Key factors of digital transformation of higher education

Abstract

This article is devoted to the problem of digital transformation of higher education. The digitalization of universities involves increasing the innovations effectiveness in students teaching, the use of digital technologies to develop the research university potential. Academic staff and students of higher education institutions must properly apply digital technologies in teaching, in research and in management. Practical experience in the high school digitalization requires the main factors identification of the digital transformation in the education. The study of theoretical approaches to this problem in the interdisciplinary perspective and the identification of key factors in the digital transformation of higher professional education is the main goal of this article. To solve research issues, the authors analyzed the works devoted to the problems of digitalization and digital transformation of education. Methods were used in this article: analysis and generalization of scientific literature on the problem of education digital transformation, the study of regulatory legal acts. The paper attempts to identify the key factors in the digital transformation of higher education based on the analysis of theoretical approaches in the interdisciplinary plane. The main factors identified are: the development and pedagogical modeling of the digital educational environment, educational platforms; re-equipment of IT resources; the formation of digital competencies for all participants in the educational process; creation of a virtual (digital) educational environment; introduction of personalized models of educational space organization; introduction of virtual reality technologies in higher education; increasing the innovative potential of educational institutions, which can be carried out through the results of the scientific and technical activities of the institution itself, etc. The article focuses on the need to develop a strategy for the science and higher education digital transformation and in the Republic of Kazakhstan, which should reflect the key areas of digital transformation: digital modeling; development of digital services; modernization of infrastructure; data management; human resource management; introduction of digital technologies and platforms; creation of a digital environment, etc. The authors also emphasize the importance of studying the problem of introducing artificial intelligence at the university, solving the issue of observing academic honesty by students when using artificial intelligence to generate ChatGPT (OpenAI) texts. The possibility of creating thinking machines raises many ethical questions, which necessitates the development of a Code of Ethics for Artificial Intelligence. The inclusion of a section on the ethics of using ChatGPT (OpenAI) in the Code of Academic Integrity of Kazakhstani Universities students seems to be an important aspect by the authors.