Abstract:

Digital skills make the basis of a successful career and life, they also have a significant impact on the growth of the national economy. In the European Union (EU), the level of digital skills is still low – 35% of European employed persons do not meet the necessary requirements in the labour market. The situation in Latvia is even more critical compared to European averages - the data obtained in the European Commission’s report “Digital Economy and Society Index” (2020) show that Latvia is among the countries with the lowest indicators of digital literacy of the population, in addition, the proportion of the population with higher digital skills is 10-20% lower than that in neighbouring countries and on average in the EU.
In order to promote the development of digital skills of adults, one of the solutions is to include digital literacy as a transversal skill in lifelong learning programmes that are not directly related to the field of digital technologies. Using the integrated approach to the acquirement of the learning content and digital skills, adults are provided with the opportunity to use digital technologies for communication, content creation, data processing and analysis, as well as to solve diverse problems in a technologically advanced environment. The study will describe the experience of 24 lecturers, representing 5 Latvian universities, involved in the project “Building the digital capacity of universities with the integration of online resources and analytics” (EduAim, 2022-2023), in integrating the acquisition of digital skills and learning content in online courses for adults in various thematic areas.
The aim of the study is to summarise the methodological findings of Latvian university lecturers involved in the EduAim project for integrating digital literacy into non-ICT learning content in formal adult education. In order to evaluate the content of 15 original courses developed within the project and 40 courses adapted from Coursera and Edx, the content analysis has been used during the study. The data obtained through the content analysis show that the integration of digital skills in adult education is a methodological challenge for the teaching staff of Latvian universities. The study offers recommendations for the development of digital literacy as a transversal skill for adults in the process of implementing non-ICT curriculum.

Keywords:

Digital literacy, integrating digital literacy into non-ICT learning content.