Across the world, universities speak confidently about digital transformation. Strategic plans reference technology, innovation, online learning, and artificial intelligence with increasing frequency (Selwyn, 2023; Ovington, 2025). Yet beneath this shared language lies an important question that is often left unexamined: Are we actually ready for digital transformation, or are we only talking about it?
This insight paper invites the Kabarak University academic community staff and students alike to reflect on what digital readiness truly means in practice. Moving beyond strategy documents and technology adoption, the paper explores digital transformation as a cultural, pedagogical, and human process (EDUCAUSE, 2023; Jisc, 2024). Drawing from global higher education readiness and maturity frameworks, the paper encourages dialogue on how such ideas resonate (or fail to resonate) within African university contexts (Commonwealth of Learning, 2022).
1. Why Digital Transformation Feels Familiar Yet Unfinished
Digital transformation is no longer new. Most academics and students interact daily with learning management systems, digital libraries, online assessments, collaboration platforms, and AIpowered tools (Selwyn, 2023; Jin et al., 2025).
Yet many educators quietly sense a gap between using digital tools and being digitally transformed. Technologies are present, but their impact is uneven across disciplines, courses, and learners (Bond et al., 2021; Czerniewicz et al., 2023).
2. From Digital Strategy to Digital Readiness
Universities are increasingly articulate in their digital strategies. Readiness, however, is revealed through daily academic practice rather than policy statements (EDUCAUSE, 2023).
Digital readiness manifests in how confidently lecturers redesign courses for blended or online delivery, how students experience coherence across digital platforms, and how institutions support innovation, assessment integrity, and ethical use of emerging technologies such as generative AI (Jisc, 2024; Jin et al., 2025).
3. What Global Frameworks Can Teach Us (and What They Cannot)
Internationally, higher education bodies such as EDUCAUSE, Jisc, and the Commonwealth of Learning have developed digital readiness and maturity frameworks to support institutional reflection (EDUCAUSE, 2023; Jisc, 2024; COL, 2022). These frameworks emphasize leadership, staff capability, learner experience, institutional culture, and evidenceinformed decisionmaking.
However, these models are largely informed by wellresourced contexts. African universities often experience digital transformation under conditions of constraint, requiring adaptability, resilience, and contextual innovation rather than linear maturity pathways (Czerniewicz et al., 2023).
4. Digital Transformation as a Pedagogical Question
Digital transformation is fundamentally a pedagogical issue. It challenges assumptions about teaching roles, student agency, assessment practices, and the relationship between technology and human judgment (Selwyn, 2023).
For students, digitally mediated learning demands higher levels of selfregulation, digital literacy, and ethical responsibility. For lecturers, it requires new approaches to facilitation, assessment design, and engagement with generative AI tools (Yusuf et al., 2024; Jin et al., 2025).
5. Thinking About Readiness: A Shared Conversation
Globally, universities are increasingly using readiness lenses to reflect on preparedness across pedagogy, staff capacity, infrastructure, culture, and support systems (EDUCAUSE, 2023). Such lenses are not intended for ranking or branding, but for fostering shared understanding and institutional learning.
Within the Kabarak context, reflective readiness conversations can support peer learning, surface hidden challenges, and shift digital transformation discourse from compliancedriven implementation to growthoriented academic practice.
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Commonwealth of Learning (COL). (2022). Readiness for open and distance learning: A conceptual framework. Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning.
Czerniewicz, L., Trotter, H., Haupt, G., & Bitew, M. (2023). Inequality and digital transformation in higher education: Postpandemic reflections from the Global South. Teaching in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2023.2185589
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Jin, Y., Yan, L., Echeverria, V., Gašević, D., & MartinezMaldonado, R. (2025). Generative AI in higher education: A global perspective of institutional adoption policies and guidelines. Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, 8, 100348. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2024.100348
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Selwyn, N. (2023). Education and technology: Key issues and debates (3rd ed.).
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Yusuf, A., Pervin, N., & RománGonzález, M. (2024). Generative AI and the future of higher education: Threat to academic integrity or catalyst for reform?
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https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239024004602
Circulation Note
This paper is circulated internally within Kabarak University to stimulate reflection, digital learning policy dialogue, and collective learning on emerging issues in open, distance, and elearning (ODeL). Staff are encouraged to share insights or responses through the KABUO Discussion Forum or the KABU ODeL Centre DigiHub email:
For updates on digital learning and past insight papers visit our digital learning insight hub using the following link: https://kabarak.ac.ke/digihub
Approved for circulation on 19/12/2025
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Prof Simon Maina Karume
Director, Kabarak University Open, Distance and eLearning (ODeL) Centre
