Evolving Digital Skills of first-year students: A Pre- and Post-Covid Analysis

Abstract

Digital skills are necessary for first-year students at Austrian universities. This paper unveils results from two surveys among first-year students at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz): Pre-Covid-19 data (n=921) is derived from a larger study on digital literacy among first-year students in Styria (Janschitz et al., 2021, N=4,676). The same questions were posed in the 2021 ‘Welcome Days’ survey after the Covid-19 distance learning phases (n=1,207). Surprisingly, the only significant change is a noticeable increase of skills concerning the digital signature. This article additionally presents the development of a lecture on digital skills that was implemented at TU Graz as a massive open online course (MOOC).

Full text

Published under Creative Commons Licence 4.0 Attribution (BY).
https://doi.org/10.21240/zfhe/19-01/03
Martin Ebner1, Bettina Mair2, Walther Nagler3, Sandra Schön4 &
Sarah Edelsbrunner5 (Graz)
Evolving Digital Skills of first-year students:
A Pre- and Post-Covid Analysis
Abstract
Digital skills are necessary for first-year students at Austrian universities. This paper
unveils results from two surveys among first-year students at Graz University of
Technology (TU Graz): Pre-Covid-19 data (n=921) is derived from a larger study on
digital literacy among first-year students in Styria (Janschitz et al., 2021, N=4,676).
The same questions were posed in the 2021 ‘Welcome Days’ survey after the Covid-
19 distance learning phases (n=1,207). Surprisingly, the only significant change is a
noticeable increase of skills concerning the digital signature. This article additionally
presents the development of a lecture on digital skills that was implemented at TU
Graz as a massive open online course (MOOC).
Keywords
Digital Skills, Austria, first-year students, survey, Massive Open Online Course
1 Corresponding author; TU Graz; martin.ebner@tugraz.at; ORCiD 0000-0001-5789-5296
2 Freie Mitarbeiterin TU Graz; office@bettina-mair.at; ORCiD 0000-0002-8245-6997
3 TU Graz; walther.nagler@tugraz.at; ORCiD 0000-0001-8764-2185
4 TU Graz; sandra.schoen@tugraz.at; ORCiD 0000-0003-0267-5215
5 TU Graz; sarah.edelsbrunner@tugraz.at; ORCiD 0000-0003-4951-4101

Martin Ebner, Bettina Mair, Walther Nagler, Sandra Schön & Sarah Edelsbrunner
46
Digitale Skills von Studienanfänger:innen: Eine Vor- und
Nach-Covid-Analyse der Entwicklungen von Fertigkeiten
Zusammenfassung
Der Beitrag präsentiert Befragungsergebnisse von Studienanfänger:innen an der
Technischen Universität Graz (TU Graz) zu ihren digitalen Skills aus zwei Umfra-
gen: Vor-Covid-19-Daten (n=921) stammen aus einer großen Studie zur digitalen
Kompetenz von Studienanfänger:innen in der Steiermark (Janschitz et al., 2021,
n=4.676). Dieselben Fragen wurden in der „Welcome Days“-Umfrage 2021 nach
den durch Covid-19 bedingten Distanzunterrichtsphasen gestellt (n=1.207). Die
einzige deutliche Veränderung sind Fertigkeiten in Bezug auf die digitale Signatur.
Der Artikel beschreibt ergänzend die Entwicklung eines Massive Open Online
Course (MOOC) zur Förderung der digitalen Skills der Studierenden.
Schlüsselwörter
Digital Skills, digitale Kompetenzen, Österreich, Studienanfänger, Umfrage,
Massive Open Online Course

