as more and more students had to attend the classes from home, and the long-term effect of COVID 19 will remain for few years to come. KPMG and Google did a study in 2019 that estimated that the digital market will grow to $1.96 billion (Rs 14,836 crore), with 9.6 million users by 2021. But, the pandemic-induced lockdown further accelerated the market demand for many Edtech players giving them multiple opportunities to explore this market. India has emerged as the second primary MOOC market for a massive open online course worldwide after the US. In the education sector, the pace of digital adoption significantly differs from government institutions to private institutions. According to teachers, despite the world’s best efforts to fit education into the virtual world, e-learning technologies and platforms cannot replace the live experiences that real classrooms bring together. The year 2021 opened to students and academicians with a renewed hope of on-campus classes. Unfortunately, the second wave of the pandemic has hit India hard, with the number of COVID positive cases surging in a dire state. This has stalled the educational institutions’ plans to reopen classes in a phased manner. Hence, this chapter focuses on understanding the digitization journey in selected higher educational institutions in India and the process of academician training for class effectiveness. The fatigue of online classes for both instructors

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and students calls for looking at novel pedagogy and methods for continuous online class effectiveness in the new context.

2  Literature Review Historical emergencies have always resulted in changes in social systems. These changes are often the response to events that occur at particular periods. COVID-19 pandemic led to a stellar explosion on digital learning platforms. Universities and education institutes worldwide wanted their teachers to adopt online platforms within a concise duration (Oyedotun, 2020). The teaching community did lots of planning and brainstorming to make learning easier and accessible for learners without losing the essence of human connection while teaching online. Digital platforms for learning were available before COVID 19, but the extent of its use was far lesser. In India, until the pandemic forced academics to move fully online, remote learning was confined to distance learning programs, Gyan darshan telecast through Television and MOOC courses on SWAYAM portal, which learners used at their interests (Mishra et  al., 2020; Hollweck & Doucet, 2020; Christodoulou, 2020) Though educational technology existed before the pandemic, it lacked widespread acceptance as teachers were not fully equipped to handle those technologies effectively and their healthy skeptical attitude towards the effectiveness of gadgets and bots in imparting evidence-based cognitive science. According to the World Bank report, 2020, the strategies adopted by educational systems in the transition to online and remote learning practices are scanty. This makes it difficult to understand and benchmark best practices that can be adopted in similar contexts. In India, educational institutions were directed by the Ministry of Education to temporarily close on-campus classes in March 2020 due to the increase in the number of COVID-positive cases. According to the UGC (University Grants Commission), India’s supreme organization for higher education directive, all Indian universities must finish 25% of their curriculum using online teaching and 75% through face-to-face engagement (UGC, 2020). Overnight, teachers were compelled to reinvent themselves and take their classes over an online platform over a two-dimensional screen (Fareeha, 2021). They had to find creative ways to engage classes which most of them were unfamiliar until then. This posed several questions about content, delivery, and experiential space for which neither the Government nor the institutions had any answer. People worldwide are forced to adapt to the new normal of minimized physical or face-to-face interaction. All activity sectors are affected due to this switch in interaction mode, especially the service sector, where the physical human factor is more appealing. The education sector is no exception to this. Large institutions globally have switched to a small digital space where face-to-face interaction between students and teachers or between peers has completely come to a halt, at least for some time now. This unprepared pace of transition has also led to few challenges that teachers, students, parents, management, and society are trying to

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overcome (Fullan et al., 2019). Most literature currently focuses on teachers’ challenges and obstacles in this transition (Kang Ma et al., 2021). Attitude and efficacy of teachers during this phase and burnout among academicians (Sokal et al., 2020), stress, and coping mechanisms among the stakeholders (Chandra, 2021) have been studied extensively. There has been a substantial study on technology usage in education (Hajiyev et  al., 2020; Thompson, 2015). The study by Grönlund (2014) emphasized on understanding how teachers use digital technologies and how they are effectively involved in learning them. This has become very relevant today with the pandemic. Literature on teachers/academician training and development to overcome the unexpected challenges of going online and making it effective is significantly less. The digital inequalities in the teaching-learning community were thrown open (Oyedotun, 2020), which included lack of knowledge on digital tools, lack of internet access, unavailability of computers, laptops, and power deficiencies in villages small towns. According to ILO and World Bank report (2021), the lack of adequate digital resources and skills among academicians and students in countries like India, Canada, and Morocco was a major hurdle in adopting remote learning modalities. This reveals inadequate training in digital skills and digital pedagogical resources for conducting online classes during this period. Though we have had numerous incidents in our classrooms where students had to stay off classrooms and isolate themselves due to infectious diseases like chickenpox or swine flu, creating a platform for enabling the teaching-learning process of this scale was not envisioned. Hence, lack of investment in infrastructure to support the system also triggered the unpreparedness on the individual and institutional end (Noor et  al., 2020). In response to the situation, the market witnessed an explosion in digital tools for the education sector. The digital technology stacks available were diverse. There are many products and services offering communication, interaction, collaboration, evaluation, etc. This posed another challenge of developing and updating digital skills for teachers as the young generation is tech-savvy and can adapt to technology updates faster. Simultaneously, teachers are relatively new to using multiple technology platforms and engaging students remotely, unlike corporate (Brunetti et al., 2020). Upgrading the infrastructure to adopt digital innovation into mainstream education and accessibility to multiple sector stakeholders is challenging in many developing countries (Oyediran et  al., 2020). Connectivity, security, and end-user application that facilitate user ease in handling a remote classroom are what academicians are looking forward to in a situation where they are forced to engage their students remotely. Teaching and attending classes remotely require cost-effective and affordable technologies. Emanuel López of Dell Technologies state that Dell has been sharing its know-how of remote work systems and platforms to enable schools and universities to adapt to this forced confinement and remote learning. Education is generally a sector that adopts changes rather slowly compared to other sectors. Even when many educational institutions have adapted to this change, many private and governmental institutions still do not have sufficient resources and infrastructure to implement this transformation in India (Chetty et al., 2018). The lack of digital infrastructure in rural and underdeveloped pockets in the

