First-year College Students’ Digital Competence

Abstract

Although the discourse on digital competence is not new, research on the concept and its measurement remain a current issue. According to that idea, this article evaluates the digital competence of 168 first-year students in the Bachelor of Education programme (Preschool Education, Primary Education, double Bachelor's Degree in Preschool and Primary Education, Social Education and Pedagogy) in the Faculty of Education and Pedagogy at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili by means of the use of INCOTIC (a self-perception questionnaire) during the academic year 2017-2018. The results show that these students can easily access technology but do not make much use of it. However, although they make limited use of technology, they are very predisposed to integrate it in their work. Finally, in reference to their digital competence level, they have a high self-perception, especially in those skills related to communication and multimedia elements, which are the ones that they most commonly use in their everyday life. The results obtained with the research could be useful to improve the ICT training of these students and the abovementioned Bachelors’ study plans.

Keywords

• competencia digital
• alfabetización digital
• universidad
• educación superior