ZFHE Jg. 19 / Nr. 1 (March 2024) S. 45–65
47
1 Introduction
Digital skills have become a new kind of basic knowledge and competence for the
21st century, much like writing, reading and maths. Digital skills are necessary for
participation in many areas of everyday life and work. Students are also expected to
possess digital skills – for example, online registration is a prerequisite for the en-
rolment process at many universities. However, digital skills are not being system-
atically promoted everywhere. An exception is the new school subject “Digital Basic
Education” for all fifth-grade classes in Austria in the 2022/2023 school year. There
is also a need to create appropriate offers for higher education students and to mon-
itor changes. At Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), the Educational Tech-
nology team is responsible for providing e-learning infrastructure and offers for stu-
dents and teachers. Therefore, every year since 2007 the team has surveyed first-year
students about usage of IT and IT-related communication tools, such as social media
applications or gadgets. Our team was able to acknowledge the decreasing use of
emails (Nagler, Ebner & Schön, 2016) and rising importance of learning videos
(Nagler et al., 2019), and has recorded a decreasing use of portable power packs
among first-year students after the first Covid-19 related distance learning phases in
Austria (Nagler et al., 2021). In this contribution, we aim to answer the question how
digital skills among first-year students at TU Graz can be described and if there are
differences between the cohort of first-year students before any Covid-19 restrictions
compared with the cohort that started after them. Based on the development during
the Covid-19 pandemic and its school closures and transition to distance education
using online tools in Austria (e.g. Weber, Ebner & Schön, 2021), it seems reasonable
to assume that the digital competencies of first-year students at TU Graz have also
evolved. Our research question is therefore: How have digital competences of first-
year students at TU Graz changed when comparing first-year students in 2019 (be-
fore Covid-19 restrictions) to first-year students in 2021 (after school closures and
distance learning)? After a presentation of the results and their discussion, we will
highlight one of the measures aimed at fostering digital skills of students at TU Graz
and beyond: a MOOC dedicated to this topic.

Martin Ebner, Bettina Mair, Walther Nagler, Sandra Schön & Sarah Edelsbrunner
48
2 Potential effects of the Covid-19 pandemic
on students’ digital competences and
approaches for assessing them
Reviewing the literature, we were unable to find any contributions on how and
whether the skills of Austrian high-school graduates or first-year students have
changed because of the pandemic. Of course, there are contributions available about
the changes concerning digital learning and its challenges during the Covid-19 pan-
demic, such as for TU Graz (Ebner et al., 2020), for single university courses (Ebner
& Schön, 2020), for higher education in Austria in general (Pausits et al., 2021) or
in Austrian schools (Weber, Ebner & Schön, 2021).
There are some articles that deal with the development of students’ digital skills dur-
ing the pandemic. For example, Rodríguez-Moreno et al. (2021) examine the effects
of Spanish teacher students using digital tools on digital skills. The analysis of data
from nearly 600 students revealed that the use of virtual tools for collaborative work
online and the use of YouTube explain the level of digital skills. Sales et al. (2020)
chose a qualitative approach, interviewing faculty members from Spanish universi-
ties in discussion groups about the development of students’ digital skills during
online-supported distance learning. The study concludes that there were no improve-
ments during the initial university closures. Studies conducting surveys of students’
digital skills before and after Covid-19 are considerably rarer. The contribution by
Salem et al. (2022) surveyed the self-perception of one group of students before
Covid and another group in 2021, following the reopening of universities in Saudi
Arabia. It was found that perceived digital skills were rated lower.
These insights also indicate that the assessment of digital skills varies considerably.
Several competence models have already been published to describe students’ digital
competences. For example, Vishnu et al. (2022) used the European competence
framework DigComp as a basis to assess digital skills for online learning among
Indian students. Krempkow (2022) published a questionnaire to assess digital com-

