Abstract
The ongoing change from traditional pedagogy to digital collaborative learning requires a new mode of teaching, learning, and educators’ responsibilities. For competence in digitally mediated teaching, educators need understanding of how to provide appropriate digital environment to learn collectively and individually. The aim of this study was to describe and explore health and social care educators’ perceptions of their current level of competence in digital collaborative learning and identify distinct educators’ profiles. Data were collected via cross-sectional survey from educators in 21 universities of applied science and eight vocational colleges in Finland using an instrument covering two subdimensions: educators’ competence in fostering construction of knowledge in digital collaborative learning, and supporting students in individualized collaborative learning. The data were analyzed by statistical methods. Three significantly differing clusters of educators’ profiles were identified, and a significant association between type of current work organization and their self-reported competence in digital collaborative learning was found. The vocational college educators rated their competence in fostering construction of knowledge in digital collaborative learning as significantly lower than higher education educators. There were also remarkable differences in competence in supporting students’ individual collaborative learning. To provide such support, sufficient competence in teaching in digital learning environment is essential, and our study highlights clear needs to enhance this competence.
Highlights
Health and social care is a dynamic sector, in which practices must be continuously adapted in accordance with rapidly evolving evidence-based knowledge, digital developments, and societal needs
Since we found no precise information on the total population meeting our criterion in Finland, the data were collected by inviting all educators from 21 universities of applied sciences and randomly chosen vocational colleges
In the results of regression analysis of associations between background factors and educators’ competence in digital collaborative learning, there was no statistical significance found among age, year of completion of higher degree, and work experience in the corresponding field relating to the digital collaborative competence
Summary
Health and social care is a dynamic sector, in which practices must be continuously adapted in accordance with rapidly evolving evidence-based knowledge, digital developments, and societal needs. International and national legislation has defined health and social care educators’ competencies as including competence in creation and application of evidence-based theoretical and practical knowledge; relevant skills for working life; pedagogical competence in learning theories and use of digital options in different learning environments; curriculum planning, implementation, and evaluation; developing their own teaching methods and profession; management and leadership of organization and people; evaluation of students’ learning; and generic skills including proficient consideration of ethical issues, communication, collaboration, selfdirection, decision-making, problem-solving, and critical thinking (Mikkonen et al, 2018; “Ethical Principles for the Teaching Profession,” 2017; European Commission, 2017; National Qualifications Framework, 2017; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2017; University of Applied Sciences Act 2014/932; World Health Organization, 2016). Health and social care scientists have published similar definitions of educators’ competence (e.g., Salminen et al, 2013, Mikkonen et al, 2018, Männistö et al, 2019b; Topping et al, 2015; Töytäri et al, 2016)
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