Search results

As part of the EFOP-3.3.3-VEKOP-16–2016-00001 “Museum and Library Development for All” project, a national representative digital literacy survey was conducted in Hungary's public libraries at the end of 2019. The aim of the present study is to provide a deeper analysis of the data collected during the survey to answer the question of the role of gender and age in the development of digital skills amongst librarians working in public libraries. This study was designed to answer the following four research questions: Are there levels of proficiency defined by DigComp 2.1 that are more specific to men or more specific to women? Are there areas of competence and competences that are clearly perceived as stronger or weaker for men or women? Are there areas of competence that are clearly influenced by age and others that are not or only moderately influenced by age? Which competences are clearly age-related, and which are not or only slightly affected by age?

The main target group of the study were library professionals working in county libraries. The survey, based on the DigComp 2.1 (Gomez et al., 2017) framework, was conducted using an online questionnaire in the form of a self-assessment and explored four levels of digital literacy. A 30-question questionnaire was completed by 1,868 respondents. The sampling procedure was essentially stratified sampling. The large number of respondents and the sampling procedure combined with the representativeness of the sample meant that the results of the survey can be considered as generalisable to the whole Hungarian public library sector.

Of the five competency areas assessed by the DigComp framework, librarians were found to be most competent in information and data literacy, and least competent in content development, according to the proportion of those with basic skills. 32 percent of women and 22 percent of men working in libraries rated their digital skills as basic, and both groups were weak or less weak in the same skills, with a few exceptions. At the intermediate level, there is a predominance of women. In the information and communication competency areas and in the content development and integrating and re-elaborating digital content in the content creation area, a high proportion of women consider their digital skills to be medium. Relatively few men rate their own competence in these areas as average. They are most likely to have advanced and highly specialised skills. The advanced level in DigComp2.1 implies, in addition to strong digital skills, the willingness and ability to help others, while the highly specialised level requires innovative and creative use of digital technology and knowledge transfer. These top two skill levels are more common amongst men. 34 per cent of men and 27 per cent of women have advanced skills, while 13 per cent of men and 6 per cent of women have highly specialised’s level. The age of librarians has only a minimal influence in certain areas of competence and for certain competences. Skills in the information and data literacy competency area are less age sensitive. For the data management competency, which requires more technological skills, a stronger correlation between age and skill levels is observed, especially for basic and highly specialised skills. In the communication competence area, the youngest age group of librarians has the highest percentage of advanced and the lowest percentage of basic level. The proportion of advanced learners decreases steadily as age groups progress and the proportion of basic learners increases at a similar steady rate. The effect of age on the content creation is much more modest than expected. Age clearly has an impact on the safety competence area. As age increases, the proportion of those at advanced level decreases and the proportion at basic level increases. Age also has a significant effect on the problem-solving competence area. One in two librarians in the 50 and 60s have only basic level skills, compared to one in four in the youngest age group and one in three in the 40s.

Using the DigComp 2.1 framework, a digital competence survey of a whole professional group of library professionals working in public libraries in Hungary was carried out. The study provides new insights into the impact of gender and age as variables on digital competence.

Recently, digital competence has become one of the most important work competencies of employees. This study investigated students' digital competence in the context of Chinese higher education and examined digital competence's relationship with students' career adaptability.

The participants were 298 Chinese higher education students from both universities and colleges. MANOVA (Multivariate Analysis of Variance) was carried out through SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) 26.0 to examine whether digital competence varied with the students' personal characteristics, i.e. gender, grade level and school type. In addition, the structural equation model was employed with Mplus 8.3 to analyse the relationship between digital competence and career adaptability as well as the mediation role of digital informal learning and academic performance.

The descriptive statistics revealed that students performed best in the safety construct, whilst worst in the digital content creation construct. The result of MANOVA showed that the digital competence of the participants significantly varied with participants' gender, school type and grade level. Furthermore, the structural equation model results demonstrated that higher education students' digital competence was positively associated with the students' career adaptability. And the mediation role of digital informal learning and academic performance was also confirmed.

To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study focussing on the relationship between digital competence and career adaptability. In particular, both working and learning perspectives were considered to explore this relationship. Besides, the authors also displayed Chinese higher education students' digital competence with consideration of different districts and school types.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the digital competence of academicians influences students’ engagement in learning activities in the face of the pandemic outbreak. In addition to this, the paper investigates how digital competence influences each dimension of student engagement (cognitive, affective and behavioural).

