A Study on the Reshaping of Ideological and Political Education Teaching Models in Colleges and Universities by Digital Transformation
Published Online: Jun 05, 2025
Received: Dec 29, 2024
Accepted: Apr 28, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/amns-2025-0980
Keywords
© 2025 Xuefei Wang, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
At present, “Internet + ideological and political education” realizes the high degree of integration of traditional ideological and political education and the advantages of information technology, and has become a new form of ideological and political education in colleges and universities in the digital era. The disadvantages of the traditional ideological and political education model: obsolete means, single method, cognitive bias in the education process, one-sided value orientation, it is difficult to meet and satisfy the requirements of modern students’ ideological development and ideological demands [1-3]. And in the context of digitalization, the deep integration of ideological and political education in colleges and universities and digitalization, innovative educational concepts, innovative ideological and political education methods.
The value of the digital transformation of ideological and political education has three aspects. First, immersive experience, cyberspace to enhance the sense of pleasure in ideological and political education. The extensive use of immersive and interactive virtual experience halls has realized the double online body and consciousness of students, online and offline interconnection, history and reality real-time experience, and also made the all-round participation in ideological and political education and the interconnection of the whole field a reality [4-7]. Secondly, two-way interaction. Digital technology provides a new value orientation for ideological education, and everyone becomes a walking “digital aggregate” [8-10]. The educator and the educated are building a teacher-student relationship of mutual equality, two-way interaction, and harmonious co-promotion in the form of “dialogue”. Lastly, the supply is precise. Focused drip irrigation fits the new ecology of ideological and political education in the field of ideological and political education in colleges and universities to integrate the use of the Internet, abandoning the previous inertia of the “contingency” of thinking, focusing on teachers and students, sharing, coexistence of the “reality”. Accurate and personalized digital learning space can realize the interconnection and integration between different data platforms, and become a “strong magnetic field” and “energy field” to lead the majority of young students [11-14]. However, due to the digital technology in the operation mode, content structure and other aspects of traditional information technology, there are still large differences, open information dissemination to the ideological and political education of digital transformation has brought new opportunities for development at the same time, network information fragmentation, three-dimensional, hidden characteristics also bring serious threats and challenges. For example, digital technology has overstepped the value leadership, and there are barriers to reach quality resources; virtual space blurs the boundaries of reality, and the mirror world dissolves the rationality of judgment; information dispersion accelerates the isolation of data, and the dilemma of linkage weakens the synergy of educating people; digital literacy lags behind the development of technology, and the ideological barriers constrain the transformation of education [15-18].
The digital transformation of ideological and political education is not just a simple accumulation and rigid integration of digital technology and ideological and political education, but only to realize the comprehensive reshaping of the mode of education, means, content and other aspects of the digital transformation of education in the true sense of the word [19-21].
Digital technology is providing opportunities for the current innovation and development of ideological and political education in colleges and universities. This study takes the environment of digital transformation, the motivation of digital transformation and the purpose and effectiveness of digital transformation as the logical vein for research, and continues the research on the economic environment and educational environment of digital transformation, and on this basis combines with the principle of the triple motivating factor to study the impact of the motivating factor of ideological and political education in colleges and universities. Finally, the digital teaching model of ideological and political education in colleges and universities based on mathematical transformation is constructed by combining constructivism and cognitive load theory, and then it is applied in practical teaching and the teaching effectiveness is tested from the perspective of students’ adaptability.
In recent decades, digital technologies have achieved rapid growth in everything from supporting back-office operations to facilitating institutional access, enabling the delivery of novel digital products and services that give a competitive advantage to organizations that are innovative in their use of technology, while meeting the specific needs and interests of their users. This application of technology is referred to as digital transformation. Other scholars have argued that digital transformation can be viewed as both a model and a process, as well as a strategy and an approach, with a technology-driven core.
