Factors Affecting Digital Acumen of Postgraduate Business Study Students Attending Online Learning: A Study in the National Capital Region (NCR)

Abstract

The global COVID-19 pandemic had created an unforeseen situation across the country affecting normal academics in schools, academic institutions and universities. These had compelled policymakers, academic think tanks, institutional heads, faculty members and others to quickly adopt online mode of teaching and learning in order to safeguard the well-being of students, faculty, staff and their family members from the spread of the virus. However, adopting to the online mode of teaching and learning was not an easy affair for either the student or teaching community. In spite of all the adversities and impending challenges, students had to adopt with the online mode of learning for which they needed to harness and sharpen their digital acumen and technical know-how. Taking this perspective into consideration, an attempt has been made in the present study to have an understanding of what was meant by digital acumen for students studying postgraduate business studies in the institutions located in and around the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi and explore the factors influencing the same. For this purpose, the research used a sequential mixed method research design whereby, based on the existing literature and research gaps the first (qualitative) phase, made an attempt to explore the narratives of institutional heads regarding what was meant by digital acumen for postgraduate business study students and what factors influenced the same. The qualitative study led to the identification of three variables, namely support from teachers, support from peers and technical knowledge. During the subsequent quantitative phase of the research, the study explored the influence of these variables on the digital acumen of students based on an online survey among 335 students from the NCR. Data analysis indicates that technical knowledge was the most important mediator of digital acumen among the students. Support from teachers was an important predictor influencing both technical knowledge and support from peers. The variable support from peers has significant influence on technical knowledge thereby establishing the influence on digital acumen of students.