Developing and Validating a Digital Competence Self-assessment Scale for University Students

Digital technologies are massively being used in schools and society, and this leads a transforming way of learning and studying not only inside but outside university. Electronic tools and mobile devices, social networking environments and online learning are increasingly becoming popular among university students. Therefore digital learning is becoming a central part of student’s daily life as a form of informal learning, young people are developing significant competences that correspond to important cognitive processes and new learning styles. While emphasis on the value and integration of Digital Literacy has gathered strength in K-12(Szabo, Montgomerie, & Davies, 2002),higher education institutions are confronted with the realization that universally adopted normative testing on admissions-critical academic instruments, have not adopted nor codified to measure Digital Competence for university students. The aim of this study is to develop and validate an assessment scale, to identify the predicting factors for students’ digital competence, and to explore the status of university students’ digital competence. Digital Competence has been acknowledged as one of the 8 key competences for Lifelong Learning by the European Union(Commission, 2006). Digital Competences are related to many concepts: Digital Literacy, Media Literacy, ICT Literacy, Information literacy, Internet Literacy which are used to identify and analyze students’ ability to achieve with digital technology (Hatlevik & Christophersen, 2013). In this study, a digital competence framework was adapted and developed which emphasizes the co-existence of dimensions characterized both on the technological, cognitive and ethical levels, and also their integration(Calvani, Cartelli, Fini, & Ranieri, 2009). Technological dimension refers to being able to explore and face problems and new technological contexts in a flexible way, including three sub dimensions: a) Visual literacy, b) Trouble shooting, c) understanding technical concepts ; The cognitive dimension refers to being able to read, select, interpret and evaluate data and information taking into account their pertinence and reliability, including three sub dimensions: a) organizing and connecting textual and visual data, b) Organizing structured data, c) information research; The ethical dimension refers to being able to interact with other individuals constructively and with sense of responsibility using available technologies, which also including three sub dimensions: a) staying safe online, b) respect on the net, and c) social and emotional responsibility.