The widespread application of modern information technology, such as the Internet, big data and artificial intelligence, has had a far-reaching impact on the way of production and life in today’s society. Under the new situation, to break the traditional form of bondage and shackles, and establish a more adaptable “digital model” with the reality of social development, has become an important livelihood project of the development of education as a necessary way. The specific connotation of the digital transformation of education in this paper is demand-driven, which means that digital technology will be deeply integrated into the multiple dimensions of educational practice. This process promotes the comprehensive updating and reform of teaching activities, evaluation mechanisms, teaching models and educational management structures, thus realizing an epochal and systematic educational innovation process, promoting quality and fairness in education and supporting lifelong learning, and creating a good educational ecological model.
The digital framework of ideological and political education teaching mode is shown in Figure 1, the digital transformation of ideological and political education teaching in colleges and universities is a brand-new parenting model generated along with the development of the digital era, and the digital technology represented by big data, blockchain, artificial intelligence and ideological and political education in colleges and universities are deeply embedded in each other and synergistically coupled, thus embedding the common characteristics of digital technology and ideological and political education, and the two-way interaction of data ideology and ideology dataization. Thus, it contains the common characteristics of digital technology and ideological and political education, implies the two-way interaction of data ideology and thought data, and presents the overall multidisciplinary cross-fertilization of ideological and political education in the digital era. To put it simply, along with the horizontal expansion and vertical depth of digital technology, the digital transformation of ideological and political education in colleges and universities has arisen out of necessity, which is the result of the synergistic articulation of data-oriented thoughts and behaviors, and in the two-way interaction of data-thought and thought-data, it generates the practice pattern of digitizing people, assisting people with numbers, and raising people with numbers. Digital thinking, technology and methods have been deeply integrated into the whole time, whole area and whole process of ideological and political work and parenting activities, thus promoting the digital development of ideological and political education in terms of theoretical construction, discourse system, management service, operation process and practice path, and shaping a new form of parenting.
Digital framework of ideological and political education teaching model
The changes in education expenditure and GDP in 2017~2021 are shown in Figure 2, and the global economic environment has been severely affected by the advent of the new crown epidemic in 2020. With the normalization of the new crown epidemic, the economic depression has quietly appeared around the world, and China’s economic development has slowed down in recent years due to the new crown epidemic, but it is still in a state of growth, with a total GDP of 1143673 billion yuan in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 8%. Although the economic environment is not particularly ideal, but since the “13th Five-Year Plan”, the government has increased education spending, education has become a key area of fiscal expenditure, and has been given priority to the protection of treatment, 2017~2021 The financial has been increasing investment in education, ensuring the sustained and stable growth of financial investment in education, and the structure of expenditure is also constantly optimizing and adjusting. Between 2017~2021, education expenditure increased from 3283016 billion yuan to 5718350 billion yuan, and the proportion of education expenditure in GDP increased from 4% to about 5%. In the context of continuous investment in national education, while promoting and promoting education reform and development, it provides an economic guarantee for the continuous exploration of the digital transformation of education.
Education economic expenditure and GDP change
With the development of the economy and digital technology, ordinary education methods can no longer meet the demand for education, more and more parents turn their attention to digital education modes such as online education, driven by this, the demand for digital education is also increasingly high, with a very large potential for development.The change in the number of online education users from 2017 to 2023 is shown in Figure 3. As of 2023, the number of online education users has reached 682.54 million people, relative to the growth number of 527.36 million people in 2015, and the growth rate of the number of online education users in the same year in 2021 reached 55%. It further illustrates that the increasing demand for online digitalized education models is the driving force for the digital transformation of traditional education.
The number of online education changes
Based on the analysis of the above motivational factors combined with the principle of triple motivational factors, this study further analyzes the influencing factors of the digital transformation of ideological and political education teaching in terms of the structure and connotation of situational motivation, triggering motivation, and enabling motivation. Based on the theoretical perspective of organizational change, this study proposes the structure of situational, triggering, and enabling dynamics that drive the digital transformation of school education, and takes situational dynamics, triggering dynamics, enabling dynamics, and the digital transformation of school education as the main variables of this study. Then after distributing and correcting with the test questionnaire, this study distributed the official questionnaire in an online way, and the final number of recovered valid questionnaire samples was 1068, with 1053 valid questionnaires, and the validity rate of the questionnaire was 98.6%. The scale is based on the Likert 5-point scale, which is assigned from 1 to 5 points from the degree of “not at all conforming” to the degree of “fully conforming” and is calculated according to the principle of this assignment.