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country has created operational challenges for teachers, students, and parents, widening the gap in access to education. In many cases, the teaching faculty do not have the necessary technology, internet access, and power backups to ensure uninterrupted classes (ILO & World Bank report, 2021). The low- and middle-income communities have limited accessibility to costly digital infrastructure coupled with digital illiteracy. UNESCO (2011) defines digital literacy as working with digital media, processing information, and retrieving data. Digital literacy also aids in creating and sharing knowledge via social networks, and it underpins a wide range of professional computing abilities. According to the (OECD, 2017) report, ICT skills and generic ICT skills help individuals fulfill professional requirements. An assessment of digital literacy is essential in the current context of remote teaching and learning on five parameters: computer (hardware and software), media (text, sound, image), information (digital content), communication (nonlinear interaction), and technology (tools for life situations) on technical, ethical, and cognitive perspectives. The Government should intervene and mobilize resources in terms of ICT services and invest in developing tools that are affordable to different communities (OECD, 2020). The education sector will have to make greater use of the digital learning model to become part of the new normal. The transfer of classrooms to online mode requires adopting digital technology in daily educational practices; hence, affordability is a serious issue. Cooperation among educational institutions and authorities from the commercial front and Government would ensure that stakeholders’ divide inaccessibility can be reduced significantly. The trends in using ICT were the focus of discussion in 2011 in the BETT Middle East exhibition in Abu Dhabi. The need to make educational resources anywhere and everywhere the student would want to access and merge technology usage into mainstream education pedagogy would take them beyond academic training and prepare them for life. Hargreaves and Fullan (2020) the study highlights the issues children would go through with a lack of face-to-face support from their teachers and friends. They would have experienced stress, poverty, custodial rights of parents, family members falling sick, etc., and the need for focusing on student well-being is more important in these times. Earlier, this aspect was not given importance like core academics. It is also evident that a teacher’s support is essential during the academic years to stay well and focused. Dual-career parents have significantly less time to spend on their children’s psychological needs. Teachers are among the unsung heroes of these times, engaging students through innovative ways and helping them stay well and connected. Teachers have been involved in mentoring students, holding counseling sessions, and handholding them to face such distressing situations. A shift to online mode requires a realignment of the teacher–student relationship; this would mean academicians need to be reskilled to support the psychological needs of students through digital media. The pandemic has thrown evidence on lack of adequate technological infrastructure, flexible pedagogical resources, and digital training in many higher educational institutions. The stakeholder expectations cannot be the same in an online class as in the brick and motor classroom. There could be various factors that can distract

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both teacher and student in the virtual setting. In this context (Jensen, 2019), the challenge is to create a meaningful experience in the virtual teaching-learning process for both the teacher and the student by training them. It is equally important to have systems to deal with the emotions and concerns of those affected by the change and its economic and social consequences (Denning, 2014) while handling technology in education. Our informal discussions with instructors revealed that in online classrooms, unlike physical classrooms, surveillance by multiple stakeholders, namely parents, extended family, management, and media, apart from students, is pretty standard. This ghost presence of others in the class can create a sense of discomfort and anxiety for teachers. The experience can be nerve-wracking, at least in the initial phases for a teacher who is not used to such surveillance in their career. Anxiety can affect self-presentation and management of the session (Lind & Tyler, 1988). The difference with current technology is the possibility of modern visual surveillance to store and transmit images and videos of the class. This further adds to the anxiety of being continuously watched, and anxiety increases as institutional borders become more porous (Eddy et al., 1999). Carrillo and Flores (2020) discuss the need to provide an evidence-based teaching process approach in training with its implications in classroom learning than on emergency online practices. As the classroom has shifted in the new normal from teacher-centric to student-centric, the pedagogical approach should include social and collaborative components of learning whereby teacher–student interaction and peer group interaction should be encouraged. The study also emphasizes that it is time to shift from the instrumental approach in online teaching to ethical, political, and pedagogical dimensions, improving class effectiveness. Complicating the landscape further, institutions will have to work on more stringent and novel do’s and dont’s, health bulletins, and tight budgets. Prolonged social distancing could mean extracurricular activities like sports, fest, election, art, and music are no longer part of a regular day, and academic subjects would be the main focus (Carmen & Maria, 2020). The present study attempts to understand how Indian universities responded to the pandemic situation and how instructors were trained to handle online classes effectively. Further, with the pandemic’s second wave, what measures can be adopted to keep both students and teachers motivated in remote teaching-­learning sessions.

3  Research Methodology The study was conducted: 1. To understand digital preparedness at the institutional and individual level among teachers. 2. To understand levels of training received.

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3. To understand whether the training led to better digital preparedness among instructors in higher educational institutions. 4. To explore whether institutional training enabled instructors to overcome obstacles and challenges related to digital teaching. 5. To study the impact of training on class effectiveness and the anxiety related to online teaching. 6. To explore how much the teachers are motivated for continued online engagement during the second wave of pandemics across few demographic factors. 7. To suggest strategies to keep the pace of the teaching-learning process with the second wave of the pandemic.

3.1  Sample Selection and Research Methods A survey-based descriptive study is done to establish the research objectives mentioned above. The survey was conducted from September 2020 to March 2021, when Indian universities started their odd semesters for the 2020–2021 academic year after the initial dilemma of academic engagement on the digitalized platform due to COVID-19. The sample was chosen using the snowball sampling technique. Structured questionnaires were emailed to academicians teaching in the Department of Management and Social sciences in universities where a minimum of two training programs for online teaching was conducted. We received 127 completed responses from 7 Government and 14 private universities. We identified the relevant factors in this context from the extensive literature review, namely, digital preparedness, challenges, institutional training programs, and class effectiveness. The questionnaire was validated by learning and development experts. The literature on the online teaching and learning process, challenges, and teacher training programs that have evolved during the pandemic was explored. There is a wide range of existing literature relating to learning and development, training and development. These terms are sometimes used interchangeably; hence in the current study, we have not focused on deciphering these terms evolved in literature based on the evolution of training and development to learning and development. The researchers focused on the extent of digital preparedness adopted by selected universities and their teachers in India. Further, a teacher training module devised to meet the demands of digital learning is examined. This includes understanding the training received to handle technology, creative tools for engagement, and anxiety. We also analyzed the extend of sustained motivation to continue online mode with the second wave of the pandemic. Hypotheses and Conceptual Model: Previous studies were reviewed to formulate the study’s conceptual model and hypotheses (see Fig. 1). The conceptual model determines how the level of training imparted affects digital preparedness, ability to overcome challenges, and class effectiveness. Two more hypotheses are tested to

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Fig. 1  Conceptual model of digital learning and development model. (Source: Author’s own)

see the impact of gender and age on the motivation of employees for continued online engagement of classes. The last hypothesis tests whether training helps in reducing anxiety related to online classes or not. Training and Digital Preparedness:  As seen from the literature review, it is observed that training for teaching processes to teachers helps in better preparedness for student engagement and class effectiveness (Brunetti et al., 2020). Hence, we tried to understand whether training for online teaching platforms helps in better digital preparedness or not with the following hypothesis: H1:  Training influences digital preparedness. Training and Overcoming Teaching Challenges and Obstacles:  Bracy et  al. (2010) studied the teaching challenges of millennials. Training plays an essential role in bridging the generation gap between the tech-savvy generation and their teachers (Mishra et al., 2020). We also tried to understand how digital training helps overcome various challenges of teaching on digital platforms to present-age kids with the help of the following hypothesis: H2:  Training influences the ability to overcome challenges and obstacles of online teaching-learning. Training and Class Effectiveness:  Teachers make use of various resources to make learning effective. They structure their sessions and utilize diverse pedagogical approaches to ensure class effectiveness (Goe et al., 2008). Updating them with the latest developmental tools can be facilitated through training programs. Training plays a vital role in ensuring class effectiveness when teachers are forced to adopt pedagogy they are not familiar with. H3:  Training influences class effectiveness. 3.1.1  Gender and Level of Motivation for Continued Online Engagement The pandemic has pushed women to multitask with increased domestic work and challenges and endless work-from-home tasks. Children at home, additional cleanliness, and lack of domestic work support have made life stressful (UN report,