ZFHE Jg. 19 / Nr. 1 (March 2024) S. 45–65
49
petences according to the German version of the DigComp. A current literature re-
view of digital competences in higher education by Zhao, Lorente & Gómez (2021)
shows that the European DigComp dimensions are the most referred to. Addition-
ally, this literature review shows that most studies measure competences through a
self-assessment by participants.
In our context, Austria, there exists the DigComp 2.1 AT framework, a slightly ex-
panded version of the European framework: 25 individual competences are assigned
to six areas, namely 0. basics and access, 1. managing information and data, 2. com-
munication and collaboration, 3. creation of digital content, 4. safety and 5. problem
solving and further learning. The Austrian competence framework DigComp 2.2 AT
is also the basis for the DiKoS project, which sought to assess students’ digital com-
petences (Janschitz et al., 2021, p. 10). The DiKoS study measures digital compe-
tences through student self-assessment (see Janschitz et al., 2021, p. 18). The DiKoS
study team constructed a multidimensional index reflecting the level of digitalisation
among students instead of directly measuring digital competences through perfor-
mance assessment. The DigComp 2.2 AT competence framework was the basis for
a “14-page questionnaire with 113 question items” (ibid.). The items are described
by Janschitz et al. (2021, p. 18) as attitude questions (33), behavioural questions (31),
knowledge questions (21), self-assessment (17) and socio-demographic questions
(11). Our first data set, which predates Covid-19, comes from this larger research
project on digital literacy among first-year students (Janschitz et al., 2021). Among
other things, in the DiKoS project, almost 80 % of all people who began studying at
a Styrian university in the winter semester 2019/2020 (n=4,676) were surveyed in a
paper-and-pencil format between September 2019 and November 2019 (ibid., p. 23).
In other words, the data collection took place before universities were closed due to
the Covid-19 pandemic. The data of first-year students at TU Graz are presented
separately for the first time in this article (n=921).
As a second data set, 12 of the questionnaire items on digital skills from the study
by Janschitz et al. (2021) were included in an annual paper-and-pencil survey at the
“Welcome Days” at TU Graz in October 2021 (n=1,207; Nagler et al., 2022). One

Martin Ebner, Bettina Mair, Walther Nagler, Sandra Schön & Sarah Edelsbrunner
50
additional item on open licences was added to this questionnaire as well. The an-
swers to these questions are also presented in this form for the first time here. The
data from before and after Covid-19 is compared with the help of simple descriptive
analysis.
Figure 1 gives an overview of the competence frameworks and questionnaires used
and adaptations that were made to them, as well as about the survey and data in
general. Details such as the specific items which are used to highlight differences
between the TU Graz first-year student cohort from 2019 (using data from DiKoS)
and 2021 (using data from our Welcome Days study) are presented in the following
chapter along with the results.
Figure 1: Overview of the data used and its background.

ZFHE Jg. 19 / Nr. 1 (March 2024) S. 45–65
51
3 Comparison of socio-demographics of the
two data sets
Both data sets use data of first-year students at TU Graz (from the years 2019 and
2021). Although the groups are generally similar, a comparison of their socio-de-
mographics shows some small differences. As shown in Figure 2, about two thirds
of the students are male and about four of five are younger than 20 years, which is
to say that many of the participants, i.e. study beginners, start university directly after
school or after their service in the Austrian armed forces. As is typical for a technical
university in Austria, more than one third of the participants graduated from an up-
per-secondary technical school (Höhere Technische Lehranstalt, abbreviated as
HTL), about two thirds from a general upper-secondary school (Allgemeinbildende
Höhere Schule, abbreviated as AHS). Both surveys reached mostly students who are
new to university, but to a lesser extent also students who had already started another
degree program.
Overall, the socio-demographic data of the two surveys of first-year students at TU
Graz are very similar, which should ensure good comparability between the two sur-
vey groups.