The mean scores of the core variables and their dimensional indicators are shown in Table 1. Overall, the overall mean scores of the motivational factors of digital transformation of school education, and the willingness, behavior and effect of digital transformation of school education are all higher than 3 and higher than the theoretical median, which is in the middle and slightly above the level. This result reflects that under the given situational motivation and trigger motivation, there is more room for improvement in enabling motivation as well as willingness, behavior and effect of digital transformation of school education.
In terms of each motivational factor, the average score of contextual motivation is 3.423, the average score of trigger motivation is 3.498 slightly higher than contextual motivation, but the average score of enabling motivation is 3.358, which is significantly lower than the former two. This indicates that relative to the drive of the school’s internal and external objective environments and the positive influence of the relevant subjects, the lack of the school organization’s own enabling motivation is an important aspect that hinders and restricts the implementation of its digital transformation of education.
In contextual dynamics, the score of external transformation orientation (X1) is 3.731, which is significantly higher than traditional teaching inefficiency (X2) and learning improvement claims (X3). This indicates that compared with the internal teaching inefficiency and learning improvement demands of schools, primary and secondary schools face a stronger transformation orientation from the outside.
Among the triggering dynamics, the scores of higher government support (Y1) and school leader-driven (Y2) are both higher than 3.5, which is significantly better than the score of cooperative force-driven (Y3). This indicates that the support and promotion from the higher level government and school leaders are stronger compared to the assistance of cooperative forces such as technology enterprises, university experts, and peer schools in the digital transformation of school education.
Among the enabling forces, the average scores of organizational synergy (Z3) and process control (Z2) are relatively high at 3.389 and 3.385, respectively, and the average score of consensus cohesion (Z1) is relatively low. This result reflects that the lack of understanding and agreement among school organization members and parents is an important aspect that hinders the practice of digital transformation of school education.
In terms of digital transformation of school education, the evaluation scores of the transformation willingness indicator (S1) are relatively high, and the mean scores of transformation behavior (S2) and transformation effect (S3) are relatively low. This result reflects that compared to the willingness to transform the digital transformation of school education transformation behavior and the effectiveness of transformation is relatively poor. Therefore, in addition to the motivational factors that stimulate the willingness to transform, those factors that contribute to the smooth and orderly process of transformation implementation and more significant transformation effects can make the digital transformation of school education into a sustainable development state.
The average score of the core variables and their respective dimensions
| Core variable | Dimension | N | Mean (Dimensions) | Mean (Variable) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Situational impetus (X) | External transformation orientation (X1) | 1053 | 3.731 | 3.423 |
| Traditional teaching inefficiency (X2) | 1053 | 3.270 | ||
| Learning to improve demand (X3) | 1053 | 3.269 | ||
| Trigger power(Y) | Higher government support (Y1) | 1053 | 3.551 | 3.498 |
| School leadership (Y2) | 1053 | 3.543 | ||
| Cooperative power drive (Y3) | 1053 | 3.401 | ||
| Power of use (Z) | Consensus aggregation (Z1) | 1053 | 3.301 | 3.358 |
| Process control (Z2) | 1053 | 3.385 | ||
| Organizational coordination (Z3) | 1053 | 3.389 | ||
| Education digital transformation (S) | Willingness to digitize (S1) | 1053 | 3.415 | 3.384 |
| Digital transformation (S2) | 1053 | 3.358 | ||
| The effect of digital transformation (S3) | 1053 | 3.380 |
This study constructs a digital model for teaching ideological and political education in colleges and universities based on the theories of constructivism and cognitive load. Constructivism emphasizes the constructive, contextual, and social interaction of knowledge, and promotes students’ active construction of knowledge in teaching through pre-course independent learning task lists and online extension training. The online platform integrates micro-teaching, animation and other electronic resources to stimulate learning interest and meet students’ individual needs. Students can communicate and discuss online at any time, complete projects collaboratively, and deepen their understanding of knowledge through interaction. The presentation of multimodal resources, multichannel communication, and timely evaluation and feedback of teaching are all embodiments of the concept of constructivism in teaching practice.
