Digital communication skills: a five-country study of the attitude to online classes in universities
Palavras-chave:
online-learning, digitalization, digital skills, digital competences, digital communication, cross-cultural studiesResumo
Background and Purpose: This study explores the attitude of the university students to online classes as a tool to improve their digital communication skills.
Design/Methodology/Approach: We used an online questionnaire to collect data for our study. A sample consists of 516 university students from five countries: Colombia, Germany, Portugal, Romania and Ukraine representing different regions in Europe and South America. Different statistical tools were used to check the hypotheses.
Results: The results indicate that new generations are interested in opportunity to upgrade their digital communication skills. And they would like to have some of university classes being conducted online even under normal external conditions in order to achieve this goal. The majority of respondents have stated that they would like to have 21-50% of classes online while only 7.8% of students would prefer to have all classes in a face-to-face form.
Conclusion: The discussion of the findings includes the analyses of opportunities provided by new technologies in the era of digital globalization. Blended education system with some share of classes being held online might help to improve digital skills of the students, make them prepared better for business environment with lots of online activities.
Referências
Aesaert, K., Voogt, J., Kuiper, E., & Van Braak, J. (2017). Accuracy and bias of ICT self-efficacy: An empirical study into students’ over- and underestimation of their ICT competences. Computers in Human Behavior, 75, 92–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.05.010.
Alarcón, R., del Pilar Jiménez, E., & de Vicente‐Yagüe, M. I. (2020). Development and validation of the DIGIGLO, a tool for assessing the digital competence of educators. British Journal of Educational Technology, 51(6), 2407-2421.
Allmann, K., & Blank, G. (2021). Rethinking digital skills in the era of compulsory computing: methods, measurement, policy and theory. Information, Communication & Society, 1-16.
Alon, I., Boulanger, M., Elston, J. A., Galanaki, E., Martínez de Ibarreta, C., Meyers, J., ... & Vélez‐Calle, A. (2018). Business cultural intelligence quotient: A five‐country study. Thunderbird International Business Review, 60(3), 237-250.
Anthonysamy, L., Koo, A. C., & Hew, S. H. (2020). Self-regulated learning strategies in higher education: Fostering digital literacy for sustainable lifelong learning. Education and Information Technologies, 25, 2393-2414.
Bawden, D. (2008). Origins and concepts of digital literacy. In C. Lankshear, & M. Knobel (Eds.), Digital literacies: Concepts, policies and practices (pp. 17e32). New-York: Peter Lang.
Bergdahl, N., Nouri, J., & Fors, U. (2020). Disengagement, engagement and digital skills in technology-enhanced learning. Education and information technologies, 25(2), 957-983.
Brennen, J. S., & Kreiss, D. (2016). Digitalization. The international encyclopedia of communication theory and philosophy, 1-11.
Canavilhas, J., Pellanda, E., Piñeiro-Naval, V., & Nunes, A. C. B. (2020). Mobile phones in young people everyday life: case study with Portuguese and Brazilian students. Revista Famecos, 27, e35850-e35850.
Cilliers, E.J. (2017). The challenge of teaching Generation Z. PEOPLE Int. J. Soc. Sci. 3, 188–198.
Ester van Laar; Alexander J.A.M. van Deursen; Jan A.G.M. van Dijk; Jos de Haan (2017). The relation between 21st-century skills and digital skills: A systematic literature review. Computers in Human Behavior, ISSN: 0747-5632, Vol: 72, Page: 577-588 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.03.010
European Commission (2008). The european qualifications framework for lifelong learning (EFQ). Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities
European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice, 2019. Digital Education at School in Europe. Eurydice Report. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
Ferrari, A. (2012). Digital competence in practice: An analysis of frameworks. Seville: Joint Research Centre, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies. http:// dx.doi.org/10.2791/82116.
Fratričová, J. & Z. Kirchmayer (2018). Barriers to work motivation of Generation Z. Journal of human resource management, vol. XXI, 2/2018, 28-39.