Martin Ebner, Bettina Mair, Walther Nagler, Sandra Schön & Sarah Edelsbrunner
52
Figure 2: Comparison of socio-demographic characteristics of TU Graz students in
DiKoS 2019 (n=921) and the Welcome Days 2021 (n=1,207)

ZFHE Jg. 19 / Nr. 1 (March 2024) S. 45–65
53
4 Digital skills of first-years students before
and after Covid-19 distance learning phases
Figure 3 shows the questionnaire items on digital skills and the answers of first-year
students at TU Graz in winter term 2019/2020 collected by the digital competences
study (DiKoS), in comparison with the corresponding data of first-year students at
the Welcome Days (WD) in the winter term 2021/2022. First-year students two years
later typically had experience with distance learning in Austria at the start of their
university career. As the figure shows, most of the first-year students in 2019 re-
ported that they can work with a learning management system: 31 % chose the option
“I know my way around and can also solve any problems that arise”, another 51 %
chose “I can do it myself”. All others, 18 %, chose one of the other options starting
with “I can’t do it …”.
Figure 3 shows that overall, there are no major differences between 2019 and 2021
data. In both surveys, almost all respondents indicated that they could exchange data
between different devices, quickly find information via search engines, customise
profile settings on social networks to protect personal data and prepare and create
written work using digital media. On the other hand, in both surveys, respondents
most frequently stated that they cannot design web applications and that they cannot
set up a VPN connection (between two thirds and three quarters of respondents in
each case). Similarly, just under 30 % of first-year students in 2021 indicated that
they can search and correctly use resources with open licences (this item was not
included in the 2019 survey).

Martin Ebner, Bettina Mair, Walther Nagler, Sandra Schön & Sarah Edelsbrunner
54
Figure 3: Skills in working with digital applications and content (DiKoS 2019 n=855,
WD 2021 n=1,111)

ZFHE Jg. 19 / Nr. 1 (March 2024) S. 45–65
55
Overall, there is only one item with a noteworthy difference of 12 % between the “I
can” and “I cannot” responses between the 2019 and 2021 data: “I can set up and use
a digital signature”. We can therefore assume that this kind of digital application has
become more common among first-years students of TU Graz between autumn 2019
and 2021. If we sum up the two “I can” responses and the three “I cannot” responses
for all other items, we can see that there are 3 items which show a slight increase of
between 2 and 4 % in those who have indicated that they can do it, as well as three
items for which the opposite (a slight decrease) is the case (see Table 1). Five of the
items show (almost) no change (+/- 1 %).
Table 1: Change of distribution of those “who can” from 2019 to 2021
increase (12 %)
I can set up and use a digital signature
slight increase
(2–4%)
I can use media in compliance with copyright and data protection re-
quirements.
I can work with a learning platform.
I can customise profile settings to protect personal data on social net-
works.
no change
(max. +/-1%)
I can back up my data and restore it in case of computer failure.
I can use digital tools to collaborate with others to create documents
and manage information.
I can prepare and write written work using digital media.
I can use search engines to quickly find the information I need.
I can exchange data between different devices.
slight decrease
(2–4%)
I can design web applications.
I can set up a virtual private network connection.
I can perform calculations using a spreadsheet program.

Martin Ebner, Bettina Mair, Walther Nagler, Sandra Schön & Sarah Edelsbrunner
56
A Mann-Whitney-U-Test was carried out to check whether there is a statistically
significant difference between the respondents from 2019 and those from 2021 for
individual items. Table 2 lists the items for which there is a statistically significant
difference (p<.050) between the two survey groups.
Table 2: Survey items with significant difference between DiKos 2019 and WD 2021
Item Mann-Whit-
ney-
U-Test N Z Asym
p. Sig r
I can set up and use a digital signa-
ture.
413,315.0
2,012
-6.913
0.000
-0.154
I can set up a virtual private network
connection.
457,377.5
2,018
-3.627
0.000
-0.081
I can customise profile settings to pro-
tect personal data on social networks.
464,879.5
2,026
-3.597
0.000
-0.080
I can perform calculations using a
spreadsheet program.
467,358.5
2,029
-3.412
0.001
-0.076
I can design web applications.
468,821.5
2,020
-2.843
0.004
-0.063
I can work with a learning platform.
445,605.5
1,972
-2.778
0.005
-0.063
I can use media in compliance with
copyright and data protection require-
ments.
469,653.5
2,008
-2.261
0.024
-0.050
A look at the correlation values r in the table shows that although there are statisti-
cally significant differences between the groups surveyed, the respective effect sizes
are only weak. As already shown in Table 2, it is also confirmed here that the only
noticeable change between the surveys in 2019 and 2021 regards digital signatures.

