Analysis of Interpersonal Competences in the Use of ICT in the Spanish University Context

Esteban Vázquez-Cano,María Elena Parra-González,Eloy López Meneses,Manuel León Urrutia

doi:10.3390/su12020476

Abstract

This article analyzes Higher Education students’ development of interpersonal competences when using Information and Communication Technologies. The participating sample was made up of 1490 students from three Spanish universities: Complutense University of Madrid (Spain), Pablo de Olavide University (Spain), and National Distance Education University (UNED). The data were collected through a questionnaire called “Basic digital skills 2.0 of university students” COBADI® (Registered trademark: 2970648). A factorial analysis was performed to determine possible groupings of representative factors and subsequently the trees technique was applied by running the CHAID (Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detector) algorithm. This made it possible to develop a map of possible differences between universities, ages, and gender of students. The results showed that university students have higher competences in communicating through interactive presentations and video-images, as well as in collaborating and working with documents online through mobile devices.

Highlights

The society of information and knowledge has been studied as a social phenomenon for over five decades
The continuous evolution of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the current Knowledge Society has led to the demand for training in new skills, called 21st-century competencies [3,4]
In the variable X41 “I am able to use different search engines (Google, ixquick, mashpedia, etc.)” the most competent students are those of the UPO and UCM (Nodes 19 and 20). These results show that the most significant university students’ digital competences involve communicating with other people, following their activities, and using social networks through mobile devices, aspects that were already considered in previous research [43,44,45] as indicators of a good level of digital competence

Summary

Introduction

The society of information and knowledge has been studied as a social phenomenon for over five decades. It is characterized by the use of information technologies, which allows for organization into networks and gives people the ability to access, share, and process data, even remotely and in real-time [1,2]. Nowadays, independent learning is conceived mainly through interactive and participatory technologies that offer a stimulating and socially positive experience, but at the same time, become a construct that allows students to learn by doing while sharing their experiences of knowledge with others who are often on the other side of that virtual space [9,12]

Methods

Results

Conclusion