Digital Competence Analysis of University Students Using Latent Classes

Digital competence of higher education learners in the context of COVID-19 triggered online learning

The spread of COVID-19 caused wide scale disruptions in the educational sector across the globe. Digital education, which involves the use of digital tools, virtual platforms and online learning, is seen as one of the viable alternatives to continue academic activities in such an environment. Higher education institutions have largely switched to this new mode of learning and continue to rely on digital mode in many parts of the world, due to the ongoing pandemic threat. However, learners' competency to effectively engage in online courses and the impact of their socioeconomic background on this competency has not been adequately addressed in the literature. The present study was an attempt to explore these aspects, as they are crucial to the success of digital education. The study was conducted with 833 undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral students from an agricultural university to assess their digital competencies and factors that influence effective participation in online courses. The Digital Competence Framework 2.0 of EU Science Hub (DIGCOMP) was adapted and used for this study. Our findings suggest that the learners have a satisfactory level of competence in most of the aspects of digital competence. Majority of the participants were relying on smart phones both as the device for accessing internet as well as for their learning activities. The results of a Tukey's difference in the mean test reveals that learners' digital competence varies significantly by gender, economic profile, and academic level. This finding can be attributed to the difference in their socio-economic background, which confirms digital divide among learners. Our findings have implications for the design of digital higher education strategies and institutional management to ensure effective learner participation, especially for higher education institutions in developing countries.

Development and Validation of a Questionnaire to Measure Digital Skills of Chinese Undergraduates

To keep sustainable development in a digital society, it is essential for young people to possess certain digital skills. Levels of the digital skills of Chinese undergraduates take a certain role in the process of educational digitalization promoted by the Chinese government, becoming an important concern for Chinese universities and policymakers. However, few valid and reliable instruments are available for the assessment of the digital skills of undergraduates in China. Thus, developing, and testing the reliability and validity of a questionnaire to measure the digital skills of Chinese undergraduates are necessary. Based on previous literature and situations in the Chinese educational context, this study developed and validated a questionnaire to assess the digital skills of Chinese undergraduates. Through factor analysis approaches, the internal factor structure of the questionnaire was explored, and its reliability and validity were verified. Development and validation of a questionnaire, in which 6 factors were extracted, were described: access to and management of digital content, use of digital means, communication of digital content, creation of digital content, digital empathy, and digital safety. The questionnaire was applied to the first sample of 222 undergraduates and the second sample of 231 undergraduates selected randomly from a university located in the east of China. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) through SPSS 26.0 with the first sample was used to determine the internal factor structure of the whole questionnaire, which showed the expected congruency between items and dimensions. Then a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) through Mplus 8.3 with the second sample was utilized to check model-data fit of the questionnaire, which showed a good fit between them. Convergent validity and discriminant validity of the questionnaire were also verified. The resulting questionnaire emerged as a useful tool for carrying out nationwide studies on digital skills in higher education generally or in different disciplines specifically in China in the future.

Assessment of Digital Competencies of University Faculty and Their Conditioning Factors: Case Study in a Technological Adoption Context

The rise of digital technologies and their educational applications increasingly require the development of digital skills among university faculty. This study focuses on examining the level of digital competencies of university faculty and identifying their conditioning factors. To achieve this objective, an ex post facto methodological design with surveys is used. A sample of 216 university teachers from different regions of Ecuador was used. The non-parametric Chi-square test was used to validate the hypothesis of independence of the variables. The results obtained show that university faculty have a mostly intermediate level of digital skills, which is independent of gender, but dependent on the generational cohort. In particular, it is found that younger teachers (millennials) have a more advanced level of digital skills, although this relationship is not very strong. On the other hand, we observe the positive influence of the university’s strategic leadership in terms of technological adoption on the development of teachers’ digital skills. Universities with better technological resources and with training plans focused on the pedagogical application of technology have teachers with a more advanced level of digital skills. All of this leads to the recommendation that education policies should prioritise actions that promote the development of digital competencies among university faculty