Digital agency among engineering students post emergence remote teaching

The institutionalized transition to virtual classrooms for emergency remote learning caused a shift in the way in which engineering students engage with learning. Before emergency remote learning, many engineering students had limited access to digital technologies for learning. They depended primarily on traditional means of attending face-to-face physical classes and assessments with limited use of blended learning which by definition, involves some online learning. Given the opportunities that online learning provides for students, there is an expectation that post-emergency remote teaching and learning would make use of the online environment. Engineering students must develop their capacity to use and engage with digital technologies, with particular emphasis on the transformative potential of their experiences. This paper makes use of a systematic literature review to describe how engineering students develop their digital agency that is transformative in an online environment by answering the question "How do engineering students develop digital agency in an increasingly online learning environment?". Data were obtained from research studies over the period 2019 to 2021. The qualitative synthesis included 31 studies from the Proquest and Web of Science databases. A thematic analysis of the studies reveals that engineering students develop digital competencies during online learning by accessing key digital technologies, learning approaches, learning environments and, curricula integrated digital frameworks. Further research on the contribution of self-efficacy towards the development of digital agency in an increasingly online learning environment is recommended.