Digital literacy skills of university students with visual impairment: A mixed-methods analysis

Abstract

Both for new higher education students and especially for individuals with visual impairment (VI), becoming digitally literate is a necessity in order to be able to fully participate in society and to overcome certain educational barriers. This study explores the digital literacy (DL) skills of university students in Turkey with VI, along with the factors that can affect DL levels. A sequential explanatory mixed-methods design was employed. Quantitative data were collected from 60 participants during the first phase of the study through an online survey consisting of demographic questions and the DL Scale. Qualitative data were collected via semi-structured interviews held with eight participants as the second phase. The study found quite high levels for several self-reported technical and cognitive sub-factors of DL skills, and lower levels for the social sub-factor. Comparative analysis revealed no significant difference between gender, level of VI, and type of school. The results showed that daily use of the Internet had a significant positive effect on DL scores, and that there was a negative correlation between DL and age of starting to use technology. The qualitative findings suggested that the participants already possessed basic DL skills such as accessing information and creating files; however, they lacked skills in information management, effective collaboration, communication, and in digital content creation. The study sheds light on factors affecting DL of VI students and discusses implications for both researchers and practitioners.

Public-private partnership as a mechanism of education management in the structure of the social and investment model of economic growth

“…We also proved that financial support of universities and the effectiveness of their management are the highest not in the case of Piurcosky et al, 2022) and not in the case of preferential public financing of universities' activities (unlike Ojha et al, 2022;Pan et al, 2022;Villela and Paredes, 2022) but in the case of public-private partnership, which ensures joint financing and control over the activities of universities by the government and by the public investors. This paper is a part of the chain of productive scientific research on the social and investment model of economic growth; it strengthens the evidence base of Arslantas andGul (2022), Gómez-Poyato et al (2022) and Spada et al (2022) with proofs of the key role of universities in the training of digital personnel based on public-private partnership. The novel contribution of this research and its theoretical significance consists in proving the important role of public-private partnership as a mechanism of education management in the implementation of the social and investment model of economic growth.…”

“…Under the conditions of the digital economy, the most important contribution of universities to the implementation of the social and investment model of economic growth is the training of digital personnel (Arslantas and Gul, 2022;Gómez-Poyato et al, 2022;Spada et al, 2022).…”

The Relationship Between Cognitive Absorption and Digital Literacy Skills among Secondary School Students

“…Moreover, according to the results, the digital literacy scores of the students who spend less than 1 hour are lower than the others. Researches (Arslantas & Gul, 2022;Ongel, Yavuz & Tatli, 2022) support the findings that daily internet use and being ready for technology positively affect the level of digital literacy.…”

Harnessing E-Portfolio Creation for Exam Success, Student Engagement, and Satisfaction

“…Students' apparent preference for familiar digital tools in e-portfolio creation may have arisen from a lack of confidence or experience with digital technologies (Howard et al, 2016;Margaryan et al, 2011;Warschauer & Matuchniak, 2010). Although many university students possess basic digital literacy skills, they usually lack digital content creation abilities (Arslantas & Gul, 2022). Co-creation with classmates appears rare in higher education (Blau & Shamir-Inbal, 2017).…”