ZFHE Jg. 19 / Nr. 1 (March 2024) S. 45–65
57
5 Expectations regarding university teaching
of first-year students before and after Covid-
19 distance learning phases
In addition to their own digital skills, the participants were asked in several items
about their expectations for university teaching (see Figure 4). Here, too, we see that
three items have hardly changed even after the Covid-19 pandemic. In each case,
over 80 % of first-year students agree that lecturers should frequently try something
new with digital media. The participants think it is good when lecturers use tradi-
tional teaching aids, but just as many think that it is good when some courses are
offered in the form of online courses. The item “I would like my studies to be con-
ducted entirely in the form of virtual teaching”, which was only included in the 2021
survey, shows by far the lowest approval. Nevertheless, about 12 % (rather) agreed
to this statement. What is noteworthy is that the 2021 data shows significantly less
agreement to the statement that it does not matter what media lecturers use if they
keep their focus on the subject matter (75 % agreement in 2019, compared with 61 %
in 2021). A similar picture emerges for the item “My studies are supposed to provide
me with programming skills”. While in 2019 about 82 % (rather) agreed to this state-
ment, in 2021 only 68 % did so.

Martin Ebner, Bettina Mair, Walther Nagler, Sandra Schön & Sarah Edelsbrunner
58
Figure 4: Expectations regarding university teaching (DiKoS 2019 n=875, WD 2021 n=1,133)

ZFHE Jg. 19 / Nr. 1 (March 2024) S. 45–65
59
6 Discussion of the results concerning digital
skills of first-year students
Conceptually, there are always limitations when surveying digital skills using only
a self-assessment (see Zhao, Lorente & Gómez, 2021). Studies have reported that
students, due to their experiences with digital learning, may have assessed their dig-
ital skills as worse – and potentially more realistically (Salem et al., 2022). In any
case, it would be important to have objective measurement data available here as
well.
In general, we do not know from the comparison of the data from 2019 and 2021
which of the supposed developments are due to changes in schools and universities
during distance learning in Austria or whether they are due to other reasons, such as
changes in the digital infrastructure.
To sum up, the most noticeable change is the increase of skills concerning the digital
signature, which has been available in Austria for several years, but seems to have
become more relevant in times of distance communication. Interestingly, to our
knowledge and research with the help of Google Scholar, there is no data or literature
that supports this interpretation of our data concerning the digital signature in Aus-
tria, which is not yet known and implemented at the same level in many other coun-
tries such as Germany.
We have already pointed out one interesting development: The 2021 data shows sig-
nificantly less agreement to the statement “it does not matter what media lecturers
use if they keep their focus on the subject matter” (75 % agreement in 2019 com-
pared with 61 % in 2021). This could be interpreted to mean that the type of media
selected is of big relevance and that certain forms of media are appreciated less.
Looking at the media-related statements, we see decreased support for online courses
(3 % decrease for “(rather) agree” in 2021), compared with virtually no difference
concerning traditional media such as using the blackboard (1 % decrease for “(ra-
ther) agree” in 2021). Without a clear tendency of change in these statements, it is
difficult to interpret what first-year students’ favourite media for learning settings

