Digital divide in students' online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: A case study of Hong Kong

Digital divide in students' online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: A case study of Hong Kong

Curriculum innovation in East Asian schools: Contexts, innovations and impacts

• Fang, Xiaoxuan The Education University of Hong Kong
• Gao, Lanfang
• Xu, Huixuan The Education University of Hong Kong

• Xu, Huixuan The Education University of Hong Kong

Abingdon, Oxon

Routledge

2025

• Q Philosophy of Education, Educational System & School At Different Levels
  • QG Adult, Lifelong & Continuing Education
    • QGE Distance Education

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Unknown or Unspecified

Along with the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, the educational systems in the world faced challenges due to the school lockdown and the change from face-to-face to online learning mode to adapt to the emergency health issue. The present chapter reviews the digital divide issues during the pandemic of COVID-19 over three years (2020-2022) in Hong Kong. Regarding the three levels of the digital divide (access, usage, and outcome), this chapter collected and analyzed secondary sources of literature to understand the extent to which digital resources were unevenly distributed among students from different backgrounds in Hong Kong and how various social sectors provided timely support to address these needs. The result showed the good practice of Hong Kong, in terms of the efforts made by multiple parties to provide prompt support to fill the gap of the digital access divide. Nevertheless, the gap in digital capability across individual students may have enduring impacts on their academic study and personal growth, which have not been sufficiently addressed. Copyright © 2025 selection and editorial matter, Huixuan Xu; individual chapters, the contributors.

• English

Book Chapters

• 9781032499703

• 10.4324/9781003396284-12

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/84b8fd32

2025-09-10