DIGITAL LEARNING AND STUDENT ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Abstract

Digital learning is now widely integrated into higher education instruction‚ student assessment‚ and other support services․ This article provides an overview of the effects of digital learning approaches on student learning outcomes in higher education‚ including online learning‚ blended and flipped learning models‚ learning management systems‚ open educational resources‚ learning analytics‚ and digital assessment tools․ Evidence included in this review comes from primary and secondary research articles and meta-analyzes․ Actual effect sizes from published research studies are reported․ Results suggest that digital learning approaches lead to learning outcomes at least as good as those achieved through more traditional approaches‚ though the magnitude and direction of effects vary based on course and student characteristics and other factors‚ including quality of student-teacher interaction‚ student selfmanagement skills‚ teacher skill and training‚ and institutional support․ Meta-analyzes find small to large positive effect sizes for various digital learning approaches․ Other studies find important differences between fully online learning during emergencies and more planned approaches to online learning․ Sustained success with online higher education requires attention to a range of student‚ teacher‚ and institutional practices․ Learning analytics tools are used to help understand student learning outcomes․ Conclusions drawn in this article highlight the importance of considering the overall quality of support services related to technology use in learning․