J. Vera, L. Torres and E. Martínez, “Assessment of basic ict competencies in teachers of higher education in Mexico,” PIXEL-BIT Media and Education Journal, vol. 44, 143-155, 2014.
Hernandez-de-Menendez, M., Díaz, C. A. E., & Morales-Menendez, R. (2020). Educational experiences with Generation Z. International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing (IJIDeM), 14(3), 847-859.
Iordache, C., Mariën, I., & Baelden, D. (2017). Developing Digital Skills and Competences: A QuickScan Analysis of 13 Digital Literacy Models. Italian Journal of Sociology of Education, 9(1), 6-30. doi: 10.14658/pupj-ijse-2017-1-2
Kiel, D., Arnold, C., Collisi, M. and Voigt, K.-I. (2016), “The impact of the industrial internet of things on established business models”, Proceedings of the International Association for Management of Technology (IAMOT), Orlando, FL, May 15-19, pp. 673-695.
Kemp, N. (2020). University students’ perceived effort and learning in face-to-face and online classes. Journal of Applied Learning and Teaching, 3(1), 69-77.
Kemp, N., & Grieve, R. (2014). Face-to-face or face-to-screen? Undergraduates’ opinions and test performance in classroom vs. online learning. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1278. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01278
Larrondo Ureta, A., Fernandes Teixeira, J., Martins, G. L., Peña Fernández, S., Canavilhas, J., & Zamith, F. (2021). A produção ciberjornalística colaborativa e internacional como experiência de ensino em universidades iberoamericanas. REBEJ. Revista Brasileira de Ensino de Jornalismo 11(28) : 3-21(2021) // https://doi.org/10.46952/rebej.v11i28.446
Lifintsev, D., Fleșeriu, C., & Wellbrock, W. (2019). A study of the attitude of Generation Z to cross-cultural interaction in business. Informacijos mokslai, 86, 41-55.
Lifintsev, D., & Wellbrock, W. (2019). Cross-cultural communication in the digital age. Estudos em Comunicação, 1(28), 93-104.
López Peláez, A., Erro-Garcés, A., & Gómez-Ciriano, E. J. (2020). Young people, social workers and social work education: the role of digital skills. Social Work Education, 39(6), 825-842.
Mahmood, S. (2021). Instructional strategies for online teaching in COVID‐19 pandemic. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 3(1), 199-203.
Markovitch, S. and Willmott, P. (2014). Accelerating the digitization of business processes [Online], White paper, McKinsey&Company. Available: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/accelerating_the_digitization_of_business_processes
Martinovic, D., Freiman, V., Lekule, C. S., & Yang, Y. (2019). The roles of digital literacy in social life of youth. In M. Khosrow-Pour (Ed.), Advanced methodologies and technologies in library science, information management, and scholarly inquiry (pp. 103–117). IGI Global. https://doi. org/10.4018/978-1-5225-7659-4.ch009
McCrindle, M., & Wolfinger, E. (2009). The ABC of XYZ: Understanding the global generations. The ABC of XYZ.
McDougall, J., Readman, M., & Wilkinson, P. (2018). The uses of (digital) literacy. Learning, Media and Technology, 43(3), 263-279.
Molinsky, A. (2020, March). Virtual meetings don’t have to be a bore. In Harvard Business Review, https://hbr. org/2020/03/virtual-meetings-dont-have-to-be-a-bore, accessed.
Mondol, M. S., & Mohiuddin, M. G. (2020). Confronting Covid-19 with a paradigm shift in teaching and learning: a study on online classes. International Journal of Social, Political and Economic Research, 7(2), 231-247.
Muthuprasad, T., Aiswarya, S., Aditya, K. S., & Jha, G. K. (2021). Students’ perception and preference for online education in India during COVID-19 pandemic. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 3(1), 100101.
Nambiar, D. (2020). The impact of online learning during COVID-19: students’ and teachers’ perspective. The International Journal of Indian Psychology, 8(2), 783-793.
