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Digital literacy deficiencies in digital learning among undergraduates

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DOI: 10.1201/9780367814557-33

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Digital Literacy Deficiencies in Digital Learning Environment

among University Students.

Lilian Anthonysamy
Faculty of Management, Multimedia University, Cyberjaya, Malaysia

ABSTRACT: Digital technology have changed the way university students approach learning
because it has become a necessity and an integral part of their lives. University students are ac-
customed to using their digital devices for almost anything such as communication, collaboration,
accessing multiple source of information for solutions, etc. Although these digital generation are
undeniably engaged with technologies and they are very comfortable and confident using tech-
nology to accomplish tasks, many educators tend to assume that students today have digital liter-
acy. Surprisingly, current studies reveal that students do not have the required digital literacy
skills for digital learning. Furthermore, scholars mentioned that individual's level of digital liter-
acy affects a student’s performance positively. This paper presents the deficiencies of digital lit-
eracy among university students in a digital learning environment in higher education, implica-
tions of these deficiencies and suggests some measures to reduce these deficiencies.
Keywords: digital literacy, higher education, university students, undergraduates

1 INTRODUCTION

Digitisation has transformed the education sector where digital learning is an integral part of
education. In a digital world where the technology continues to impact the education sector and
students, the need for digital literacy is growing. Digital literacy means the ability and awareness
to use emerging technologies to perform academic tasks online while demonstrating proper online
attitude in a digital environment (Perera, Gardner, & Peiris, 2016). As society becomes more
digital in their everyday task, knowledge, attitude and skills are essential to be digitally literate.
Being digitally literate today is not confined to understanding just the hardware and knowing how
to use the software. In a digital learning environment, digital literacy represents one of the pre-
requisites that is necessary for students to navigate their learning process in a digital learning
environment. Furthermore, in order to excel in a digital learning environment, students need to
equip themselves with digital literacy (Tang & Chaw, 2016; Techataweewan & Prasertsin, 2017).

Scholars mentioned that individual's level of digital literacy affects a student’s performance
positively (Mohammadyari & Singh, 2015; Scholastica, Nkiruka, Ifeanyichukwu, 2016). Tang
and Chaw (2016) also reported that digital literacy is a prerequisite for students to learn effectively
in a blended learning environment. When the level of students’ digital literacy is high, it can make
it easier for students to participate in the learning process, giving learners a more positive feeling
about their educational experience. Hence, students’ learning performance may be increased.

Although these digital generation are undeniably engaged with technologies and they are very
comfortable and confident using technology to accomplish tasks, many educators tend to assume
that students today have digital literacy. Surprisingly, current studies show that many undergrad-
uates exhibit poor employment of digital literacy in online learning (Fazli & Norazilah, 2016).
More research is needed to invest in digital literacy enhancement for economic growth and com-
petitiveness (European Commission, 2010b; Krish, Liu, Nozibele, Jaya, Li & Chen, 2017;
Chelghoum, 2017). Although digital literacy is well known term that has been used interchange-
ably, digital literacy deficiencies have not been presented. Hence, this paper aims to add to the
present growing literature on aspects of digital literacy undergraduates are lacking in a digital
learning environment.

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Technology and Entrepreneurship (CoMDITE 2019), July 10-11, 2019, Bandung, Indonesia
 134

This paper is divided into five sections. This section presents a brief introduction of digital
literacy and its challenges. The following section of this paper provides an understanding of dig-
ital literacy and the digital learning environment. In the third section, a discussion on digital lit-
eracy deficiencies, implications and suggestions were presented. Conclusion is included in the
last section.

2 DIGITAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Digital learning environment includes a full or partial online environment. Digital learning
which encompasses blended learning, mobile learning, online or e-learning, and many others
(“Teaching with Digital Technologies”, 2017), enables collaboration and access to content that
extends beyond the classroom. The learning environment is an educational ecosystem consisting
of interactive elements such as teachers, learners, teaching materials, evaluation and technology
(Zheng & Ma, 2010). Digital literacy plays an important role in the digital learning environment.

3 DIGITAL LITERACY

Digital literacy means more than just being able to use computers or technologies for a task.
An individual need to develop function skills, values, attitude and behavior to become a digitally-
literate person. Although digital literacy is used to measure learners’ quality in a digital environ-
ment , research support the fact that students lack digital literacy such as not engaging in a
thoughtful process while learning online(Vissers, Rowe, Islam, & Taeymans, 2017), not being
able to evaluate and integrate digital information effectively(Tang & Chaw,2016; Ng2012; O'Sul-
livan & Dallas, 2010; Tenku Shariman, Talib & Ibrahim, 2012), not able to critically judge the
suitability of large amount of information online(Greene, Yu and Copeland,2014), not under-
standing the ethical and social usage of information, interpret reference to a paper or journal,
search databases effectively(Shopova, 2014), discern the validity and value of information found
online (Tenku Shariman et al., 2012) and not understanding copyright issues when using digital
information for sharing purposes (Tenku Shariman et al.,2012).

