Abstract:

Covid-19 pandemic has been a trigger for digital transformation of education, but despite the fact that digital competence has been listed among new skills Agenda for Europe and named as one of key competences for life-long learning some time ago before the pandemics, the digital competence requires the improvement almost for all involved in the context of education. Being digitally competent or to develop and improve the digital competence – one of the main tasks for citizens of 21st century. The understanding of what it means to be competent or literate has been transformed dramatically over the past decade, focusing on digital competence, where the key concept is how to use a computer with special skills, knowledge and attitude for creative and effective achievements. Universities and higher education institutions have a huge responsibility to develop students into individuals who can prosper in an era of digital information and communication. The aim of this article to describe the progress of developing the structural model for digital competence improvement in higher education institutions in the context of transformative digital learning, in both students’ and educators’ perspective. The model has been created basing on theoretical references and offered frameworks, following the mapping of interrelated components, basic criteria and indexes.

The current study is theoretical and based on an overview of existing models and frameworks of digital competence in different perspectives: general and individuals, focusing on students and educators. DigComp framework offered by European Commission is the main theoretical basis for the present study, including DigComp Famework for citizens and DigCompEdu framework for educators. Within the scope of the research the literature consulted includes articles specifically on mapping the infographics for digital competence development and improvement, key criteria and indexes. The focus of this article will be on pedagogical and educational aspects. The work is divided into two sections, basing on the theoretical references to map the digital competence elements and to offer the structural model for digital competence development and improvement in the context of higher education from students’ and educators’ perspective. The used theoretical methods included literature analyses on the research topic, modelling, comparison, analyses of components and criteria, synthesis, generalization, classification, formulation of conclusions and further research steps.

According to the preliminary results of the analyses the digital competence structural model has been developed and introduced based on the outlined theoretical assumptions, according to the conducted comparative analyses of the existing models and frameworks, mapping interrelated components, basic criteria and indexes.

It has been concluded that digital competence structural model from students’ and educators’ perspectives has different formation of specified components. Additionally, highlighting the scope of the educator as the facilitator of learners’ digital competence.

As a research perspective, it seems appropriate to evaluate the effectiveness of the offered digital competence structural model by ascertaining and forming experiments, including concrete instruments creation and specific steps setting for the digital competence assessment and further development in higher educational institutions.

Keywords:

digital competence, higher education, structural model, transformative digital learning