A cross-sectional, quantitative and explanatory research design was used to conduct the study. Data were gathered with an adopted questionnaire administered to a randomly selected sample of 500 university faculty members who were not digitally literate prior to the outbreak of the pandemic. Apart from the goodness of data tests, inferential statistics were applied to test hypotheses.

Results indicate a significant influence of teachers’ digital competence on student engagement and the pandemic outbreak positively moderates the relationship. Digital competence equally influences all three dimensions of student engagement.

The outbreak of COVID-19 made the adoption of digital life more compulsive and the nations with already available digital infrastructure and digital competence effectively minimized the adverse effect of social distancing as a result of the pandemic outbreak. Findings emphasize practitioners to focus on the digital capacity building of academicians and the provision of digital infrastructure to facilitate student engagement.

Society is transforming into a hi-tech lifestyle and technological advancement is penetrating almost every sphere of life at an unprecedented pace. From the digitalization of day-to-day affairs to e-governance, the adoption of technology is becoming a new normal. The outbreak of the pandemic overtook academic institutions equally. So, the social distancing compelled academicians and other stakeholders of universities to switchover from in-campus classes to online classes. The findings enrich the existing body of literature by explaining how digital competence has a determining role in ensuring student engagement amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

This research is a seminal work, as it tests the influence of digital competence on student engagement with the moderating role of the pandemic outbreak. To the best of the author’s knowledge, existing literature does not present this kind of research.

The main purpose of the study is to determine the mediating role of trait anxiety in the relationship between hotel managers’ perceptions of digital competence in the Cappadocia Region and their perceptions of job insecurity.

In this study, which is based on quantitative research, a cross-sectional design was used. The seven-item digital competence scale, four-item job insecurity scale and 20-item trait anxiety scale were used to measure the level of digital competence, job insecurity and trait anxiety of hotel managers. The convenience sampling method was used in the research, and 337 questionnaires were completed by senior and junior managers who agreed to participate in the research. To test the mediating role of trait anxiety, Andrew F. Hayes’ views on the contemporary approach were taken as a basis.

The analysis results showed that digital competence had the opposite effect on job insecurity. Similarly, digital competence had the opposite effect on the level of trait anxiety. The level of trait anxiety affected the perception of job insecurity in a linear direction. As a result of the bootstrapping test, it was found that the indirect effect of trait anxiety on the relationship between digital competence and job insecurity was significant.

The study was unable to collect data from hotels that were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic due to restrictions. Therefore, one of the limitations of the study was that it did not reach the entire population. Another limitation of the study was that the questionnaires were addressed to hotel managers in the Cappadocia Region.

Hotel managers’ digital skills are considered to contribute to the tourism industry by organizing and determining business strategies, work processes and employee skills. In addition, when hiring hotel managers, it is essential to ensure that they have certain skills such as compatibility with the digital age, openness to innovation and the ability to adapt the employees working in their team to the age, which helps to improve the competitiveness of the hotel industry with the world and ensure the continuity of this situation.

The research addressed the variables of digital competence, job insecurity and trait anxiety and collected data from hotel managers in the Cappadocia Region using a survey technique. There were few studies that addressed these variables, and the mediating effect of trait anxiety was revealed based on the contemporary approach.

Considering working in the digital age, questions on the consequences for the individual workers are, so far, often neglected. The purpose of this paper is to deal with the question of whether the digital competences of the workforce is a research topic. The authors argue for the thesis that it is indeed a research topic.

In addition to a literature analysis of the top IS, HR, and learning publications, non-scientific sources, as well as the opinions of the authors, are included. The authors’ thesis is challenged through a debate of corresponding pros and cons.

The definition of digital competences lacks scientific depth. Focussing on the workforce is valid, as a “lifelong” perspective is not mandatory for research. Digital competence research is a multidisciplinary task to which the IS field can make a valuable contribution.

Although relevant references are included, some aspects are mainly driven by the opinions of the authors. The theoretical implications encompass a call for a scientific definition of digital competences. Furthermore, scholars should focus on the competences of the workforce, including occupations, roles, or industries. The authors conclude by providing a first proposal of a research agenda.

The practical implications include the alignment of multiple stakeholders for the design of “digital” curricula and the integration by HR departments of the construct of digital competences, e.g. for compensation matters and job requirements.

This paper is one of very few contributions in the area of the digital competences of the workforce, and it presents a starting point for future research activities.

An increasing amount of research and debate has emerged over the last few years, emphasising the need for developing digitally competent, literate, able, skilled, capable people within a constantly changing technological and online environment. Existing definitions and perspectives in this area go beyond the use of technological tools or media for the creation of a digital literacy mindset, which develops throughout one's life. However, Higher Education strategies have not yet caught up with this agenda.