Pandey, D., Ogunmola, G. A., Enbeyle, W., Abdullahi, M., Pandey, B. K., & Pramanik, S. (2021). COVID-19: A framework for effective delivering of online classes during lockdown. Human Arenas, 1-15.
Parviainen, P., Tihinen, M., Kääriäinen, J., & Teppola, S. (2017). Tackling the digitalization challenge: how to benefit from digitalization in practice. International journal of information systems and project management, 5(1), 63-77.
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants part 2: Do they really think differently?. On the horizon.
Rachinger, M., Rauter, R., Müller, C., Vorraber, W., & Schirgi, E. (2019). Digitalization and its influence on business model innovation. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management.
Redecker, C. (2017). European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators: DigCompEdu. Punie, Y. (ed). EUR 28775 EN. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
Richter, N. F., Schlaegel, C., Bakel, M. V., & Engle, R. L. (2020). The expanded model of cultural intelligence and its explanatory power in the context of expatriation intention. European journal of international management, 14(2), 381-419.
Sarwar, H., Akhtar, H., Naeem, M. M., Khan, J. A., Waraich, K., Shabbir, S., ... & Khurshid, Z. (2020). Self-reported effectiveness of e-Learning classes during COVID-19 pandemic: A nation-wide survey of Pakistani undergraduate dentistry students. European Journal of Dentistry.
Schraw, G. (1998). Promoting general metacognitive awareness. Instructional Science, 26, 113-125. doi:10.1023/A:1003044231033.
Seemiller, C., & Grace, M. (2016). Generation Z Goes to College. New York, NY: Jossey-Bass.
Shahlaei, C.; Rangraz, M. & Stenmark, D. (2017). Transformation of competence – the effects of digitalization on communicators’ work. Proceedings of the 25th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Guimarães, Portugal, June 5-10. ISBN: 978-989-20-7655-3 Research Papers.
Taras, V. (2020). Conceptualising and measuring cultural intelligence: important unanswered questions. European Journal of International Management, 14(2), 273-292.
Tolbert, E. (2015). The Impact of Computer-Aided Instruction on Student Achievement. Gardner-Webb University, Boiling Springs.
Van Deursen, A. (2010). Internet skills vital assets in an information society. Enschede: University of Twente [Host]
Van Deursen, A. J., Helsper, E. J., & Eynon, R. (2016). Development and validation of the Internet Skills Scale (ISS). Information, Communication & Society, 19(6), 804-823.
Velez-Calle, A., Mariam, M., Gonzalez-Perez, M.A., Jimenez, A., Eisenberg, J. and Santamaria-Alvarez, S.M. (2020), "When technological savviness overcomes cultural differences: millennials in global virtual teams", critical perspectives on international business, Vol. 16 No. 3, pp. 279-303. https://doi.org/10.1108/cpoib-01-2018-0012
Vieru, D. (2015). Towards a multi-dimensional model of digital competence in small and medium sized enterprises. In Khosrow-Pour, M. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology (pp. 6715-6725), 3rd edition. Hershey, USA.
Verhoeven, J. C., Heerwegh, D., & De Wit, K. (2016). ICT learning experience and research orientation as predictors of ICT skills and the ICT use of university students. Education and Information Technologies, 21(1), 71–103. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-014-9310-3.
Voogt, J., & Roblin, N. P. (2012). A comparative analysis of international frameworks for 21st century competences: Implications for national curriculum policies. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 44(3), 299e321. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/ 00220272.2012.668938.
Yu, E. (2020). Student-Inspired Optimal Design of Online Learning for Generation Z. Journal of educators online, 17(1), n1.
Zacharis, N. Z. (2010). The impact of learning styles on student achievement in a web-based versus an equivalent face-to-face course. College Student Journal, 44(3), 591-598.
Zia, A. (2020). Exploring factors influencing online classes due to social distancing in COVID-19 pandemic: a business students perspective. The International Journal of Information and Learning Technology.
