Brightening Physical University Admission Through Digital Process Virtualization: An Action Case Study in Ghana

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand how digital process virtualization can be used to address problems with physical admission in a developing country university. Bright ICT research calls for solutions to practical problems in society including education. However, related studies in education have focused more on teaching and learning. Therefore, less is known about education management and administration. This study addresses this research gap through an action case study of a digital process virtualization project to address problems with a physical admission system in the University of Ghana. The research findings show that problems such as delays, inconvenience of submitting physical documents, difficulty of accessing lecturers in their offices to serve as referees and untimely feedback can be addressed by inscribing virtual functionalities into digital platforms for affordance actualization by users. However, in situations where personal knowledge is needed for providing academic references, additional functionalities are needed to promote digital interactions between actors.