Digital Competence in Higher Education: Students’ Perception and Personal Factors

Yu Zhao, María Cruz Sánchez Gómez, Ana María Pinto Llorente and Liping Zhao
Additional contact information
Yu Zhao: Institute of Educational Sciences, University of Salamanca, 37008 Salamanca, Spain
María Cruz Sánchez Gómez: Department of Didactic, Organization and Research Methods, University of Salamanca, 37008 Salamanca, Spain
Ana María Pinto Llorente: Department of Didactic, Organization and Research Methods, University of Salamanca, 37008 Salamanca, Spain
Liping Zhao: Faculty of Humanities, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 21, 1-17

Abstract: University students are expected to have the appropriate digital competence to face the demands of the changing educational model and to meet the challenges of the future work. This paper describes university students’ perceptions of digital competence and analyzes the impact of personal factors on digital competence in a sample of 5164 students from all majors in the first and fourth year of their studies at Gansu Agricultural University (China). A quantitative methodology was followed, employing a non-experimental method and the survey technique to collect data. The results obtained show that students’ perceptions of digital competencies in terms of information and data literacy, communication and collaboration, and safety were positive. Furthermore, there were significant differences in students’ self-perceptions of digital competence related to gender, grade level, area of residence, and prior relevant training in the DigComp framework-based instrument. The development of key competency areas for digital competence, such as the creation of digital content, should be promoted, along with helping students to gain knowledge when dealing with everyday technological issues. The need for training related to the use of ICT and digital competencies was also highlighted, as well as supporting the promotion of female students in selected areas of digital competence and assisting lower grade students and students from rural areas in digital competence development.

Keywords: digital competence; students; higher education; ICT (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/21/12184/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/21/12184/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:21:p:12184-:d:672190

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().