Abstract:

There is a growing interest for creativity in modern education research. The reason can be described in broad terms as the natural desire of the pedagogical community to fight against standardization of education caused by the widespread introduction of e-learning.

The situation has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, since e-learning has become virtually the only means of ensuring the continuity of the educational process. This contradiction between the need to overcome the negative consequences of e-learning standardization by means of creativity pedagogy and the possibility to develop students' creativity only by means of e-learning has lead us to our research.

Thus, the objective of the research was to find out if a high level of students’ digital competence positively correlates with their level of creativity; in other words, if the e-learning environment can support and enhance students’ creativity by proxy of their developed digital competence. By digital competence we understand the ability to choose and apply digital technologies in various areas of life. Thus, in 2020-2021 we conducted a study in order to identify the possible correlation between these variables.

The method of G.U. Soldatova et al. was used to measure the level of digital competence. "Digital Competence Index", which identified four components of digital competence:
1) knowledge;
2) abilities and skills;
3) motivation;
4) responsibility.

Each of the components is manifested in the performance of various activities on the Internet: communication and technosphere, work with content, information consumption.

To measure the level of creativity we selected the well-known method of verbal creativity diagnostics - the test "RAT" by S. Mednik (Distant Associations Test), shortened and adapted by A.N. Voronin, since, according to the research, this very type of creativity is amenable to development and easier to diagnose.
Methods: questionnaire survey (Google Forms); statistical analysis (calculation of the Pearson correlation coefficient).

The sample consisted of 113 students of socio-humanities undergraduate courses at 4 universities in St. Petersburg.

The results revealed that there is a weak positive correlation between digital competence and verbal creativity (r=0.143), which can indicate that the development of digital competence will contribute to the development of verbal creativity. For higher education this result may mean that the formation of digital competence of students is one of the pedagogical conditions for the development of students' creativity through e-learning.

Further research into the relationship between different digital competences and the development of these competences in higher education institutions is necessary and relevant. This will facilitate the adjustment of the educational process in universities to the prevailing conditions of e-learning.

Keywords:

Digital competence, verbal creativity, e-learning.