Martin Ebner, Bettina Mair, Walther Nagler, Sandra Schön & Sarah Edelsbrunner
60
are in 2021: Is it a traditional media use (blackboard), a digitally enhanced in-person
lesson, or a virtual setting? Our guess is that a digitally enhanced course with addi-
tional recordings for later training or repetition is preferred, as this was implied by
another student survey at TU Graz (Schön et al., 2021). Nevertheless, there is still
room for further investigations.
The second surprise was the difference between 2019 and 2021 in the item “My
studies are supposed to provide me with programming skills”. While in 2019 about
82 % (rather) agreed to this statement, in 2021 only 68 % (rather) agreed. We were
surprised about this result and are left to wonder why the students’ impression of
what they need to learn at university has changed.
Finally, we would like to point out that there is a small difference in the way the two
surveys were conducted, which might (also) be responsible for these developments
that are difficult to interpret: The 2021 survey took place on the very first two days
students spend at the university in the third week of September, as part of the “Wel-
come Days”. The DiKoS data, in comparison, was collected during a longer period
from September to November. Students’ answers might already be influenced by
their experiences of teachers and the e-learning setting. Another difference is the fact
that the 2019 DiKoS study reached n=921 students, which is about 100 students more
than were reached in the Welcome Days survey in the same year (n= 824, see Nagler
et al., 2021). Potentially, any differences in the results might also be due to differ-
ences in the sample of students reached at different times and through different
means.
In addition to these methodological considerations relating to the survey, the differ-
ences and possible interpretations of the results, TU Graz is also faced with the prac-
tical question of how different skill levels of first-year students can be mitigated as
best as possible before the start of their studies and which measures are effective in
this regard. In the case of TU Graz, a MOOC on digital skills aimed at first-year
students was developed for this purpose.

ZFHE Jg. 19 / Nr. 1 (March 2024) S. 45–65
61
7 Fostering digital skills of first-year students
at TU Graz
At TU Graz, the digital skills of students are of course a very important factor in
their studies but also for their subsequent professional life. Since first-year students
have different skill levels due to their previous school careers, it was necessary to
devise a way of allowing students to catch up on missing skills easily and quickly at
the beginning of their studies. In this section, we would like to present one of the
measures taken by TU Graz to increase first-year students’ digital skills.
For this purpose, a lecture was designed that can be taken as a free elective in any
study programme and whose core content is an online course. Students can work
through the online content independently, check their knowledge through a self-as-
sessment and receive a course certificate (and ECTS credits) after a final exam. In
winter semester 2021/2022, the online course “Digital Skills for Students” was of-
fered for the first time (https://imoox.at/course/DigiStudiWS21). The course was de-
signed as a ‘massive open online course’ or MOOC (McAuley et al., 2010). This
means that while it is aimed at (future) students of TU Graz, it is open to anyone on
the national Austrian MOOC platform iMooX.at (Ebner, 2021). Like all other
MOOCs on the platform, this MOOC is available as an open educational resource
(OER) and can therefore also be integrated into other educational settings (cf. Ebner,
Schön & Braun, 2020).
The project team developed a project plan for the content design, which was accom-
panied by research in the form of a master thesis (Obermayr, 2021). The MOOC was
systematically developed by following the European Competence Framework (Car-
retero et al., 2017, p. 1–48) and the Austrian Competence Framework (BMDW,
2021, p. 1–36). A workshop design was developed with the aim of ensuring that the
individual competencies can be backed up with realistic examples from everyday
life at university. In two workshops with students of teacher education in the field of
computer science, the individual points of the framework were filled in, discussed,
and finally prioritised in an open world café setting. This resulted in a matrix that

Martin Ebner, Bettina Mair, Walther Nagler, Sandra Schön & Sarah Edelsbrunner
62
represents the rough content of the MOOC by forming five units with the corre-
sponding sub-items. Subsequently, the learning goals of the units were defined, and
the content was researched, elaborated, and summarised. In parallel, the team devel-
oped the video concept: a dialogue between two people in a café. Afterwards, the
video scripts were written, and the videos were produced in the video studio of TU
Graz. The finished videos, additional materials (links, documents, etc.) as well as
self-assessment quizzes were implemented in the platform iMooX.at to form a
MOOC. In addition to the MOOC, an accompanying course was created at TU Graz
and new students were informed about it at the Welcome Days. The course was held
for the first time in winter semester 2021/2022 (see Figure 5).
Figure 5: Impressions from the MOOC “DigiKompStudi”, implementation at iMooX:
Screenshot of the MOOC website (from the second implementation in 2023) and
from the MOOC trailer.