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2020). Academicians have to find extra time for class preparation and evaluation beyond working hours; with this backdrop, we tried to analyze how gender influences motivation to continue online classes with the second wave of the pandemic. H4:  There is a significant difference between the male and female teaching faculty with respect to the level of motivation for continued online engagement. 3.1.2  Age and Level of Motivation for Continued Online Engagement The age of teachers and their motivation to engage in continuous online classes was examined as our discussions with young academicians indicated their inclination to explore and use novel digital applications in class. H5:  There is a significant difference between the age groups of teaching faculty with respect to the level of motivation for continued online engagement. 3.1.3  I mpact of Training on Anxiety of Faculty Related to Online Teaching Digital platforms pose the question of increased privacy issues. Tolchinsky et al. (1981) state that stakeholders would feel their privacy is invaded when they think they have no control over data disclosure resulting in anxiety and stress. The student community is more tech-savvy, which creates tremendous stress among teachers who are not well versed in handling technology. H6:  There is an association between training imparted to faculty and their anxiety related to online teaching.

4  Data Analysis and Results 4.1  Descriptive Statistics The survey returned 127 responses from 68 female teaching faculties and 59 males. Academicians from 7 Government universities and 14 private universities participated in the survey. Fifty-one responses were from government universities, and 76 responses were from private universities. 62.20% of respondents taught UG courses, and 37.79% of respondents taught PG students. The majority of faculty who participated in the survey were more than 40 years of age (Table 1). We further developed a paired panel graph (Fig. 2) to understand the impact of training on three variables: digital preparedness, overcoming teaching challenges, and class effectiveness.

Digital Transformation in Higher Education: Impact of Instructor Training on Class… Table 1 Demographic details of respondents

Demographic factor Category Gender Male Female Age 40 years University Government Private Level UG PG

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Respondents (in%) 46.45 53.54 37.79 62.2 40.15 59.84 62.2 37.79

We can infer from this graph that faculties of institutes and colleges with low-­ level training (blue shaded region in the graph) were found low on digital preparedness, overcoming challenges, and even class effectiveness. University faculties with medium-level training (orange-shaded area in the graph) were located reasonably high on digital preparedness but low on overcoming digital teaching and medium challenges on class effectiveness. However, high-level training (green-shaded region in the graph) is reasonably well on all three study parameters. The above graph depicts how a high level of training increases the confidence level of teachers. That impact can be seen on digital preparedness and the class effectiveness of online classes. However, the challenges of online teaching seem to be surpassing the high levels of training too. Challenges of online teaching exist at all levels of training. 4.1.1  Inferential Statistics Further, detailed inferential analysis with the help of hypothesis testing is done to understand whether training significantly impacts variables under study. Since we have three training levels, analysis of variance (ANOVA) is used to test the hypotheses H1, H2, and H3. The ANOVA test allows a comparison of more than two groups simultaneously to determine whether a relationship exists between them. The result of the ANOVA formula, the F statistic (also called the F-ratio), allows for the analysis of multiple groups of data to determine the variability between samples and within samples. Further Post Hoc Analysis with Tukey HSD tests is also done to understand the difference between groups if it exists. For H4, H5, and H6 hypothesis, the Chi-square test for independence or association is used. The Chi-square Test of Independence determines whether there is an association between categorical variables (i.e., whether the variables are independent or related). The results are as follows:

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Fig. 2  Paired panel graph for impact of training on variables

4.2  Hypothesis Testing Hypothesis:  There is a significant difference among factors of online teaching effectiveness concerning levels of training. From the ANOVA test (Table 2), we infer that, since p-value is less than 0.01, the alternate hypothesis is accepted at a 1% level for class effectiveness. Hence, there is a significant difference in various levels of training for class effectiveness. The alternate hypothesis is accepted at a 5% level for digital preparedness, and this means there is a significant difference in varying levels of training for digital preparedness. The alternate hypothesis is rejected for no difference in three training levels in overcoming teaching challenges and obstacles on the digital platform. Hypothesis H4: There is a significant difference between the male and female faculty with respect to the level of motivation for continued online engagement. From the Chi-square test (Table 3), we infer a significant difference between the male faculty and female faculty regarding motivation for continued online

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Table 2  ANOVA for significant difference among factors of online teaching effectiveness about levels of training Factors of online teaching effectiveness Digital preparedness Overcoming teaching challenges and obstacles Class effectiveness

Levels of training Low Medium 3.67a 4.17ab 3.39a 3.31a 3.04a 3.51a

High 4.6b 3.90a 4.55c

F value 3.765 1.542 11.45

p-value 0.0322* 0.227 0.00**

Note: 1. The value within the bracket refers to SD 2. ** denotes significant at 1% level 3. * denotes significant at 5% level 4. Different alphabet among educational qualifications indicates significance at 5% level using Tukey HSD test Table 3  Chi-square test for association between gender and level of Motivation for continued online engagement.

Gender Male

Female

Total

Level of motivation for continued online engagement Low Moderate High 10 33 16 (16.94%) (55.93%) (27.11%) [32.2%] [58.9%] [40%] 21 23 24 (30.88%) (35.82%) (35.29%) [67.7%] [41.07%] [60%] 31 56 40 (24.44%) (44.00%) (31.49%) [100.0%] [100.0%] [100.0%]

Total 59 (100.00%) [46.4%] 68 (100.00%) [53.5%] 127 (100.00%) [100.0%]

Chi-square

p-value

6.684

0.035*

Note: 1. The value within () refers to row percentage 2. The value within [] refers to column percentage 3. * Denotes significant at 5% level

engagement. 30.88% of female faculty is less motivated for continuous online engagement. Hypothesis H5: There is a significant difference between the age groups of faculties with respect to the level of motivation for continued online engagement. From the Chi-square test (Table 4), we infer a significant difference between the mentioned age groups with respect to motivation for continued online engagement. 30.37% of faculty over 40 years of age group is less motivated for continuous online engagement. Hypothesis H6: There is an association between training imparted to faculty and their anxiety related to online teaching. From the Chi-square test (Table  5), we infer a significant difference between training imparted to faculty and their anxiety related to online teaching. 26.77% of faculties have low anxiety as they are highly trained in taking online classes.

