General Technology Competency and Use Framework: Conceptualizing and Surveying Digital Competency

The increasing use of computer-based technologies in all sectors of modern economies requiresthat workers be not only capable of using existing technologies but also adept in learning to useemerging technologies as necessary. It is incumbent upon higher education institutions todevelop programmes that will prepare graduates to respond to these changing circumstances. Inorder to achieve this end, higher education faculty will be increasingly expected to be competentusers of technology who adapt flexibly to changing requirements in society and the workplace.As a step in moving toward this future, there will be value in having measures of individuals’competency with technology in general and ways of portraying their patterns of usage for varioustechnologies. This paper will report on progress in developing a measure of generaltechnological competence that considers not only technological skills, but also the examinee’suses of technology. Assessing General Technology Competency and Use: Correlates of Confidence and Experience with a Range of Communications devices.. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323994825_Assessing_General_Technology_Competency_and_Use_Correlates_of_Confidence_and_Experience_with_a_Range_of_Communications_devices [accessed Jul 20 2018].

The Digital Competency Profiler (DCP) is an online application for survey- ing the technology preferences and abilities of students in higher education. To explore the DCP as a digital-learning-readiness tool, a mixed-methods research design was developed for relating self-reported digital competencies and online-learning activity. To this end, three authentic scenarios, comprised of six tasks mapped to self-report items, were constructed. Having submitted their survey data, each of 15 participants visited the EILAB to complete a randomly-assigned scenario with a tablet. Both the performance activity and post-activity interviews were recorded digitally using a unique activity-station setup, and task artefacts were gathered as performance out- comes. Analysis was conducted in three phases. In Phase 1, both the audio-video performance data and activity artefacts were coded, assessed and scored. Exploratory correlational analyses showed a pattern of positive relationships at the task and scenario levels for two scenario groups, suggesting some predictive value for the DCP in this context. For the third group, a positive correlation was found at the scenario level, but negative correlations were found at the task level. In Phase 2, detailed case-studies were conducted, incorporating self-report data, coded performance timelines, and post- activity interviews. Several situational influencers related to problem-solving strategy, device comfort, task difficulty and motivation, beyond the purview of the DCP, were identified. In Phase 3, the findings were interpreted to position the DCP as a tool for identifying segments of students with members who, without support, will likely struggle to engage fully in technology-rich learning environments.

This mixed-methods study explores a digital-competencies survey tool for probing the readiness of higher-education students for digital learning, in three steps.

This brief paper reports on one part of a case study conducted in the Faculty of Education of a mid-sized university in the province of Ontario, Canada. This online course— part of the faculty's Bachelor of Arts in Educational Studies and Digital Technology (BA-ESDT) program—was focused on Problem-Based Learning (PBL); included both synchronous and asynchronous components; employed the Fully Online Learning Community (FOLC) teaching-learning model; and required its students to complete an online version of the General Technological Competence and Use (GTCU) survey—near the beginning (pre) and end (post) of the course—to assess students' digital competency for fully online learning. This paper focuses specifically on some preliminary pre-post GTCU survey results, especially in terms of the potential usefulness—for students, faculty, and program—of the instrument's just-in-time availability and informative graphical displays.