No abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically accelerated the digitalization of education around the world. There has been a lot of recent research on university students’ attitudes towards digital educational technologies (DET) in different countries, but much fewer studies examine how these attitudes change during the pandemic. The purpose of the present exploratory study is to compare the attitudes towards DET among Russian university students majoring in psychology before the start of the pandemic and at its different stages. A mixed method research design was used. The quantitative part of the study included The University Students’ Attitudes toward DET Questionnaire developed by the authors, and the qualitative part of this study included percentage and thematic analyses of answers to additional multiple choice and open-ended questions. The main findings of the study confirm significant changes in attitudes towards DET at the very beginning of the pandemic, and their relative stabilization later. Additional analysis based on the literature review revealed that the advantages and disadvantages of DET listed by Russian university students and students from other countries, generally coincide. The data obtained will be useful in the development of digital competence among university students.

In the modern era of digitalization, the development and implementation of digital educational technologies (DETs) have constantly been at the center of numerous discussions among teachers, psychologists, sociologists, physicians, etc. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has simultaneously made DETs an integral part of contemporary social life around the world. However, both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, little attention was paid to the study of the motivational and personality characteristics of university students, which would make it possible to predict their attitudes towards DETs and the effectiveness of their use in learning. The present study involved 173 Russian university students (61% - females) of various specialties (natural sciences, medicine and psychology), aged 17 to 26 years. Their attitudes towards DETs were measured according to The University Students’ Attitudes towards DET Questionnaire developed by the authors. To reveal their educational motivation, The Academic Motivation Scales by Gordeeva et al. were used. Their personality traits were identified using The NEO Five-Factor Inventory (adapted in Russian by Biryukov and Bodunov). For statistical analysis, the descriptive statistics methods, Mann - Whitney U test, and multiple regression analysis were used. The results of the study have shown that the scales of academic motivation have a greater impact on attitudes towards DETs among the university students as compared to personality traits. However, there is a specificity of these impacts in the students of different specialties, particularly in psychological students. The findings of this study indicate that taking into account such psychological factors as students’ academic motivation and personality traits can contribute to the optimal implementation of DETs in the educational process in blended and online formats.