Digital learning environment: digital literacy, e-exclusion and cyber-wellness

ABSTRACT

The Covid-19 pandemic has inevitably demonstrated the importance of the digital competence of each individual, both personally and socially. Apparently, emergency remote learning has revealed the total unpreparedness of many teachers and students to interact in the online format. Hence, the development of full-scale digital competence is perceived today as a must-have for all actors in the educational process. This goal requires careful and large-scale preparation. It is necessary to understand how modern students interpret the digitalization of education, how they perceive the current level of their digital competence development, and what they see as the reasons for "digital illiteracy"demonstrated by the educational process of the "covid era". This article presents a non-experimental study that aims to evaluate the digital competence of students in higher education and to identify the main obstacles to its efficient deepening and development. Descriptive research was designed using a mixed methodology. We worked with a sample of 431 students. A Framework for Developing and Understanding Digital Competence in Europe, Questionnaire "Problems of Students' Involvement in Digital Socialization", and semi-structured interview were used for data collection. The results show a heterogeneous and rather conditional level of digital knowledge and skills influenced by the region of residence, family economics, cultural backgrounds, and conflicting motivation for the development of digital literacy, as well as the students' access to digital devices and software. The results achieved should be a cause for reflection in universities, in order to implement curricular programs that strengthen this type of skill. © 2022 ACM.