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Table 4  Chi-square test for association between age and level of motivation for continued online engagement

Age Less than 40 years More than 40 years Total

Level of motivation for continued online engagement Low Moderate High 9 24 15 (18.75%) (50%) (31.25%) [27.27%] [46.15%] [35.71%] 24 28 27 (30.37%) (35.44%) (34.17%) [72.72%] [53.84%] [64.28%] 33 52 42 (25.98%) (40.94%) (33.07%) [100.0%] [100.0%] [100.0%]

Total Chi-­square 14.56 48 (100.00%) [37.79%] 79 (100.00%) [62.20%] 127 (100.00%) [100.0%]

p-value 0.000687*

Note: 1. The value within () refers to Row Percentage 2. The value within [] refers to Column Percentage. 3. * Denotes significant at 5% level Table 5  Chi-square test for association between level of anxiety related to online teaching and level of training imparted to faculty Level of anxiety Low

Moderate

High

Total

Level of training Low Moderate 7 8 (14.28%) (16.32%) [23.33%] [19.51%] 7 26 (14.58%) (54.16%) [23.33%] [63.41%] 16 7 (53.33%) (14.28%) [53.33%] [17.07%] 30 41 (23.62%) (32.28%) [100.0%] [100.0%]

High 34 (69.38%) [60.71%] 15 (31.25%) [26.78%] 7 (12.50%) [12.5%] 56 (44.09%) [100.0%]

Total 49 (100.00%) [38.58%] 48 (100.00%) [37.79%] 30 (100.00%) [23.62%] 127 (100.00%) [100.0%]

Chi-square 38.246

p-value 0.000*

Note: 1. The value within () refers to row percentage 2. The value within [] refers to column percentage 3. * Denotes significant at 5% level

5  Discussion The pandemic’s unpredictable nature led most institutions to adopt digital platforms for teaching and learning purposes. The focus in the initial days was to engage students effectively. Thereby the teaching and learning process was given importance in migrating to digital platforms. We identified various teaching-related activities and tried to understand the thrust areas universities focused on training programs

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and which areas were excluded. An analysis of the factors focused on the training session for skill-level training is rated; core skills (79%), soft skills (70%), technical skills (73%), and compliance training (57%) as adequate. Apart from the effective teaching and learning process, admissions (56%), counseling (30%), mentoring (26%), departmental meetings (43%), examinations, and evaluations (52%) were rated as high on the level of training. Parent–teacher meetings (12.2%) were found to be a neglected area. Faculties are sometimes stressed as they are not adequately trained to handle the anxiety of the parents. This can be attributed to the skill areas which were given thrust during the training programs. The majority of the faculty interviewed believed that core skills of handling the discipline, subject delivery, pedagogy, and team teaching were emphasized during the training sessions; the lack of training on negotiation skills (17.1%) is a significant reason for teachers to feel the pressure during a parent–teacher meeting as parents were apprehensive of making fee payment, the opening of on-campus classes, and issues of managing young adults at home continuously. Anxiety is a serious issue most faculty face; the analysis indicates that training on handling anxiety has helped in coping with the same. Teachers who received a high level of training in handling anxiety seem less anxious in an online class. Education systems and institutions have witnessed a drastic change in 3 months in their teaching and learning pedagogy. This has been viewed as an opportunity and challenge as it offers new avenues of innovation and entrepreneurship and infrastructural and individual difficulties. Learning and development adopted by institutions are critical to facilitate migration into digital platforms. Based on the Tukey HSD test for post hoc analysis, it can be observed that the digital preparedness of faculty with low level and high levels of training is significantly different. But, it is the same between low and medium and medium and low levels of training. The alternate hypothesis is accepted at the 5% level regarding the hypothesis of no difference in various training levels for digital preparedness. Stressing upon the relevance of training in digital preparedness among teaching faculty, Brunetti et  al. (2020) point out that digital training is critical in enabling teachers to overcome challenges of online teaching as training improves digital preparedness among them to handle technical glitches and content management during the classes. This supports (Lim, 2020; Mishra et al., 2020) finding that without setting basic features and hardware requirements, even if some digital tools connect to students using online teaching and learning platforms, the whole process can be agonizing for stakeholders. In the current situation, even the highly rated educational institutions are not well equipped to conduct remote teaching-learning sessions for all students. The ICT facilities have been in place for some time. Still, with remote learning in the area, the upgradation of ICT support and software and hardware infrastructure is essential to create a remote at rear experience for students. (Becker, 2000) Moodle and LMS have been widely used on campuses; hence, teachers are not new to this teaching method. Yet, teaching faculties often face difficulty overcoming challenges related to digital teaching, irrespective of their training. However, this can account for some behavior inhibitions that are a part of online teaching platforms as uncertainty related to one-to-one connect and internet connectivity always remains in

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digital teaching. A shift from on-campus classes to online classes has been difficult for teachers and students in the entrepreneurship, accountancy, and vocational training domains. These courses have mandatory hands-on sessions that require real-­ time intervention. Though stimulations were used, it still did not give the same experience, according to a professor. Teachers adopted various digital tools and cameras to ensure students get the most out of their sessions wherever extended sessions were required. The analyzed responses revealed class effectiveness was a serious concern; revamping the curriculum and the pedagogy in courses requiring practical sessions needs serious attention. The importance of practical experience and experiential learning remains relevant in both online and offline modes. To improve class effectiveness, high-level training incorporates training faculty on the usage of various online tools for engaging students through live classroom activity and how the concepts apply in real-world scenarios. This upholds the findings of Bowden and Merritt (1995), that an instructor’s effectiveness is on teaching students the real-­ time application of concepts. From the ANOVA test, we conclude that since the p-value is less than 0.05, the alternate hypothesis is accepted at 5% level regarding the hypothesis of no difference in different levels of training for class effectiveness. This reiterates that class effectiveness is achieved through training programs. However, maximum effectiveness is achieved in high-level training cases. Both low- and medium-level training institutes find class effectiveness much lesser than high-level training institutes as it can even clearly be seen from averages. According to the respondents, experiential and action learning focusing on critical thinking and problem-solving has been diluted online. The teacher should ensure sessions are interactive by encouraging students to experiment and experience concepts and discussions using various tools available for interactive and experiential learning over the net (Volkmann et al., 2009). Digital transformation in higher education institutions is an inevitable part of organizational change. The primary agent of this change is digital technologies (Seres et  al., 2018); hence, only if a significant shift in instructor training is brought about with a focus on class effectiveness, engagement, and teaching effectiveness outcomes, this transformation would be effective. Training is core to learning, unlearning, and relearning.

5.1  T  he Second Wave and Strategies for Sustained Interest in an Online Class Harris (2020) observes that no specific leadership practices lead educational institutions during the pandemic, which can be adopted worldwide. The second wave of this pandemic has forced the teacher–student community to return to online mode. We analyzed the extent of motivation among teachers to continue online classes on the age and gender criteria. We found that teachers above 40 years are less motivated to continue the online teaching mode than those less than 40. Women are less

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motivated to continue online teaching as they are overworked with additional responsibilities and lack support with the work from home (WFH) model. The borders of work and life have become highly permeable in this new model that they complain that they are unable to meet the demands at home and work. Zoom and other similar platforms have revolutionized online classes, but with one academic year of remote learning, academicians and students are equally feeling the exhaustion of screen-based learning; both the stakeholders expressed stress and emotional distress. In the wake of the second wave, on-campus teaching and learning do not seem to be a reality in the near future. Students have been experiencing a lot of stress as they attend classes from their personal space. They are going through increased anxiety, insecurity, burnout, moral guilt, and compassion fatigue. This has affected both teachers and students; it is essential to devise a training program to help them adapt to the situation in this context. We discuss a few strategies here. Resilience is the process of adapting well when faced with traumatic experiences, hard times, tragedy, threats, or other major stressful events in life. It involves changing behaviors, thoughts, and actions. Building resilience would enable both the instructors and students to bounce back in this situation of adversity and uncertainty. The 7Cs of resilience proposed by Ginsburg (2005), namely, cademicians and students in online classes, can build competence, confidence, connection, character, contribution, coping, and control. Active engagement and collaboration. Reenergizing workshops and self-care activities like exercising, off-screen activities, discussing a good meal plan, and playing music for few minutes can be combined with academic learning continuously. According to Seligman (2011), the father of positive psychology, optimism is the key to build resilience. He states that optimistic people have the habit of interpreting adversities in life as temporary and changeable. Enhancing mental toughness, honing strengths, and creating an environment for resource sharing and cross-platform collaborations would enable educators with better technological and pedagogical know-how. Mentoring among educators by incorporating reverse mentoring will equip more experienced and less experienced teachers mutually in this changing environment. This will enable an encouraging learning environment as instructors and students move to another academic year of online teaching and learning.

