Vishnu Sreeram, Raghavan Sathyan Archana, Susan Sam Anu, Radhakrishnan Aparna, Olaparambil Ragavan Sulaja, Vattam Kandathil Jasna, Funk Christoph
Department of Agricultural Extension, Regional Agricultural Research Station, Ambalavayal, Wayanad, Kerala, 673 593, India.
Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, 695 522, India.
Soc Sci Humanit Open. 2022;6(1):100320. doi: 10.1016/j.ssaho.2022.100320. Epub 2022 Aug 10.
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.
新冠疫情的蔓延在全球范围内给教育领域造成了大规模破坏。数字教育，即涉及使用数字工具、虚拟平台和在线学习的教育方式，被视为在这种环境下继续学术活动的可行替代方案之一。由于持续的疫情威胁，高等教育机构在很大程度上已转向这种新的学习模式，并且在世界许多地区仍继续依赖数字模式。然而，学习者有效参与在线课程的能力以及他们的社会经济背景对这种能力的影响在文献中尚未得到充分探讨。本研究试图探索这些方面，因为它们对数字教育的成功至关重要。该研究对一所农业大学的833名本科生、研究生和博士生进行，以评估他们的数字能力以及影响有效参与在线课程的因素。本研究采用并改编了欧盟科学中心的《数字能力框架2.0》（DIGCOMP）。我们的研究结果表明，学习者在数字能力的大多数方面具有令人满意的水平。大多数参与者将智能手机既作为访问互联网的设备，也作为他们学习活动的工具。图基均值差异检验的结果表明，学习者的数字能力因性别、经济状况和学术水平而有显著差异。这一发现可归因于他们社会经济背景的差异，这证实了学习者之间的数字鸿沟。我们的研究结果对数字高等教育战略的设计和机构管理具有启示意义，以确保学习者有效参与，特别是对发展中国家的高等教育机构而言。
