Abstract
The rise of digital technologies and their educational applications increasingly require the development of digital skills among university faculty. This study focuses on examining the level of digital competencies of university faculty and identifying their conditioning factors. To achieve this objective, an ex post facto methodological design with surveys is used. A sample of 216 university teachers from different regions of Ecuador was used. The non-parametric Chi-square test was used to validate the hypothesis of independence of the variables. The results obtained show that university faculty have a mostly intermediate level of digital skills, which is independent of gender, but dependent on the generational cohort. In particular, it is found that younger teachers (millennials) have a more advanced level of digital skills, although this relationship is not very strong. On the other hand, we observe the positive influence of the university’s strategic leadership in terms of technological adoption on the development of teachers’ digital skills. Universities with better technological resources and with training plans focused on the pedagogical application of technology have teachers with a more advanced level of digital skills. All of this leads to the recommendation that education policies should prioritise actions that promote the development of digital competencies among university faculty
Highlights
The incessant development of digital infrastructures, together with the universalisation of increasingly faster and more secure network access and interconnection, is favouring the configuration of a global digital ecosystem in which multiple disruptive processes are taking place [1]
The analysis of the information collected through the questionnaire shows that the majority of university teachers have an intermediate level of digital competences
The study points to the consolidation of an emerging paradigm in higher education characterised by the configuration of increasingly complex learning environments conditioned by technological innovation
Summary
The incessant development of digital infrastructures, together with the universalisation of increasingly faster and more secure network access and interconnection, is favouring the configuration of a global digital ecosystem in which multiple disruptive processes are taking place [1]. The health crisis brought about by COVID-19 has accelerated this process of digital transformation in university education. This new paradigm based on new digital technologies opens up a wide range of opportunities to be explored in the teaching–learning process in higher education [2]
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