A student survey with Library and Information Science students from three higher education institutions in Scotland, Ireland and Greece was conducted as a basis of empirical data to support the theoretical propositions of the study. The survey centred on the technical and higher-level digital competences of students and drawing from students' self-perceived digital competences for learning and for the everyday life digital context, addressing e-leisure, e-learning, e-democracy, e-government and e-health activities. The survey critically enabled students to assess digital competences from their perspectives as digital participants.

Students' self-assessment of digital competences were lacking in a number of areas, which involved the development of information literacy, digital creation, digital research and digital identity management. In addition, students' digital competences were found to be linked to previous experiences within the everyday life digital environment. The higher the self-perceived digital competence levels of students were on the basis of dealing with everyday life digital tasks, the more likely they were to also develop high self-perceived digital competence in other digital areas related to their education.

Higher education has not fully embraced digital competences as a core, fundamental literacy which addresses both technology mastery and a digital citizenship mindset. As emerging models begin to challenge traditional teaching and learning paradigms, with global connectivity and personalised approaches, existing digital divides may be further accelerated. This requires revisiting digital competences with emphasis on the diversity of the contexts where it develops and of the learners involved, in the overall continuum of learning for life.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of digital competences in relation to the general competences demanded by the job market in the case of Business graduates’ future.

A telephone survey was conducted with 992 team and HR managers from November 15 to December 15, 2016. The selected respondents were chosen from a sampling frame of 4,880 registered members of a professional association of Business and Economics graduates. Only those admitting to have or having had employees under their command were accountable. Thus, the final sample of the analysis comprised a total of 231 respondents. We used partial least square modeling in order to test the hypotheses.

The study carried out in the professional field of graduates in Business studies shows us that of the five dimensions analyzed as digital competences, four of them show an influence on the candidate’s suitability for the post. These are communication, content creation, safety and problem solving. In the variables related to information, this relationship is not observed.

In this research, the authors analyze the digital competences from the perspective of the possible employer. The concept of digital competence is of increasing importance in recent research. There is a need to relate the competences demanded by the companies and those developed by the training centers. Also, prior literature is limited in the number of works analyzing digital competences specifically in the professional activities concerning graduates in Economics of Business studies.

This study aims to conduct an exploratory research to find out the evolving constructs and variables of digital literacy, as seen by researchers since its inception. This research also includes an empirical study to identify and further analyze the digital literacy dimensions of university students studying fashion design program in Kolkata, India.

The exploratory study is based on a review of extant literature, whereas the empirical study is carried out through a self-assessment survey based on UNESCOs Digital Literacy Global Framework competences after validating their relevance with respect to the fashion and apparel industry. A total of 120 university students studying four years Bachelor of Design (Fashion Design) program were asked to rate their digital literacy competences on a five-point Likert scale, with a self-reported truth response against each statement. The results were analyzed using multivariate statistical tools.

Based on UNESCO competences, it came out that there are eight digital literacy dimensions. ANOVA further confirms that the dimensions requiring higher-order cognition, such as “software management competence” and “digital citizenship competence,” increase with progress in the graduate program. However, lower-order competence dimensions remained unchanged over time.

The research instrument used for this empirical study, its identified dimensions and the fact that higher-order competence dimensions are enhanced with progression in university education may be helpful for similar research in other fashion-related programs.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of two active methodologies on digital competences development using mobile devices. The first methodology is project-oriented learning (POL); the second one is case-based learning (CBL). The analyzed digital competences belong to the communication and collaboration area of framework DIGCOMP.

This article shows the results of the quantitative stage with a design pre-experimental pre-test–post-test. A questionnaire was designed and applied to an intentional sample from two different courses. In total, 178 students completed the questionnaire in the pre-test, and after five months, 38 students completed the questionnaire in the post-test.

The results show that students to whom POL was applied increase by 7% competence of interaction with mobile technology. The results also show that the students to whom CBL was applied to increase all four competencies (interaction +8%, share +6%, collaboration +5%, netiquette +4%).

Self-perception for the evaluation of digital competence and the short study time are limitations to generalize the results, so a longitudinal study is necessary and complemented with qualitative analysis, to present a better validation of the contribution of active methodologies to the development of digital competences.

The rapid advance of technology and the results of various investigations make evident the need of digital competences development. The most common process is digital literacy through techno-functional training. However, these research results confirm that it is possible to promote these digital competences from a practical view and implicitly in active methodologies educational practices.