Identifying the digital competence of university lecturers: an exploratory study in the field of Social Science

• Published in: Red U Vol. 10; no. 2; pp. 273 - 298
• Main Authors: Francesc Xavier Carrera Farrán, Jordi Lluís Coiduras Rodríguez
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Spanish
• Published: Universitat Politècnica de València 01.08.2012
• Subjects: competencia digital; competencias docentes; enseñanza superior; formación de docentes; profesorado universitario
• ISSN: 1887-4592
• DOI: 10.4995/redu.2012.6108

Digital competence constitutes one of the teaching competences attributed to the professional profile of a teacher in higher education. Such competence involves digital literacy and training as a basic requirement from a lecturer seeking to develop ICT cross-curricular competence among students, whenever such competence is part of the course curriculum. This exploratory study, carried out by the Faculty of Education Sciences of the University of Lleida, introduces a closed questionnaire aiming to: (a) identify the ICT level of the lecturers in a centre; (b) identify how they implement, or their readiness to implement, such competence in the courses taught in the new degrees and (c) identify their ICT training needs. The results obtained show a clear yet mixed profile for every ICT element defined. The lecturers are familiar with the use of institutional communication tools and word processing programmes, network documentation and ethical information processing. Their problems revolve around the use of online editing tools, network information management and secure navigation. In view of these results, the remedial training initiative is articulated around levels and priorities, resulting into four parts: computer tools, digital document editing, network information resources and secure, ethical and legal use of the web.