Cognitive load theory holds that in order to learn effectively, the design of learning materials and teaching methods must take into account the size of cognitive load. With the power of visualization and association, Thinking Maps promote students’ memory and understanding of information, establish the systematic nature of knowledge, and effectively reduce the cognitive load. Through the goal matrix analysis method to clarify the teaching objectives and the hierarchical relationship between the objectives, exclude unnecessary cognitive information, optimize the learning process and reduce the external load. Make full use of the online feedback platform, analyze the students’ knowledge mastery level with the results of the stage evaluation, make timely teaching adjustments, and increase the relevant load. The integration of cognitive load theory and blended teaching is a mutually reinforcing process that improves the science and effectiveness of the teaching process.
The digital transformation teaching model of ideological and political education is shown in Figure 4, and the teaching model in this paper aims to provide students with a personalized learning experience through digital technology empowerment, and improve the learning effect and teaching quality.
At the pre-course stage, teachers upload microclasses, animations and other electronic resources as well as the list of independent learning tasks before class to the learning platform, students choose the appropriate resources for pre-study according to their own needs, and questions arising in the pre-study process are summarized and organized by the leader of each group in a unified way, and students first discuss and exchange on-line platforms, and the teacher answers and solves the problems. Thus giving full play to students’ learning autonomy, guiding students to find problems, raise questions and solve problems.
In the middle of the lesson, the teacher explains the common problems according to the students’ pre-study situation, and then promotes the students’ mastery of the corresponding knowledge through group discussion and individual exploration for the important and difficult points in the teaching objectives, and finally summarizes and combs the whole knowledge system, guides the students to draw a mind map, promotes the linkage of knowledge, examines their own learning effect, and lays the foundation for practical operation.
At the end of the lesson, teachers guide students to check the gaps, make full use of online learning resources, virtual simulation software for knowledge consolidation and expansion exercises, and conduct diversified evaluation of their learning process and learning effects to promote the achievement of teaching goals and students’ cognitive development.
Ideological and political education digital transformation teaching mode
In this study, the proposed ideological and political digital education model is applied to the L university, and the participating students as the survey object, the questionnaire survey adopts the online data collection method to collect data on in the level of students’ digital literacy and learning adaptability.
Students’ digital literacy measurement dimensions are divided into tools and technology domain, information and data domain, communication and collaboration domain, digital content creation domain, problem solving domain, security domain, and other literacy domain division dimensions.
Students’ learning adaptability measurement dimensions are divided into learning attitude, independent learning ability, learning interaction, learning environment, and physical and mental health.
The reliability of the questionnaire is 0.950, and the KMO value is 0.930. The reliability of the combination of digital literacy and learning adaptability scale is more than 0.8, and the AVE value is more than 0.5, so the reliability and validity level is high. The scale still adopts a 5-point scale, from “not at all conform” to “fully conform” in order to assign the value of 1 to 5 points, and this paper finally got 823 valid questionnaires.
The overall level of digital literacy and learning adaptability of students of different genders is shown in Table 2, and on the whole, the average scores of male and female students in the dimensions of digital literacy and learning adaptability under the digital education model of this paper are above 3, which is at a good level, and verifies the application effect of the digital education model of this paper.
In addition, the independent samples t-test was utilized to study the differences in the level of digital literacy and learning adaptability among college students of different genders, taking the dimensions of digital literacy and learning adaptability as the dependent variable and gender as the grouping variable.
