Digital Literacy Skills for Exam-Oriented, Pandemic Schooling: A Mixed Methods Study of Students’ Authentic Performance

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed conditions for schooling around the world and has hastened the use of digital technologies in education systems which focus on high-stakes examinations. The present study investigates what digital skills students need to take examinations using digital technologies, how schools might determine students' proficiency in these skills and whether students are proficient in these skills. Using exploratory, mixed methods, the study collects and analyzes student artifacts from a Hong Kong school’s examination practice using digital technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the qualitative phase of the study, it names and describes 10 device and software skills and three levels of proficiency by which to assess student performance. In the quantitative phase of the study, a larger sample of student artifacts was scored and the results show students can perform some skills more consistently than others. Besides, some students can inconsistently perform a skill within one examination instance and over several examination instances. The study provides rich description of digital skills for exam-oriented education systems and specific devices and pieces of software, supporting infrastructure and a popular use of digital technologies that support the skills. Schools need to provide digital skills training and assessment for students to take high stakes examinations using digital technologies and can examine direct evidence to inform development of that training and assessment.