Meeting the digital literacy education needs of college students: A two-stage study in China

Abstract

To identify what specific pedagogical and infrastructural components college students need in digital literacy education and to what extent they require these components, as well as to reveal how these components can be integrated into diverse configurations to enhance students' perceived digital literacy levels, we conducted a two-stage study. In the first stage, inspired by DigComp 2.2 digital literacy framework, we established a model of digital literacy education components for college students and then applied the Kano model to categorize 23 types of components of digital literacy education needs of college students into four categories: “Must-be,” “One-dimensional,” “Attractive,” and “Indifferent.” In the second stage, we employed the Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) method to validate the findings from the first stage and explore how different configurations of digital literacy components impact the improvement of college students' digital literacy. We identified three key configurations: “management-service-driven,” “multi-dimensional collaboration,” and “facility-service-driven.” These configurations consider curriculum design, support management, space facilities, diversified services, and the absence of extracurricular activities as core conditions. Finally, this study proposed strategic recommendations that support the enhancement and optimization of digital literacy education in higher education settings. This study yields both theoretical and practical implications.