6  Conclusion Digital transformation affects and changes significant aspects of education, engagement, and management of class activities of higher educational institutions. The teaching fraternity and students are going through a different teaching and learning pedagogy, which should necessarily result in professional development. According to Guskey (2002), systematic efforts to change existing classroom practices, attitudes, and beliefs of teachers and students will pave the way for better learning outcomes. There has been no consensus on the practical mode of pandemic teaching

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and learning (Hollweck & Doucet, 2020). However, pandemic pedagogies have cropped up; it does not just reposition a course onto a digital mode or learning management system (LMS). The response to handling teaching and learning is essentially institution-driven at one end and teacherand student-driven at the other end. The universities and higher educational institutions had the task of getting the infrastructure in place and ensuring that the teaching fraternity is equipped to use the infrastructure and conduct classes effectively on a “live mode,” recreating the students’ classroom experience. This is very different from the recorded videos and MOOC videos, which are popular among educators. Our analysis indicates that all the universities which were part of our study had organized training sessions for their teaching fraternity. However, the depth and intensity in terms of coverage were varied. Most of the universities stuck to a medium level of training that focused mainly on using a platform and content delivery. Discussions with respondents revealed that this was due to a lack of strategic vision at the top management and cost-related issues resulting from inadequate revenue generation. Low-level training for this transformation resulted in inadequate digital preparedness by teachers, which was a significant reason for poor class effectiveness. This is more of a domino effect as the institutions and leadership failed to build faculty capabilities to ensure teaching and learning effectiveness during the pandemic. Universities worldwide provided free resources, webinars, podcasts, etc. The Government of India has also offered free access to numerous resources to enable teacher training. Our analysis revealed that online class effectiveness is highly dependent on the training received by the teachers at the institutional level. Apart from using various technology stacks available, a teacher’s sensibilities are crucial in handling a class during a crisis. Many students face poor internet connectivity, family interferences, lack of proper workspace, health concerns of self and family, and financial issues, to mention a few. The training for handling an online class cannot be confined to the usage of technology, tools, and methodologies but sensitizing teachers towards addressing students in a crisis is crucial to class effectiveness. Teachers who have received high-intensity training can manage classes effectively and engage their students due to this multipronged teacher training approach. To keep them motivated and ensure class effectiveness, institutions should organize and introduce resilience training. This will provide a joyful and healthy continued online teaching-learning experience as we live through the second wave of the pandemic.

6.1  Towards the Future Research We discussed the three points above as critical observations that could have long-­ term implications for education in general and research and practice in digital media and training. Future studies could shed light on longer term shifts in the connection between technology and society, with digital services being accepted as answers to every problem without hesitation. More research could be done considering students’ engagement, retention, and attendance as part of the overall learning

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experience to provide better results. Compared to the above study, research for the future can be extended by examining the present, based on the most up-to-date research evidence, and analyzing recent, mid, and long-term trends. This must involve a thorough analysis of current examples of appropriate and efficient practices that could serve as seedbeds for potential developments. Future studies may include other universities in the country and worldwide to determine regional disparities and cultural aspects with a larger sample size can give more profound insights. While the primary comparative factor in this study was higher education, it was restricted in scope and depth. More evidence-based and iterative research can be done to envision the future to ensure that we consider the full spectrum of factors driving current trends, including sociocultural, political, environmental, economic, and technological factors. The study on student’s demographic, academic, sociocultural variables, and their impact on the elements of online class effectiveness can provide another dimension in teacher training modules and pedagogy.Conflict of Interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Index

A Accountability, 9, 57 Active engagement and collaboration, 191 Ad hoc changes in policies, 142 Administrative databases, 36 Administrative factors, 8, 9 Administrative Regulation, 35 Adoption of digital technology, 177 Advanced Centre for Sustainable Socio-­ Economic and Technological Development (ASSET), 68 Affordability, 180 Aggressive rhetoric, 10 American Medical Association (AMA), 85 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), 83 Amnesty International, 52 Analysis of variance (ANOVA) test, 185–187, 190 Anxiety, 162 Apple/Google API, 59 Attractiveness, 102, 103 Augmented reality (AR), 100 B Basic privacy principles, 60 Bawang Assan, 68, 73 Benchmarking usability testing, 97 Beyond COVID-19 Global Open Innovation Challenge, 118, 125 challenge-based learning, 118 collaborative initiative, 118 evolution, 119

FASKEN start-up program, 120 learner experience, 118, 119 mobile-first digitalisation approach, 119 Open Innovation Challenge, 118 PIE methodology, 119 transition challenge-based learning initiatives online, 120 winning projects and their respective categories, 120–122 Bolsa Familia program, 33, 36, 39, 41 Boolean expressions, 5 Brazil’s response, Covid-19 pandemic basic income law, 33 CCT program, 32 economic relief, 32 Emergency Payment Program, 33 procedures and instruments, 33 social assistance network, 33 unemployment insurance policy, 33 Brazilian experience, 27, 41 Brazilian households, 26 Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), 36 Broadband over Power Lines (BPL), 68 Broadband telecommunications, 69 Bureaucrat modernization, 27 Bureaucratic behavior, 28 C Cadastro Único, 38, 39 Caixa Econômica Federal (CAIXA), 34 Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), 58

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 S. Saeed et al. (eds.), Pandemic, Lockdown, and Digital Transformation, Public Administration and Information Technology 7, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86274-9

197

Index

198 Canadian Covid Alert app AbTraceTogether, 53 limited usage, 54 number of users, 53 officials encouragement, 54 privacy concerns (see Privacy concerns, Canadian COVID Alert app) voluntary basis, 54 Canadian Experiences Fund (CEF), 66 Canadian government’s response, 59 Capacity development, 27 CCLA Privacy, 58 CCT beneficiaries, 38 Census and the National Household Survey (PNAD), 36–37 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), 80, 85 Centralised approach, 50 Challenge-based learning, 111, 112 and digital-enabled platforms, 113 definition, 112 (see also Digital-enabled interventions) inclusive educational solutions, 113 research program, 112 traditional teaching methods, 113 Change management, 131, 132, 152 best practices, 144–145 implementation of e-learning, 140–141 leader’s role in managing change, 141–142 policies and procedures, 142–144 preemptive measures, 145–146 Chat logs, 97 Choices, 60 Citizen engagement, 8 Class effectiveness, 177, 182–187, 190, 192 Community engagement, 15 Community organizations, 72 Community ownership and participation, 15 Complexity, 11 Comptroller General (CGU), 34 Computerized methods, 31 Conceptual framework, 35 Conceptual model of digital learning and development model, 182, 183 Conditional cash transfer program, 41 Conspiracy theories, 9 Contact tracing definition, 50 importance, 48 mobile apps, 48, 49, 58, 59 Contemporary eTourism systems, 75 Content moderation, 11

