The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and students’ performance in Higher Education. Earlier economic research has failed to provide a clear consensus on the effect of ICTs' investments on student's achievement.
Our paper aims at summarizing the main findings of the literature and to give two complementary explanations.
The first one focuses on the indirect effects of ICT on standard explanatory factors. Since student’s performance is mainly explained by student’s characteristics, educational environment and teachers' characteristics, ICT may impact those determinants and consequently the outcome of education. The differences observed in students’ performances are thus more related to the differentiated impact of ICT on standard explanatory factors.
The second thesis advocates that ICT uses need a change in the organization of the Higher Education. While ICT equipment and uses rates are growing very fast in the European Union, the adoption of complementary organizational designs is very slow and differs from one institution to another. This may explain the observed differences in student’s achievement.