Digital transformation in engineering education: a gap between teaching and management

Since the emergence of industry 4.0, digital tools have been employed in digital transformation (DT) processes in companies and organizations both public and private. Universities have been working on the incorporation of these new paradigms into their study curriculum, seeking to train engineers in a comprehensive manner for the current job market. The School of Engineering from a private university in Chile, enjoying the highest enrollment numbers in engineering careers nationwide, has made innovations in its curriculum in order to incorporate DT across all of its subjects. Professionals by and large acknowledge the importance of DT, while those associated to professional training recognize as necessary its inclusion in the curriculum. However, in recent years with the appearance of Covid19, online teaching through LMS became necessary, and it was subsequently noted that not all professors were able to adequately adapt to the use of available technologies for their online classes. There was thus a need to to identify this gap that could indicate weaknesses in the curricular innovation process to include DT and would thus allow the creation of improvement guidelines in relation to the preparation of the teachers involved. This present study aims to look into perceptions held by School of Engineering professors regarding the importance DT and any barriers had on the use of digital tools in relation to their reaching. Surveys were applied to ascertain professors' perception regarding DT usefulness and to determine how much they actually use digital tools, using quantitative data analysis methods. Preliminary research results show a gap in taking-up basic technology that professors employ in their class, even though they acknowledge the importance of incorporating DT in the curriculum. Implications are discussed in relation to possible strategies that the School of Engineering may have in improving DT uptake, not only at the level of the curriculum, but also from each teacher in their classroom.