The Use of Digital Educational Resources in Times of COVID-19

Abstract

COVID-19 has profoundly disrupted national education systems, affecting the future well-being of school-age children. Bacher-Hicks and colleagues showed that the intensity of the search for online learning resources in the United States doubled with respect to pre-COVID-19 levels. However, areas of the country with higher incomes, better internet access, and fewer rural schools experienced significantly greater increases in search intensity. Using a similar method to study the case of Spain, we analyze the evolution of search intensity for a selection of digital educational resources over the period 2015 to 2021. Special attention is paid to the period of COVID-19 pandemic, namely, March 2020 to June 2021. The findings include a widespread rise in the use of digital resources with respect to the use in the last 5 years, which varies by digital educational resource and region. However, the use of digital resources in Spain does not seem to vary according to family income, at least in relation to open access digital educational resources. In addition, there appears to be a steady decline in search intensity for digital educational resources and a certain degree of substitutability following the surge due to the pandemic and the school closures.