ZFHE Jg. 19 / Nr. 1 (March 2024) S. 45–65
63
When the MOOC on digital skills for first-year students was first offered in winter
semester 2021/2022, 436 registrations to the online course were counted. Almost
half of the registered participants successfully completed the MOOC with a certifi-
cate. Around 44 % of people who had registered for the MOOC did not interact with
the course in the end. The second implementation of the MOOC one year later (win-
ter semester 2022/2023) shows similar figures. It counted 445 registered participants
and again about half of those registered completed the MOOC successfully and re-
ceived a certificate. We hope that this offer will continue to systematically support
the digital skills of our first-year students.
8 Acknowledgement
We would like to thank our partners of the DiKoS study as they allowed us to use
and present the data related to TU Graz in this report (see Janschitz et al., 2021).
9 References
Bundesministerium für Digitalisierung und Wirtschaftsstandort (2021). Digitales Kompe-
tenzmodell für Österreich. DigComp 2.2 AT. Bundesministerium für Digitalisierung und
Wirtschaftsstandort.
Carretero, S., Vuorikari, R., & Punie, Y. (2017). DigComp 2.1: The Digital Competence
Framework for Citizens with Eight Proficiency Levels and Examples of Use. Publications
Office of the European Union. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2760/38842
Ebner, M. (2021) iMooX – a MOOC platform for all (universities), 2021 7th International
Conference on Electrical, Electronics and Information Engineering (ICEEIE) (pp. 1–5).
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICEEIE52663.2021.9616685
Ebner, M., & Schön, S. (2020). Future Teacher Training of Several Universities with
MOOCs as OER. In R. E. Ferdig, E. Baumgartner, R. Hartshorne, E. Kaplan-Rakowski &
C. Mouza (Eds.), Teaching, Technology, and Teacher Education during the COVID-19

Martin Ebner, Bettina Mair, Walther Nagler, Sandra Schön & Sarah Edelsbrunner
64
Pandemic: Stories from the Field. Association for the Advancement of Computing in Edu-
cation (AACE) (pp. 493–497). Book is available under CC BY NC ND:
https://www.learntechlib.org/p/216903/
Ebner, M., Schön, S., & Braun, C. (2020). More Than a MOOC. Seven Learning and
Teaching Scenarios to Use MOOCs in Higher Education and Beyond. In S. Yu, M. Ally &
A. Tsinakos (Eds.), Emerging Technologies and Pedagogies in the Curriculum. Bridging
Human and Machine: Future Education with Intelligence (pp. 75–87). Springer.
Janschitz, G., Monitzer, S., Archan, D., Dreisiebner, G., Ebner, M., Hye, F., Kopp, M.,
Mossböck, C., Nagler, W., Orthaber, M., Rechberger, M., Rehatschek, H., Slepcevic-Zach,
P., Stock, M., Swoboda, B. & Teufel, M. (2021) Alle(s) digital im Studium?! Projektbericht
der Steirischen Hochschulkonferenz zur Analyse digitaler Kompetenzen von
Studienanfänger*inne*n. Graz University Library Publishing. https://doi.org/10.25364/978-
3-903374-00-3
Krempkow, R. (2022). DigKomp2.2.de. Erhebung digitaler Kompetenzen gemäß
DigComp2.1-Referenzrahmen der EU [Verfahrensdokumentation und Fragebogen]. In
Leibniz-Institut für Psychologie (ZPID) (Hrsg.), Open Test Archive. ZPID.
https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.6599
McAuley, A., Stewart, B., Siemens, G., & Cormier, D. (2010). Massive Open Online
Courses Digital ways of knowing and learning, The MOOC model For Digital Practice.
http://davecormier.com/edblog/wp-content/uploads/MOOC_Final.pdf (accessed on 26 May
2020).
Nagler, W., Ebner, M., & Schön, M. (2016). R.I.P. E-Mail * 1965–2015. In World Confer-
ence on Educational Media and Technology 2016 (pp. 464–473). AACE.
Nagler, W., Haas, M., Schön, M., & Ebner, M. (2019). Professor YouTube and Their Inter-
active Colleagues How Enhanced Videos and Online Courses Change the Way of Learning.
In J. Theo Bastiaens (Ed.), Proceedings of EdMedia + Innovate Learning (pp. 641–650).
Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).
Nagler, W., Schön, S., Mair, B., Ebner, M., & Edelsbrunner, S. (2022). A decade of first-
semester students surveys concerning IT equipment and communication applications and
effect of Covid-19 related experiences for first-year students in 2021. In T. Bastiaens (Ed.),
Proceedings of EdMedia + Innovate Learning (pp. 1060–1067). Association for the Ad-
vancement of Computing in Education (AACE). https://www.learntechlib.org/pri-
mary/p/221412/ (accessed on July 12, 2022).

