research skills in ict

• Research article
• Open access
• Published: 10 September 2020

Enhancing the roles of information and communication technologies in doctoral research processes

• Sarah J. Stein   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0024-1675 1 &
• Kwong Nui Sim 2  

International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education volume  17 , Article number:  34 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

14k Accesses

5 Citations

3 Altmetric

Metrics details

While information and communication technologies (ICT) are prominent in educational practices at most levels of formal learning, there is relatively little known about the skills and understandings that underlie their effective and efficient use in research higher degree settings. This project aimed to identify doctoral supervisors’ and students’ perceptions of their roles in using ICT. Data were gathered through participative drawing and individual discussion sessions. Participants included 11 students and two supervisors from two New Zealand universities. Focus of the thematic analysis was on the views expressed by students about their ideas, practices and beliefs, in relation to their drawings. The major finding was that individuals hold assumptions and expectations about ICT and their use; they make judgements and take action based on those expectations and assumptions. Knowing about ICT and knowing about research processes separately form only part of the work of doctoral study. Just as supervision cannot be considered independently of the research project and the student involved, ICT skills and the use of ICT cannot be considered in the absence of the people and the project. What is more important in terms of facilitating the doctoral research process is students getting their “flow” right. This indicates a need to provide explicit support to enable students to embed ICT within their own research processes.

Background/context

Information and communication technologies (ICT) can bring either joy or challenge to well-versed academic practices, and either create barriers to learning and development or be the answer to needs. While some grasp and pursue opportunities to make use of various ICT for study, research and teaching, others struggle. Despite documented and anecdotal positive urges to adopt ICT to increase and improve efficiency and effectiveness, staff and students struggle experience ICT as needless and difficult-to-use interruptions. There is often little need seen to change practices by introducing ICT into ways of working. Exploring these views and experiences was the focus of this project. Being empathetic to views such as those expressed by Castañeda and Selwyn ( 2018 ), we did not approach this investigation from a position that assumes that ICT are natural and needed solutions to problems related to improving and facilitating effective learning, teaching and research. Rather, we took a more neutral stance, wishing to explore the experiences of those involved, namely, students and staff, through discussion with them about their ICT practices and views, and with a specific focus on doctoral study and supervision.

Doctoral supervision and the role, place and nature of the doctorate are receiving increasing attention in higher education research literature. A wide range of topics have been covered from, for example, the importance and types of support for students throughout candidature (e.g., Zhou & Okahana, 2019 ); to the teaching and supervision aspects of doctoral supervision (e.g., Åkerlind & McAlpine, 2017 ; Cotterall, 2011 ; Lee, 2008 ).

With advancements in, accessibility to, and development of, ICT within education settings has come a plethora of research into online and blended learning. These studies often highlight the capacity of ICT for facilitating teaching, learning and administrative activity within educational institutions and systems (e.g., Marshall & Shepherd, 2016 ). They cover numerous areas of importance from theoretical, practical, and philosophical angles and include the perspectives and needs of learners, educators and institutions (e.g., Nichols, Anderson, Campbell, & Thompson, 2014 ).

There are also studies on student use of ICT, though not necessarily doctoral students, and these cover a wide range of topics including specific ICT skills (e.g., Stensaker, Maassen, Borgan, Oftebro, & Karseth, 2007 ). Where postgraduate research students are concerned, some studies on ICT skill development and support provide some insights about students (e.g., Dowling & Wilson, 2017 ), and institutional ICT systems (Aghaee et al., 2016 ).

Notable about the many of these studies cited above is the use of self-reporting tools as mechanisms for gathering data about student use and views about ICT. While self-reports are valuable ways to collect such data about self-efficacy, they do have limits. In online learning environments, the role of self-efficacy, for example, is still being contested. It has been argued that learners from a variety of disciplines and learning settings will tend to overestimate claims about their performance and/or knowledge and skills (e.g., Mahmood, 2016 ).

All these studies help to ‘map the territory’ of ICT, their use at individual and institutional levels and related practices. Much advice and guidance can be gleaned from the literature as well, although relatively little for the specific integration of ICT within the doctoral research and supervision environment. Based on the literature that is available though, all indications are that (doctoral) students adopt educational practices incorporating limited ICT use, even though the use of ICT has grown enormously in the last 10 to 20 years. With the current interest in ensuring success of students and completion of doctoral degrees being closely related to high quality supervision, there is a need to improve supervision practices and within that, advance understandings about how to support students in their use of ICT for their doctoral research.

This project

This project aimed to explore doctoral student and supervisor views and use of ICT within the doctoral process. The intention was to bring to light perceptions that could give clues as to how to make practical modifications to the content and scope of professional development support for supervisors and students, in order to help them to make best use of ICT. In addition, consideration was given to the way data would be collected to ensure that more than just the self-reported perspectives of the participants were included.