In digital literacy, boys scored above 3.3 on all dimensions, with an overall average of 3.563, slightly higher than girls (3.501). In terms of adaptability to learning, boys and girls scored similarly, with overall averages of 3.497 and 3.507, respectively. At the same time, there is no significant difference between the dimensions of digital literacy and learning adaptability (P>0.05). Comprehensively, it shows that in terms of gender characteristics, there is no significant difference between men and women in terms of their adaptability to the digital education model of this paper, and all dimensions are at the level of medium slices, and the practical application of the performance is good.
Digital literacy and learning adaptability overall and gender differences
| Variable | Man | Female | Intergroup survey | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M±SD | M±SD | T | P | ||
| Literacy dimension | Digital literacy | 3.65±0.51 | 3.51±0.53 | 1.325 | 0.274 |
| Tools and technical domains | 3.75±0.65 | 3.62±0.70 | 1.253 | 0.255 | |
| Information and data domains | 3.65±0.76 | 3.65±0.75 | -0.332 | 0.883 | |
| Communication and collaboration domain | 3.43±0.76 | 3.43±0.72 | 0.559 | 0.784 | |
| Digital content creation domain | 3.60±0.72 | 3.52±0.73 | 1.852 | 0.621 | |
| Problem solution domain | 3.31±0.65 | 3.28±0.65 | 1.344 | 0.750 | |
| Security field | 3.55±0.67 | 3.50±0.71 | 1.036 | 0.433 | |
| Adaptive dimension | Learning adaptability | 3.52±0.55 | 3.52±0.55 | -0.257 | 0.659 |
| Learning attitude | 3.40±0.77 | 3.45±0.80 | -0.830 | 0.138 | |
| Autonomous learning ability | 3.42±0.69 | 3.43±0.63 | -0.531 | 0.321 | |
| Learning interaction | 3.42±0.78 | 3.40±0.74 | 0.205 | 0.945 | |
| Learning environment | 3.61±0.72 | 3.61±0.65 | 0.503 | 0.695 | |
| Physical and mental health | 3.61±0.74 | 3.63±0.72 | -0.475 | 0.395 | |
The core issue of this study is to apply digital technology to the teaching mode of ideological and political education in colleges and universities, so as to realize the digital transformation of the mode of ideological and political education in colleges and universities. To this end, this paper analyzes and discusses the following conclusions.
For one thing, the financial sector has been increasing its investment in education from 2017 to 2021, with education expenditure rising from 3,283,016 billion yuan to 5,718,350 billion yuan, which promotes and facilitates the reform and development of education, and provides economic security and sustainable power for the digital transformation of education. In addition, as of 2023, the number of online education users has reached 682.54 million, an increase of 527.36 million compared to 2015, and the increasing demand for digitalized education models has become the driving force for the digital transformation of traditional education.
Secondly, the overall average scores of motivational factors of digital transformation of school education, willingness, behavior and effect of digital transformation of school education are all higher than 3 and higher than the theoretical median, which is in the middle and slightly higher level. Among them, the average scores of contextual motivation and trigger motivation are 3.423 and 3.498, which are slightly higher than contextual motivation. Enabling Power had the lowest average score of 3.358. This means that the lack of the school organization’s own dynamics is an important aspect that hinders and restricts the implementation of its digital transformation of education.
Thirdly, this study constructs a digital model of ideological and political education teaching in colleges and universities based on the above findings combined with constructivism, cognitive load and other theories. Through the adaptability analysis of practical application, it can be seen that under the digital education model of this paper, the average scores of boys and girls in each dimension of digital literacy and learning adaptability are above 3, which is a good level. In terms of digital literacy, male students’ scores in all dimensions are higher than 3.3, with an overall average of 3.563, which is higher than the average of female students’ scores of 3.501. In terms of learning adaptability, male students’ scores are not much different from female students’ scores, with an overall average of 3.497 and 3.507, respectively, which comprehensively demonstrates that this paper’s digital education model has a good adaptability, and it can be practically applied in ideological and political education of colleges and universities.