Constructing a Digital Competence Evaluation Framework for In-Service Teachers’ Online Teaching

Abstract

The focus on online teaching and teachers’ digital competence (DC) has reached a new level following the emergence of COVID-19 and its dramatic influence on the educational industry, requiring teachers to be equipped with DC. However, there is no consensus on the measuring framework of teachers’ DC. Therefore, this study aimed to construct a reliable self-evaluation framework for in-service teachers’ DC during online teaching. The data of 1342 teachers with online teaching experience were obtained. The methods of data analysis included exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and item analysis. Results demonstrated that the constructed evaluation framework performed consistently with the collected data. CFA also confirmed a good model fitting of the relevant 10 factors of the teachers’ DC framework. Therefore, in the teachers’ DC evaluation framework, the constructs interacting with each other consist of technical knowledge (TK, four items), learner knowledge (LK, three items), pedagogical knowledge (PK, three items), ethical knowledge (EK, three items), learner technical knowledge (LTK, four items), learner pedagogical knowledge (LPK, four items), learner ethical knowledge (LEK, four items), technical pedagogical knowledge (TPK, three items), technical ethical knowledge (TEK, four items), and pedagogical ethical knowledge (PEK, three items), but in total the scale comprises 35 items. It can be an effective instrument to support in-service teachers’ DC measurement for their online teaching.