An interpretivist research approach (Erickson, 2012 ) framed this study to support a focus on understanding the world from the perspectives of those who live it. Thus, the approach was well-suited to exploring perceptions about the use of ICT in our context.

Thus, this study did not commence with any hypotheses related to the influence of ICT in doctoral research in mind. Instead, as the interpretive frame of the research implies, this study investigated ways in which participants expressed their experiences of engaging and integrating ICT in support of their doctoral research processes. The data tapped into the participants’ (PhD students and doctoral supervisors) perspectives, as they expressed them. The research approach thus defined and shaped all aspects of the data gathering, analyses and presentation. In this way, alignment was ensured among the ontological, epistemological and practical implementation of the research project.

The study took place in two New Zealand universities where participants were either employees or students. Both universities are research-intensive, with histories of producing high-level research across many disciplines. Both institutions have clear and well-formulated policies and practices governing doctoral study - PhD and professional doctorate - and these include supporting that study through supervision. A specialised unit in each institution manages the administration of the doctoral degree. Couching “supervision” as essentially a (specialised) teaching activity, each unit also provides or coordinates professional development for staff in the art of supervision, and for students in the skills and processes of undertaking doctoral degree study.

Participants

Participants included doctoral students and supervisors from the two universities. As a result of an invitation to all students and supervisors, in total, 11 students and two supervisors responded. The students were PhD students at varying levels of completion. There was a mix of part time and full-time students from a variety of discipline backgrounds including health sciences, sciences, commerce and humanities. The supervisors were experienced and were from humanities and sciences.

Data sources

Data were collected using a 3-tier participative drawing process (Wetton & McWhirter, 1998 ). This strategy involved a series of two or three interview/discussions, along with participant-made drawings, which formed the focus of the interview/discussions.

This strategy generated two sources of data - interview transcripts and participant drawings – and involved the following (3-tier) phases:

Initial semi-structured interview/discussion to ascertain information about participants’ backgrounds and other details they saw relevant to share. In addition, they were asked about their use of ICT generally as well as within the doctoral process. It was a chance for the researchers to gain some understanding of participants’ views and practices in relation to ICT and their doctoral/supervision journeys.

Participant drawing . The participants were asked to make a drawing in their own time and before the second interview/discussion. Guidelines for the drawing suggested that they think of a way to illustrate their research process first, then to add onto the drawing any ICT (such as devices, websites, programmes, applications) that they make use of in the process.

Follow-up interview/discussion . During this phase, each participant was asked to explain the drawing’s features and how it made sense in terms of the project he or she was undertaking. This included discussion about how their supervision was working, how they worked with supervisors, and how the ICT they had included in the drawing worked within the process. They were also asked about elements that were not in the drawing, for example, certain ICT or activities that might have appeared in a typical account of a doctoral research process but were not included.

All interview/discussions were audio recorded and transcriptions of the recordings were returned to the participants for checking. The drawings were scanned and stored electronically.

In line with the interpretive approach that framed and governed our study, the data were analysed shortly after being gathered. Analysis of the data contributed to the development of ideas about participants’ perceptions, and these were refined progressively across the instances that researchers met with participants. Perceptions were thus checked, rechecked and refined against each data set.

This iterative and inductive approach (Thomas, 2006 ) involved thematic analysis (Silverman, 2001 ) and the capture of major and common ideas (Mayring, 2000 ) expressed by participants about how ICT are perceived and used in doctoral research processes. This approach helped to operationalise a process of co-construction between researchers and participants. Through checking, rechecking, refining and confirming, the researchers were able to articulate their understanding of participant perceptions that matched participants’ expressed thoughts.

The outcome of the analysis process was four assertions concerning ways the students perceived and understood ICT within doctoral study. Because there were only two supervisor participants, the data from the supervisors served to support the assertions we were more confidently able to make about student perceptions.

Research approach, quality assurance conditions and context

Despite the (what might be argued, small) number of volunteer participants who showed interest in, and committed themselves to, this study (i.e., no drop-outs or selection being made from a pool), it is worth noting that the researchers worked with each participant over an extended period of time (prolonged engagement), focused on investigating and gathering identifiable, as well as documentable, aspects of the participants’ ICT understandings and practices (persistent observation), and employed analysis techniques that incorporated peer debriefing, member checking, and fair presentation of assertions (Guba & Lincoln, 1989 ).

