Chemistry students’ digital literacy skills on thermochemistry context “hydrogen fuel issue”

Abstract

Living in the era of the Internet of things makes students familiar with the use of digital platforms in their daily life. However, several studies show that familiarity with digital platforms does not merely indicate that students are digitally literate. Students are still vulnerable to unreliable news, only mastering digital social platforms, and are unfamiliar with specific digital applications of expertise. This study aims to examine chemistry students’ digital skills related to thermochemical content integrated with the global dilemma of ​​using hydrogen fuel. This research utilized a mixed-methods design, a sequential explanatory type. Quantitative data was obtained through surveys and structured interviews to obtain qualitative data. Research participants included 74 chemistry students from seven state universities in Indonesia. The research instrument was a two-tier digital literacy questionnaire (r=0.947) consisting of 13 items, with self-assessment as the first tier and knowledge-based assessment (verification questions) as the second tier. Digital literacy profiles from surveys and interviews show that most students’ skills are at the foundation and intermediate levels. The research implication is that students’ digital literacy skills need to be improved, especially explicitly teaching several competencies related to digital literacy.