Advantages and disadvantages of digital remote education in the security and defence contexts

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many changes in teaching and learning, ranging from forced digitalization to the diminution of human interaction. Thus, stakeholders have proposed various solutions, considering both the need to be operative in a short time after the first virus outbreak, and the necessity to develop long-term plans after the immediacy of the emergency. In this paper, both positive and negative features of digital remote education are considered by analyzing a questionnaire with tools aimed at detecting strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats. Furthermore, a benchmarking of teachers’ practices and actions is developed, to compare different solutions proposed by instructors in various Member States. As part of the project DIGICODE and in the framework of the Digital European Action Plan by the European Union, this study suggests that all stakeholders should perceive these changes as a reform and not as a revolution, to be maintained in the close future of education. Furthermore, the benchmarking analysis should help future decision makers in taking the best from every educational action taken during the COVID-19 pandemic to advantage the students. This reform would probably require a change in some policies, not only from university stakeholders, but also from other institutions such as governments.