**1. Introduction**

Education around the world is undergoing significant changes due to rapid technological development. With the growth of global digitalization, these changes and impacts are also reflected in the sphere of education. The COVID-19 pandemic and related social distancing measures and school closures around the world have accelerated this digitization to a significant extent. According to EDUCAUSE Horizon Report [1], the pandemic has literally catapulted the world into a digital age. However, it also manifested in increasingly advanced and equitable technologies and the contemporary growth of digital data that institutions can use more effectively. All of this has created an urgent need for a critical and detailed examination of how this digitalization is transforming the world of education [2]. Universities and other educational institutions had to go through significant changes in order to be able to fulfill the functions for which they were created. The COVID-19 pandemic quickly changed the education system and tested the readiness of companies to respond flexibly to situations they had not had to deal with before. On the one hand, the flexibility of the universities was addressed, how they will deal with the new situation, and on the other hand, the possibilities of the student were addressed, to what extent and in what way he will participate in the new form of education [3].

In compliance with authors [4, 5] higher education institutions can be considered a business model, wherein digital transformation is broadly used. Digital technologies can play a critical role in facilitating and advancing business model innovation [4]. Digital transformation is "a process in which digital technologies cause disruptions, prompting strategic reactions from firms seeking to shift their value creation paths while managing structural changes and organizational constraints that influence the positive and negative results of this process" [6]. In recent years, digital transformation has emerged as an important attention-grabbing phenomenon for researchers as well as practitioners [7]. Macro-level digital transformation refers to the changes that affect the institution and society in general due to new digital technologies [8]. From an organizational level perspective, companies thanks to these technologies can come up with possibilities how to innovate by developing strategies that accept the implications of digital transformation and drive superior operational performance [9].

In the context of education, digital transformation includes the reassessment of teaching and learning processes, simultaneously considering technical skills as the practical aspects of digital transformation, as well as the inclusion of skills and mindsets [10]. Digital education refers on the one hand to the use of digital technologies for teaching and learning in both formal and non-formal education within a community, as well as to the infrastructure necessary to foster that providing [11]. Therefore, it inevitably involves digital technologies such as computers, software, phones, and cameras in the educational process [12]. Responding to current needs and trends, digital education is adapted to teaching activities following modern educational theories and uses digital teaching resources and methods to train interdisciplinary talents with innovative awareness and innovative ability [13].

Except for digital education actors (educators and students), the institutional environment where education takes place can present significant challenges to the adoption and use of digital technologies. As it is emphasized [14], successful adoption of digital technologies in education is a process that presents a significant financial, cultural, and logistical challenge. For its mastery is necessary presence of elements such as strong leadership; process focusing; cooperation with external partners; school-wide adoption of digital technologies and the connection between pedagogical aims and digital technologies [14]. A prerequisite for successful online education is the involvement and participation of all participants in online teaching. However, it is true that regardless of the chosen strategy in education, the level of student involvement, or the technical limitations that we often encounter in online teaching, it is the instructors who must act flexibly in every situation [15].

The authors [10] emphasize the use of technological, human, organizational, and pedagogical drivers in a comprehensive manner for guidance and support of the digital transformation of teaching processes. They grouped the main drivers for digital transformation in education by category according to the analysis of international organizations' reports focusing on education and economics worldwide (OECD, OU, WWF). The drivers in the basic division can be divided into technological, organizational, and digital teaching competence and pedagogy, as well as students'skills whether hard or soft. The authors [16] point out that the drivers are complexly interlinked and interact with each other, therefore, their comprehension is crucial in

building strategies for digital transformation. In accordance with the EDUCAUSE report from 2018 [17], the transformation drivers in education are linked and influenced by technology trends and changes, since also by [18] digitalization is usually seen in connection with technical innovations.

Increased rate of digital technologies utilization and related digitalization represents a pillar of national and international education policy worldwide. According to the "Report on the Digital Development of Global Higher Education", a study of the global higher education landscape shows that digitalization is considered in many countries as a strategic and essential way to the quality and sustainable development of higher education. Despite the common global patterns, each country has its own approach and priorities [19]. The premise according to [10] is to deal with a digital transformation toward education holistically. It includes not just the use of digital technologies, but also considering the specificities of students; the adoption of organizational processes and practices in alignment with new social and work relationships; teachers' equipment with digital skills; students' equipment with the technical, cognitive, social and emotional skills; and the adoption of innovative pedagogies. The authors [20] also emphasize the importance of cooperation in a way that students, teachers, and all responsible entities involved in the higher education system must cooperate in order to support the changes that need to be made to implement the digital revolution.

From a knowledge management perspective, actually, we are in an era when the world becomes more and more connected, jobs become more and more complicated and complex, linked to the rapid growth of technology and digitalization. The key to knowledge management concept is not how much individuals learn in any organization, but how much their knowledge is transferred to the organization as a whole and do the other workers have the possibility to gain the knowledge necessary for the effective and efficient goal achieving [21]. The organizational learning process has a crucial positive influence on knowledge flow and likewise strengthening an organizational learning process helps knowledge inflow [22]. According to [23], knowledge management can be understood as a system that integrates people, process, and technology to achieve sustainable results by increasing performance through learning.

In this sense, it could be said according to [24], that the modern education system is facing a crisis of skills. The future educational process must offer more than just the transfer of knowledge and investment in the students' thinking, creativity, and innovation. The digital revolution means new challenges to the university: to provide training in digital skills and to accelerate the renewal of learning methods. In this regard, the emergence of digital technology has contributed to the revolution of learning methods and the potential of digital technologies has enhanced student learning [7]. Knowledge flow is a process that an organization utilizes in order to absorb and apply new knowledge [25]. The authors [26] emphasize the establishment of continuous relationships between universities and industry which is necessary to generate an adequate knowledge flow. Next, governmental support is needed to promote these relationships through regulatory laws, group organization, education, and research incentives [26]. In conditions and in relation to universities and education, knowledge flow was analyzed in numerous studies, for example: in terms of personalizing an e-learning system driven by knowledge flow [27]; in terms of engineering education in universities [25]; as the critical issue of learning and knowledge convergence in knowledge-intensive organizations [28]; in terms of the correlation between organizational learning, knowledge management, and organizational performance [29]; in terms of technology transfer in universities from a knowledge-flow perspective [26].

The aim of the chapter is to evaluate the perception of the use of digital education with an emphasis on accelerating the flow of knowledge within the framework of institutional growth and innovation development in Slovakia. In order to achieve the goal, a survey on a sample of respondents is described in the methodology. In the chapter, we then interpret the results of the analysis from the obtained data. Relationships relevant to the knowledge flows of digital education in Slovakia were identified and illustrated. The outcomes point to the advantages and disadvantages of digital education in the process of building knowledge.
