Student and staff perceptions of student digital competencies on an English-Medium international foundation year programme in Europe, with reference to the EU’s Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (DigComp)

Abstract

Digital competence (DC), the ability to confidently use technology, is increasingly regarded as critical to effectively participate in 21st-century society and especially education. At many higher education institutions, technology mediates learning and assessments (Ahmed & Roche, 2021), and high levels of DC have been linked to positive academic achievement (Martzoukou et al., 2020). However, it is not always clear what is expected of students or what skills they possess. This qualitative study, based around the EU’s DigComp 2.2 Framework (Vuorikari et al., 2022), employs semi-structured interviews and document analysis to explore the perceptions of staff and students at an English-Medium International Foundation Year programme. In particular, it focuses on which competencies are considered most relevant, levels of perceived student competence, to what extent an Academic English Skills (AES) course addresses DC and implications for course design. The results indicate that both students and staff regard ‘information and data literacy’, ‘communication and collaboration’ and ‘problem solving’ as the most relevant and valuable competencies for higher education. These are also the areas that students were considered most competent and that the AES course was perceived as addressing. Students rated themselves as relatively competent in these three areas, however, staff noted varying levels of student DC and in general considered students slightly less competent than they viewed themselves. ‘Safety’ and ‘digital content creation’ were valued to a lesser degree and students were considered somewhat competent in these areas. The AES course was regarded as explicitly addressing ‘information and data literacy’ and developing ‘problem solving’ indirectly. ‘Communication and collaboration’, however, was seen as developing primarily through a locally-implemented collaborative project. These findings suggest several recommendations to improve provision including more explicitly addressing ‘communication and collaboration’ and ‘problem solving’, implementing an interdisciplinary approach to curriculum design to prevent gaps in provision and incorporating diagnostic testing of DC.