Validation of Digital Readiness for Academic Engagement (DRAE) Scale in Pakistani Healthcare Students.

Introduction: Digitalization in the 21st century has transformed nearly all aspects of our society, including education. However, many believe that this transformation is occurring with little strategic planning and much may not be ready for all that it brings to the table. The Digital Readiness for Academic Engagement (DRAE) scale is a useful tool and merits validation in different contexts for effective use.Objective: To validate the DRAE scale in healthcare students in Pakistan.Methods: The scale was circulated electronically via Google forms to faculty members of different medical colleges and universities of Punjab using the convenience-sampling method for sharing with their students. A total of 7 institutions participated. The responses were collected from a sample of 1744 undergraduate students. The demographic variables included gender, semester enrolled, and age. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 25 (for exploratory factor analysis) and AMOS version 26 (for confirmatory factor analysis).Results: The mean age of the respondents stood at (SD=20.55 ± 1.6). The largest proportion of students were from MBBS (41%), followed by allied health science and Dentistry. EFA results in the two-factor model which was confirmed by CFA. The goodness-off indices were achieved by removing four items (1, 2, 7, 8) with factor loading below .80 and by drawing covariance between errors.Conclusion: The original model with 5 factors was not applicable and a 2-factor model was validated by CFA for our context.KEYWORDS: Digital Readiness, Academic Engagement, Medical Education, Digitization & Validation.