Continued online engagement, 182–184, 186–188 Convenience sampling method, 163 Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19), 2, 3 case, 84 children, 84 deaths, 84 global health emergency, 48 impact on tourism, 66 in U.S., 84 medical conditions, 84 outbreak, 83 spread, 48 symptoms, 84 Wuhan, China, 96 Corporate social responsibility, 131 Countries’ experience with contract tracing apps companies, 50 France, 51 Iceland, 50 India, 51 mobile phone data, 50 U.K., 50 U.S., 51 University of Oxford, 51 Coursera, 130 COVID-19 educational institutions, 160, 161 impact on learning, 164 socioemotional factors, 162 traditional chalk-talk teaching methodology, 177 COVID-19 crisis, 4 Covid-19 pandemic, 76, 111, 130–132, 176 adoption of e-learning, 143 augmented reality-based teaching approach, 162 challenge for education, 113 higher education, 113 issues and challenges in digital transformation, 135–137 COVID-19-related challenges, 163 COVID-related initiatives, 59 Credibility of authorities, 10 Crisis management, 15 Cultural Resilience Project Framework, 76 Cultural tourism, 70 Customer service, 97 D Data collection, 138

Index Data protection principles, 60 Dawa Health (digital health platform), 121, 122 Daylio application, 99 Decentralised approach, 51 Democratic societies, 42 Dependability, 102, 103 Deployment phase tools, 97 Digital challenge-based learning, 112–113 Digital competitiveness, 160 Digital contact tracing legal/economic solutions, 49 privacy, 48, 49 public and private initiatives, 48 records interactions, 48 technological solutions, 49 Digital divide, 116, 117, 126 Digital-enabled interventions, 112, 114, 126 Beyond COVID-19 Global Open Innovation Challenge, 118–122 FUN Skills Catalyst Program (see Flexible Upskilling Network (FUN) Skills Catalyst Program) United Nations SDGs Challenge, 115–117 Digital environment, 132, 138 Digital governments ICT, 4 technologies, 2 well-intended actions, 2 Digital healthcare, 86 Digital inclusion, 40, 43 Digital inequalities, 179 Digital innovations, 114, 134 Digital interactions, 14 Digital intermediaries, 3 Digital learning, 130, 131 Digital literacy, 180 Digital modernization, 27 Digital platforms, 11, 178, 183, 184, 188, 189 Digital preparedness, 136, 141, 146, 181–187, 189, 192 Digital public communication, 15 Digital revolution, 60 Digital skills, 179 Digital Social Savings Account, 39 Digital teaching, 182, 185, 189, 190 Digital technologies, 179, 180, 190 government-citizens’ relations, 2 information and communication, 4 innovation, 66 rapid decision-making process, 2 Digital telecommunication, 81 Digital training, 180

199 Digital transformation, 27, 43, 112, 117, 130, 160 COVID-19 pandemic, 132 in HEIs, 132, 190 administration, 134 content and curriculum, 133–134 COVID-19, 133 governance, 134–135 pedagogical digitization, 133 social dimension, 132 use of digitization, 133 in higher education, 161 (see also Online education) issues and challenges during COVID-19, 135–137 process, 132 Digitalisation policies, 112 Digitization, 177 Discrimination levels, 42 Disjointed incrementalism, 28 Disruptive change, 114 Distance learning programs, 178 Distribution of public resources, 9 Distrust, 2 Distrust in governments epidemics and pandemics, 2 negative consequences avoidance, 2 Distrusting-compliers, 12, 13 Distrust-oriented perspective, 14 E Economic factors, 10 Ecotourism, 70 Education, 160, 179 Education pedagogy, 180 Educational institutions, 99, 169 Educational technology, 178 Effective decision-making process, 8 Effectiveness, 96 Efficiency, 96, 102, 103 e-government, 37, 99 E-health (electronic health), 82 e-Learning, 131, 145 e-Learning implementation during COVID-19 assessments and learning outcomes, 150 mental health, 150, 151 student challenges, 149–150 team of staff, 148–149 technology resource and funding, 147 e-Learning technologies, 177 Electricity supply, 176

Index

200 Emergency Payment, 41 Brazilian Government measure, 26 Brazilian households, 26 Brazilian safety net, 33 classical concepts, 28 emergency assistance policy, 26 federal government policies, 31 future research, 43 ICT solutions adoption, 27 implementation policies and instruments, 28, 29 income and unemployment insurance, 33 large-scale experiment, 32 program, 33 residents requirements, 33 singular experiment, 31 Emergency Payment design and implementation analysis beneficiaries identification, 36–38 institutional framework, 34–35 operationalization, 38–40 Emergency Payment’s institutional framework Administrative Regulation, 35 Executive and Legislative branches, 34 Federal Government, 34 ICT solutions, 34 incremental approach, 35 MC, 34, 41 policy implementation, 35 policy implications, 41 policy’ framework, 35 state and municipal agencies, 34 state-owned companies, 34 Emergency Payment’s legislation, 37 Emergency Payment’s public, 36 Emergency Telemedicine Consultation System (ETCS), 85 Emerging economies, 176 Empirical research, 77 ePerformance, 74 Epidemiological effects, 32 eShopping, 74 eTourism framework, 75, 76 investments, 76 literature, 67 products and services, 68 services, 75, 77 STS approach, 75 technologies, 67 tourism information systems, 67 traveling business, 67 website, 68

European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, 51 Evidence-based cognitive science, 178 Evidence-based teaching process approach, 181 F Face-to-face interaction, 178 Face-to-face learning, 131, 137, 150, 151 Factors influencing public distrust, 13 Federal Communication Commission (FCC), 86 Federal government, 38 Federal Revenue Office (RFB), 34 Federal Tourism Growth Strategy, 66 Field testing, 97 Flexible Upskilling Network (FUN) Skills Catalyst Program, 125 assessments, 123 challenges, 122, 123 digital implementation efforts, 123 digital learning labs, 123 intellectual risk-taking and monitoring, 124 learning program, 122 objective, 122 Prepr Network, 123 skills transfer, 124 Formative testing, 97 Free distance learning platforms online, 130 G General Accounting Office (TCU), 34 General Registry of the Admitted and Laid-Off Workers (CAGED), 36 General usability, 100 Global Observatory for eHealth (GOe), 82 Government authorities, 96 Government’s routine trust, 4 Governmental agencies, 26 H H1N1 vaccination recommendation, 12 Health education and administration, 82 Health inequity and morbidity, 83 Health Information Technology, 83 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), 85 Health system’s telehealth services development factors