ZFHE Jg. 19 / Nr. 1 (March 2024) S. 45–65
65
Obermayr, D. (2021). Digital competencies for first-year students. Master’s thesis at the
Graz University of Technology (not available for public).
Pausits, A., Oppl, S., Schön, S., Fellner, M., Campbell, D. F. J., & Dobiasch, M. (2021).
Distance Learning an österreichischen Universitäten und Hochschulen im Sommersemester
2020 und Wintersemester 2020/21. Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und For-
schung. https://pubshop.bmbwf.gv.at/index.php?article_id=9&type=neuerschein-
ungen&pub=926
Rodríguez-Moreno, J., Ortiz-Colón, A. M., Cordón-Pozo, E., & Agreda-Montoro, M.
(2021). The influence of digital tools and social networks on the digital competence of uni-
versity students during COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Environmental Re-
search and Public Health, 18(6), 2835.
Salem, M. A., Alsyed, W. H., & Elshaer, I. A. (2022). Before and amid COVID-19 pan-
demic, self-perception of digital skills in Saudi Arabia Higher Education: A longitudinal
study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(16), 9886.
Sales, D., Cuevas-Cerveró, A., & Gómez-Hernández, J. A. (2020). Perspectives on the in-
formation and digital competence of Social Sciences students and faculty before and during
lockdown due to Covid-19. Profesional De La información Information Professional,
29(4). https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2020.jul
Schön, S., Wieser, V., Dennerlein, S., & Ebner, M. (2021). Gute Online-Lehrpraxis aus
Studierendensicht in den ersten Wochen der CoViD-19-Krise: Der studentische Blick auf‹
gute Lehre› an der TU Graz im Mai 2020. MedienPädagogik: Zeitschrift für Theorie und
Praxis der Medienbildung, 40, 411–429.
Weber, H., Schön, S., & Ebner, M. (2021). Distance Learning an steirischen Mittelschulen
in Zeiten der COVID-19-Pandemie. Online Journal for Research & Education, 16, 1–15.
https://doi.org/10.53349/resource.2021.i16.a988
Vishnu, S., Sathyan, A. R., Sam, A. S., Radhakrishnan, A., Ragavan, S. O., Kandathil, J.
V., & Funk, C. (2022). Digital competence of higher education learners in the context of
COVID-19 triggered online learning. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 6(1), 100320.
Zhao, Y., Llorente, A. M. P., & Gómez, M. C. S. (2021). Digital competence in higher edu-
cation research: A systematic literature review. Computers & Education, 168, 104212.