Abstract:

In connection with the Covid-19 pandemic, we found ourselves face to face with new challenges, which on the one hand showed our weaknesses, but on the other hand became the impetus for breakthrough changes that will move forward not only education but also other sectors. The pandemic has shown us that without technology and digitization it is impossible to apply in the new normal. Perhaps everyone has already understood this: from business owners to employees to politicians who were forced to move important summits to the online environment. Even teachers, pupils and students already understand that modern distance education does not mean entering tasks and scanning printed worksheets from textbooks via EduPage or other portals without live contact with the teacher. Computer literacy is, last but not least, an important competitive advantage on the labour market.

The aim of the article is to find out the opinions of the students at our university on their own digital skills, on their development during the entire Covid-19 pandemic and on their development during their studies. We carried out an online questionnaire survey among students of teaching professional economics subjects and students from other disciplines who attend lectures on economics subjects. The survey was conducted between mid-May 2022 and mid-July 2022. The number of completed questionnaires by students was 219.

We found that 99.5% of students have an Internet connection at home or in the dormitory. They also use this place most often to connect. 71.3% of students said that they also use computers at school. Most students use a laptop. Next, we found out for what purpose students most often use the computer. They provided us with the above information for the period before and during the pandemic. The results show that there has been a shift from creating and editing blogs and listening to audio and watching video to using the computer to create and edit texts, create images and obtain information for study purposes. The students further stated that there is a poor targeted development of digital skills during their studies at university, yet they improved these skills during the pandemic as circumstances forced them to do so.

Keywords:

Digital skills, Covid-19 pandemic, online learning, computer literacy.