Index patient and provider perception and experience, 88 regulations, 87, 88 service selections, 88 technical requirements and infrastructure, 87 Health systems, 83, 84, 87 Heuristic evaluations, 100 Higher education institutions (HEIs) administrative units, 134 change management (see Change management) COVID-19 crisis, 130 COVID-19 pandemic, 130 digital transformation (see Digital transformation) effect of pandemic, 131 implementation of e-learning (see e-Learning implementation during COVID-19) in Malaysia, 130 online learning systems, 144 qualitative approach, 137 Homestay association, 74 Homestay program, 68 Human–computer interaction (HCI), 67 Human resources (HR), 134 Hypothesis testing, 185, 186 I ICT instrument, 31 ICT resources, 134, 135, 147, 149 ICT skills, 180 ICT solutions, 41, 43 ICT tools, 133, 135, 149 Incrementalism, 28, 41 Incrementalistic approach, 28 Indigenous communities, 66 Indigenous community’s perceptions, eTourism case study approach, 72 data collection and analysis, 72 handicraft makers, 72 interviews, 72 snowball sampling approach, 72 Indigenous tourism businesses, 66 Individual analysis, 38 Individual micro-entrepreneurs (MEI), 36 Industrial revolution 4.0, 177 Informal workers, 36 Information and communication technologies (ICT), 4, 26, 79

201 adopting difficulties, 31 bureaucratic levels, 30 implementers’ actions, 30 intensive use, 42 systematic literature review, 32 In-house social learning platform, 144 Initio (cross-cultural online publication and communication platform), 121 Institutional enforcement, 14 Institutional framework, 38 Institutional training programs, 182 Instrumentalization, 35 Instruments, 28, 29 International health regulations (IHR), 96 Internet and telecommunication connectivity, 76–77 Internet exchange relationships, 5 Interoperability, 42 Interpreter, 29 Interview protocol, 138 Interviews, 138, 139 IP addresses, 59 IT security measures, 59 L Lancet, 81 Leadership, 10 Learning management system (LMS), 100, 105, 192 Legal and technical security safeguards, 57 Legislative reform, 60 Live mode, 192 Local intelligent digitalization, 177 Long Bedian, 70 Long Latei, 68–70, 73 Low-level training, 185, 192 M Machine bureaucracies, 38 Malaysia's tourism industry, 66 Mass transactional tasks, 42 Means-test instrument, 37 Media/social media factors, 11 Medical communications, 81 Medical video communications, 81 Mental health, 150, 151, 162 MHealth, 82 Ministry of Citizenship (MC), 34, 38, 39, 41 Mixed-method design, 114 Modern visual surveillance, 181 Multi-stakeholder smart partnership, 68

202 Mutual trust environment, 15 N National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 81 National economy, 10 National Health Insurance (NHI), 80 National Library of Medicine, 82 National Registry of Low-Income Household, 38 National Telemedicine Center of China (NTCC), 85 National Tourism Organization, 68 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), 87 Norwegian Welfare and Labor Organization, 32 Novelty, 102 O On-campus learning, 161 On-campus lecture, 164, 166 Online assessments, 167, 170 Online class effectiveness, 192, 193 Online classes, 176 continued online engagement, 184 level of anxiety, 188 Online classrooms, 181 Online education, 131, 160, 161 challenges, 161 general aspects, 168 online exams, 164, 167, 169, 170 online lectures, 164, 166, 167 opinion about continuing education, 168 training, faculty, 162 use of computing equipment, 161 Online exams, 164, 167, 169, 170 Online learning, 131, 133, 135–137, 140, 144, 147, 149, 153, 162, 170 changes, 164 factors, 161 (see also Online education) online exams, 169 student’s perception, 163 teacher-student and student-student engagement, 161 Online lectures, 164, 166, 167 Online programs, 142 Online questionnaire, 163 Online teaching, 162, 176, 181 Online teaching effectiveness, 186 Online teaching-learning, 183 Online tools, 177

Index Online usability testing (remote) approach, 99 Ophthalmology education, 162 Optimism, 191 Organizational improvements, 41 Overcoming digital teaching, 185 Overcoming teaching challenges, 183, 184, 186, 187, 189 P Pandemic outbreak, 160 Pandemic-related issues, 15 Penan traditional knowledge system, 69–70 Personal digital assistants (PDAs), 82 Personal information protection, 58 Personal protective equipment (PPE), 84 Perspicuity, 102, 103 PIE (project leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship) framework, 112, 114–119, 122, 125 Policies and bureaucratic routines, 27 Policy framework, 28 Policy procedures and instruments, 42 Policy’s creation, 26 Policymakers, 43 Policy-making authorities, 152 Policymaking process, 29, 30, 40 Political factors, 9, 10 Political history, 9 Political memory of the society, 10 Positive behavioural interventions and supports (PBIS), 126 Potential beneficiaries, 37, 42 Practical based courses, 151 Pragmatic and hedonic quality score, 104 Preemptive measures, 131, 140, 145, 146, 153 Preliminary Industry Survey, 66 Preparation for Future Learning’ paradigm, 113 Preparedness, 8 Privacy, 48 Privacy behavior, 48 Privacy Commissioners, 59 Privacy concerns with contract tracing apps Amnesty International study, 52 balancing fundamental human rights, 51 Canadian case, 52 CDS source code, 53 contact-tracing apps, 52 COVID Alert app, 53 data-first and privacy-first approaches, 52 data protection boundaries, 52 data sharing, 52 ethical and legal, 51

Index framework, 51 government’s perspective, 52 laws and international best practices, 51 pandemic situations, 52 personal information, 51 precautionary fashion, 53 technology, 52, 53 Privacy concerns, Canadian COVID Alert app Apple/Android phone, 57 CCLA, 58 choices, 56 contact-tracing, 56 decentralized approach, 55 government access, location data, 54 government’s perspective, 55 invasion, 55 personal information protections, 58 principles, 56, 57 Privacy Commissioners, 57 privacy experts, 57 security risks, 56 technical protections, 58 Privacy decisions, 48 Privacy paradox, 48 Privacy-preserving contact detection framework, 51 Prolonged social distancing, 181 Public administration (PA), 4, 37 Public communication, 8 Public decision-making process, 15 Public health authorities, 56 contact-tracing apps, 58 COVID-19 responses, 52 emergency, 52 information, 50 measures, 55, 59, 60 and privacy protection, 52 protection, 56 systems, 48 Public health messages, 7 Public policy ICT solutions adoption, 32 Public policy modernization, 27 Public policy studies, 29 Public trust deterioration, 4 Publics’ experiences and values, 13 Purposive sampling, 137, 138 Q Qualitative research, 138, 139 Quantitative measurement, 102, 107 Questionnaire, 163

