Digital inequalities and their impact on distance education: The case of Ibn Zohr university students – Morocco

Abstract

The period of quarantine, which was due to the global health crisis caused by the Covid 19 virus, constituted a laboratory to form, strengthen, and deepen the degree of digital inequality. This situation dictated the need to move from adopting the face-to-face education pattern to ‘‘digital education’’. For this purpose, we proceeded by asking the following question: Do digital inequalities affect the degree of benefit from distance education? In this context, we assume that the level of digital inequalities affects the benefits of digital education that will be obtained by university students. We start from a sample of Ibn Zohr university students (59). In short, the research findings allow us to conclude that the degree of benefit from distance education (distance lectures) is affected positively by four main variables. The results indicate that the place of residence of students is affected by the degree of Internet access, and subsequently the degree of access to distance education. Furthermore, the availability of scholarship has an impact on the degree of access to distance education. Also, The Internet weakness often causes technical problems, which affects the degree of benefit from distance education.

Keywords

• Digital inequalities
• Distance education
• Digital skills
• 21st century skills
• Covid-19

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