Societal Complexity Problem of E Learning Adoption in a Post Covid Context: A Tunisian University Case

Abstract

The COVID-19 crisis has raised significant concerns for the entire education community: policymakers, educators, and learners. School and university closures around the world have disrupted the learning and lives of a generation of students. Despite efforts to maintain educational provision through distance and online learning, unprecedented ‘institutional’ de- schooling has partly taken place, with an impact on learning. How to prevent this risk and mitigate its impact on learning inequalities and lifelong learning trajectories has become a major policy issue. This research aims to provide a conceptual framework for e-learning by adopting a complex societal approach that illustrates the profound changes brought about by the adoption of this education mode in society. From a theoretical foundation and based on our empirical explorations on one of the University of Manouba (UMA) institutions that chose to pursue this E-learning approach, this research identified the economic and social factors of E-learning analyzed through the complex societal approach developed by DeTombe (2008) in order to propose a redefinition of this mode of education. We show in this research how the different learning acquired as a result of the COVID-19 crisis constitutes a real societal issue and leads not only to a transformation of learning techniques but also to profound societal mutations in the different groups affected by this change process.