3.1 Digital Literacy Model

Digital literacy embraces the perspective of cognitive, technical and socio-emotional of learn-
ing in an offline or online mode (Ng,2012). Cognitive aspect includes choosing the technology,
searching, assessing and selecting information using critical thinking skills, etc. The technical
dimension concerns the skills needed to operate digital technologies for learning. Socio-emotional
dimension is associated with behavior of an individual in using digital technologies (Ng, 2012).

4 DISCUSSION

The purpose of this paper was to present the deficiencies of digital literacy among university
students in a digital learning environment in higher education, implications of these deficiencies
and suggests some measures to overcome these deficiencies.
Table 1 highlights the aspects of digital literacy that students are lacking. Based on Table 1, it
can be posited that students have technical or digital skills to manoeuvre through digital technol-
ogies but lack in cognitive and socio-emotional skills. This is consistent with literature pointing
out that many students who enter higher education have no digital literacy needed for digital
learning (European Commission, 2013; Tenku Shariman et al., 2012). Students are proactive in
using technology for social media or entertainment but not for learning (Prior, Mazanov,
Meacheam, Heaslip and Hanson, 2016).

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Technology and Entrepreneurship (CoMDITE 2019), July 10-11, 2019, Bandung, Indonesia
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Table 1. Digital literacy deficiencies mapping according to Digital Literacy Model (Ng, 2012).

Digital Literacy Model (Ng,2012)

No. Authors(Year) Socio-

Technical Cognitive
Emotional
Literacy Literacy
Literacy
1 Tan, Melissa and Saw (2010) √ √
2 O'Sullivan and Dallas(2010) √
3 Shariman, Razak and Noor(2012) √ √
4 Tenku Shariman, Talib and Ibrahim(2012) √ √
5 Ng(2012) √ √
6 Shopova (2014) √
7 Greene, Yu and Copeland(2014) √
8 Tang and Chaw(2016) √
Prior, Mazanov, Meacheam, Heaslip and Han-
9 √ √
son(2016)
10 Vissers, Rowe, Islam, and Taeyans(2017) √

Digital literacy deficiency among students have implications on employment opportunities

since more and more employers demand more digital literacy skills (Janks, 2010). Digital literacy
can be classified into core and fundamental skills for performing task that are necessary in the
workplace (e.g : technical, communication, collaboration, critical thinking and information man-
agement,etc..) and conceptual skills which are skills to bring the core skills to its full ad-
vantage(e.g: ethical awareness, cultural awareness, flexibility, etc..) (van Laar, van Deursen, van
Dijk, & de Haan, 2017).

The following are several suggestions to improve and strengthen digital literacy among under-
graduates:

[1] Embrace self-regulation: Previous studies have reported that self-regulated learning strategies
is a critical component in digital literacy (Greene et al., 2014; Greene, Copeland, Deekens, &
Yu, 2018). The digital environment requires students to be self-regulated it is key in promot-
ing digital literacy (Liew, Chang, Kelly & Yalvac, 2010; Greene et al., 2014). In other words,
researchers revealed that self-regulated learning strategies are likely to be critical predictors
of digital literacy.
[2] Develop self-awareness: Students must be aware of the risk and reliability of online sources.
They need to know how to determine if an article or website is trustworthy. Students can
increase self-awareness by self-exploration through the web or by seeking guidance and ad-
vice from others (Fazli, 2016).
[3] Exposure in digital literacy activities: Educators can play a role in providing more exposure
to students on what it takes to acquire digital literacy because students have limited under-
standing how technology can be incorporated into learning (Margaryan, Littlejohn & Vojt,
2011; Ng,2012). Assignments or task can be given that comprehensively assess students’
digital literacy skills. This may enhance assist in developing students’ digital literacy skills
with emphasis on cognitive and socio-emotional aspects.
[4] Manage Digital Distraction: Distraction takes up many forms (ie. Digital distraction, peer
distraction, instructor distraction, etc..) (Frisby et al., 2018).When learners are distracted,
their cognitive processing capacity is limited. Hence, managing cognitive load is an im-
portant consideration due to its connection to student learning (Frisby et al.,2018) which may
help with digital literacy acquisition.

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Technology and Entrepreneurship (CoMDITE 2019), July 10-11, 2019, Bandung, Indonesia
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5 CONCLUSION

The level of skill, knowledge and confidence a learner have will affect the quality and use of
technology for learning. Three aspects of digital literacy, namely technical, cognitive and social‐
emotional domains are needed by students in order to participate actively in a digital learning
environment. Digital literacy significantly enhances graduate employability because of it empow-
ers graduates to achieve more in a digital economy. Inevitably, the demand for highly skilled
people is growing in the current workforce. Future studies can look into providing more empirical
evidence on the use of digital literacy competence in a digital learning environment to enhance
quality education.

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Understanding Digital Industry: Proceedings of the Conference on Managing Digital Industry,

Technology and Entrepreneurship (CoMDITE 2019), July 10-11, 2019, Bandung, Indonesia

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