203 R Radical disintermediation, 29 Rational model/theory of decision, 28 Recontextualization, 11 Regulations, 80 Remote learning, 176, 178, 179, 189, 191 Remote teaching, 176, 177 Resilience, 191, 192 Responsiveness, 9 RINIS concept, 32 S Sanitary measure, 26 Satisfaction, 96 Saudi Arabia city of Makkah, 96 COVID-19 cases, 96 Covid-19 KSA mobile app (see Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) mobile application) IHR, 96 lockdown and curfew, 96 Screen-level bureaucracy, 30 Search query analysis, 97 Security agencies, 99 Security obligations, 59 Self-declaratory questionnaire, 38 Seminomadic and permanent lifestyles, 70 Semi-structured interviews, 138 Service-Learning program, 69 Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), 87 Severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), 84 Shared interests/values, 9 Skepticism, 4 Skills transfer, 113, 114, 124 SLR factors administrative, 8, 9 economic, 10 health-related, 7, 8 media/social media, 11 political, 9, 10 Smart and multi-stakeholder partnerships, 76 Smart partnerships model, 69 Snowball sampling approach, 72 Snowball sampling technique, 182 Social and cultural resilience, 75 Social distancing, 160 Social intervention, 40 Social media monitoring, 97 Social security coverage, 36 Social Security Information Technology Company (Dataprev), 34

204 Socio-Technical System (STS), 75 Standardization, 8 Stimulation, 102 Street-level bureaucracies, 29–31, 42 Structured questionnaires, 182 Student engagement, 161, 163 Student well-being, 180 Student’s perception to online learning and assessments, 163 Students’ experience with on-campus lectures, 164 Summative testing, 97 Surveillance and Technology Director, 58 Survey-based descriptive study, 182 Sustainable development goals (SDGs), see United Nations SDGs Challenge Synchronous online classes, 143 Systematic literature review (SLR) aggregating knowledge, 2 analysis, 5 commonalities and divergences, 3 degree of trust, 13 digitalization vs. digital government, 15 factors (see SLR factors) health-related context, 6 integrated approach, 15 journals and papers, 5 limitation, 6 methodological analysis and synthesis, 5 oscillation, 5 peer-reviewed articles selection, 3 PRISMA method, 2 protocol, 6 questions, 5 research scope, 6 trust-oriented relationships, 14 System-level bureaucracy, 30, 31, 38, 43 System-level bureaucrats, 31, 40, 43 T Target public beneficiaries, 40 Tawakkalna (Covid-19 KSA) mobile application attractiveness, 107 benchmark data, 107 importance, 105 intended user’s population, 102, 107 interaction problems, 105 interface development, 108 manage and monitor pandemic, 97 National Information Center, 96 nonexperimental, 101, 107

Index official application, 96 quantitative data, 103 Suadi Arabia, 107 UEQ, 100–103 usability, 96 user-centric design, 105 users, 96 UX, 97, 101, 102, 107 Teacher training digital literacy, assessment, 180 evidence-based process approach, 181 Teacher training programs, 182 Teaching fraternity, 191, 192 Teaching-learning process, 179 Technological adoption, 160 Technology-intensive procedures, 27 Technophobia, 146 Telecommunication, 82 Telecommunication companies, 131 Tele-COVID service, 84 Telegraph, 81 Telehealth implementation during COVID-19 AMA, 85 bidirectional communication, 85 challenges/barriers developing countries, 83 internal and external factors, 82 limited internet and smart devices access, 85 patients and providers flexibility, 85 technology infrastructure, 80 health systems, 80 HIPAA, 85 in-person visits, 85 medical experts collaboration, 84 multidisciplinary care, 86 out-of-pocket payment, 84 patients care, 84 policies and incentives impacts, 83 PPE, 84 safe screening, 85 Tele-COVID service, Argentina, 84 U.S. Medicare and Medicaid programs, 85 variability, 84 Telemedicine/telehealth access, 83 in Australia, 80 challenges and benefits, 86 COVID-19 pandemic, 80 definition, 80 emergencies, 87 future FCC, 86

Index improved internet and smart devices, 86 regulatory guidelines, 87 safe method, care delivery, 86 Health IT systems, 83 high-quality and affordable care, 82 implementation (see Telehealth implementation during COVID-19) integration, 82 IOM definition, 82 medical care teams, 82 modalities, 82 NASA's role, 81 platforms challenges, 80 progress, 80 purpose, 82 remote clinical services, 82 remote health services, 80 smart devices, 83 Topic-related search, 5 Traditional agricultural practices, 74 Traditional bureaucratic structures, 27 Traditional implementers, 43 Traditional individual houses, 68 Traditional structures, 26 Traditional teaching methods, 113 Training and class effectiveness, 183 Training programs, 182, 183, 188–191 Transparency, 57 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), 83 Triangulation, 139 Trust, 2 Trust and distrust, citizen-government interaction comprehensive analysis, 12 data processing, 13 digital technologies, 13 direct experience, 12 electronic government, 13 government actions, 12 health emergency, 12 infectious diseases, 12 lacking ethical and pragmatic principles, 11 media/social media, 12 pandemics, 11 policy implications, 13, 14 solid risk assessments, 13 Trust in citizens’ interaction, 8 Trust in governments literature, 2, 3 PA, 4

205 relationship, 2 Trusting-non-compliers, 12, 13 Trust-oriented perspective, 14 Tuak (rice wine), 73 Tukey HSD tests, 185, 189 U UEQ data analysis tool, 104, 107 Underserved populations, 80 UNESCO, 66 Unexpected and extreme uncertainties, 4 United Kingdom (U.K.), 50 United Nations SDGs Challenge, 115 approach, 115–116 complex and multifaceted challenges, 115 digital divide challenge, 116 outcome, 117 PIE framework, 116 technology platform, 117 United Nations Sustainable Goal Challenge, 125 University College of Technology Sarawak (UCTS), 68 Unprecedented demand, 3 UNWTO, 66 Usability definition, 97 intuitive system, 98 products difficulties, 98 questionnaire (survey), 98 satisfaction, 98 testing, 97 Usability evaluation, 100 Usability research cross-sectional usability study, 99 empirical studies, 99 measurement’s core constructs, 99 participants, 99 questionnaires, 99 recommendation, 99 UX, 98 wireless networks, 98 User experience (UX) CityViewAR, 100 contextual influences, 100 definition, 97 empirical approach, 99 hedonic quality aspects, 108 quantitative measure, 101 questionnaire and factors, 100 research methods and tools, 98 satisfaction, 99

Index

206 UEQ, 100 usability testing, 97–99 User experience questionnaire (UEQ) Arabic version, 102 attractiveness, 104 distribution, 104 Edmodo e-Learning website, 100 educated guesses, 102 English version, 101, 102 factors, 102 implementation, 105 Indonesian version, 100 items, 103, 104 languages, 100 learning management system, 105 precise score, 104 quality score, 105 quantitative measurement, 102 responses, 104 scale structure, 102 scales reliability, 105

UX quality, 101 V Vaccine hesitancy, 8 Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT), 72 Videoconferencing, 147 Virtual challenge-based learning, 118, 120 Virtual classrooms, 177 Virtual communications, 86 Virtual private networks (VPNs), 144 Virtual teaching-learning process, 181 Virtual training, 162 Voluntary surveillance technologies, 53 W Website analytics, 97 Work from home (WFH) model, 183, 191 World Health Organization (WHO), 66, 83 World Heritage Sites, 67