Attitudes of participants in digital communication in higher education on the importance of social skills and innovative teaching methods in the teaching process

Abstract

In today's educational environment, it has become essential for both educators and students to acquire digital communication skills and competencies. This is driven by the growing incorporation of digital information technologies into teaching and learning methods. Primarily, these skills and competencies center around the capability to utilize diverse technologies and digital tools for the purpose of sharing information and facilitating knowledge transfer between educators and students. Conversely, communicative and social skills, as well as teaching methods, tend to receive less attention in recent studies. The goal of this research was to explore the opinions of teachers and students in digital communication in higher education about the importance of social skills and innovative teaching methods that are recognized in earlier literature (see Stronge, 2007) as the basis of an effective teaching process. A collaborative effort involving three international universities led to the creation and distribution of two online questionnaires. Each university administered two separate questionnaires, one targeting teaching staff (n = 70) and the other aimed at undergraduate students (n = 237). Data analysis using the SPSS software enabled the generation of a meaningful depiction of the data. The study revealed numerous findings. For instance, students from all three countries showed a highly positive attitude towards social skills and innovative teaching methods in digital communication during the teaching process, while teachers did not. This discrepancy is particularly evident between students and teachers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Also, the age of students significantly affects the importance they attach to these aspects of the educational process, while gender does not.