FACULTY MEMBERS' DIGITAL FOOTPRINT EXPERIENCES AND DIGITAL FOOTPRINT AWARENESS

Abstract

This study aimed to reveal the relationships between faculty members' gender and Internet usage time (daily usage time and years of use), their use of online environments, their digital footprint experiences, and digital footprint awareness. For this purpose, the relational research model was adopted in the study. The sample of the study consists of 398 faculty members working at a state university in Turkey. Descriptive and relational analyzes were made for the analysis of the data. Mean, percentage, and frequency analysis were used in descriptive analysis. For the relational analysis, the association rule, one of the data mining methods, was used. At the end of the study, the faculty members' digital footprint awareness was high, and their negative digital environment experiences were low. It was observed that the digital footprint experiences and awareness of female faculty members were significantly higher than that of male faculty members. It was found that faculty members mostly use online chat tools, social networks, e-mail services, and least blogs, learning management systems, and Wiki. Faculty members who indicated that digital media posts reflect their real thoughts stated that they do not regret these posts, and after checking their writing, they are sharing them in digital media. Finally, researchers were suggested to examine the change in digital footprint awareness according to regional and cultural differences.