Digital Competence in higher education:A case study of teachers’ perception of working with technologies

Abstract

With the development of technological tools and the changing world situation, digital competence is becoming increasingly important to our current knowledge society and it has played an important role in the learning process. However, the measurement of digital competencies is a challenge in further understanding their development in practice. This study attempts to analyze the teachers’ perception of using ICT tools in educational activities and their digital competence in the context of higher education. A self-report questionnaire and an interview were used to collect data. The survey was completed by a sample of 536 teachers who worked in different faculties in Gansu Agricultural University in China. The results described the profile of participants' digital competence and revealed their thought about using ICT tools in class. We found that in general, teachers considered themselves as positive in several sections of digital competence, but they also expressed their weak point in digital content creation. Moreover, teachers expressed using ICT tool in class was very important with mentioned training that deficient digital competence related training may lead difficulties in the process of teaching.