The aim was to unlock and identify views of reality held by the participants. The empirical evidence was used to help develop commentary and critique of the phenomenon which was the focus of the study (i.e., ICT use), including what the phenomenon is and how it occurs/is enacted/revealed in a particular context (viz., in doctoral research). This was, therefore, a different kind of study from one that might commence with a hypothesis, which would be concerned more with objectivity, explanation and testable propositions. In short, the methods employed in the current study fitted the intention to solve a “puzzle” about a phenomenon in relation to a particular context.

As this study involved human participants, ethical approval was gained through the institutional processes. This approval (University of Otago Human Ethics Committee reference number D17/414 and Victoria University of Wellington, Ethics Committee reference number 0000023415) enabled data collection methods described in the previous section to be carried out for any doctoral students and supervisors who volunteered to participate in this study. Ethical consent, use and care of the data as well as the ethical treatment of students and staff as participants were integral to the research design, planning and implementation of the whole study.

Findings and discussion

The four assertions are now presented. Each assertion is described and quotations from the interview/discussions along with examples of drawings from the student participants are used to illustrate aspects of each assertion.

Assertion 1: ICT are impartial tools; it does not matter how ICT are used, because the endpoint, that is, thesis completion, is the justification. ICT and people are separate and separated entities.

Students talked about how they worked on their thesis document and on the process of the study they were undertaking. Comments focused on various ICT being used and often on skills needed in order to use them. Some students expressed the view that ICT were tools, separate from the project and the person involved, to be used to achieve an endpoint. For example,

So long as it's formatted – it shouldn't matter - that's their [editors’] responsibility, not mine.

There’s probably a bit more about Zoom [web conferencing application] I could learn but again for me unless it’s a problem, I’m not going to go looking for it… not just for the sake of it at the moment.

Motivation to achieve an outcome was a focus of comments that support this assertion. For many participants, the aim to complete the study and write a thesis was, naturally, a large driver for how they were managing their study. Time was precious, and they would do what they had to do to reach their goal. To be motivated to learn about a new ICT, there needed to be a purpose that sharply focussed on achieving that end.

If the technologies are suddenly not available] I’m happy to sit down with a typewriter and learn it… If I’m not driven, I won’t bother.

This focus is illustrated in Fig.  1 . The drawing shows clearly identified components that make up major elements within the stages of producing the research for the thesis. ICT are listed in relation to those components.

ICT and people are separate and separated entities

Supervisors too, tended to focus on thesis production rather than on the process of producing a thesis that includes the use of ICT (i.e., as opposed to their very clear and explicit focus on the research process). An example illustrating this is:

Generally, people think the standard of the people getting or earning a PhD is that this person should be an independent researcher. [But no] After all, we only examine a particular thesis [and] there are lots of inputs from supports and supervision from supervisors.

In summary, this assertion focusses strongly on the experience of doctoral study being about getting the project done within a research journey that gives minimal regard to the affordances of ICT. ICT are framed as necessary but also fraught, especially due to the effort and time that draw attention away from the primary goal.

Assertion 2: ICT are tools or mechanisms that prompt active thought on practices with respect to planning and managing thesis writing and project execution. ICT and individuals work alongside each other.

Views that expressed notions of there being a close interactive relationship between students and ICT came through in several of the discussions with the participants. The focus on achieving goals and endpoints was strong, but the expression of how to achieve those goals, capitalising upon the affordances that ICT present, was different from the way views were expressed in relation to Assertion 1.

On a simple level, this student describes the checking he did when weighing up the merits of a piece of software to meet his needs.

I normally do a trial version… have a play with it. And if I think they are useful then I might try it on a project. And if then I feel it’s definitely worth investing… then I’ll go buy it.

Others simply liked to explore, to see whether there was potential in any ICT they encountered, as in,

Sometimes I just like playing with stuff to see what they can do and then if they tick my boxes then I keep them and if they don't, I move on. So it's more kind of ‘search and discover’ than kind of looking for something, you know.

Describing a deeper level of activity, a degree of critique and active reflection were indicated by another student when he said,

…we tried an electronic version of putting together a programme for a New Zealand conference and I was surprised how long it took us. Whereas in the past I’ve worked with [colleagues] and we’ve just moved pieces of paper around on the floor for abstracts and we were done really quickly.

These sentiments are well-captured in Fig.  2 . Here, the focus is on experimenting with ICT rather than the research process. The process of working things out to suit the individual is foregrounded.

ICT and individuals work alongside each other

Whereas Assertion 1-type expressions presented effort in a generally negative light, Assertion 2-type expressions couched effort as an assumed part of learning something new. There was a sense expressed in comments that there will be a way to manage the “problem” to be solved, which then generated the necessary motivation to engage effort. For example,

You just know what you know when you start off; when you're unsure about what you need to do. There's a bit of a barrier in front of you. It feels a bit intimidating and overwhelming, and then you get into it and it just works. And you just kind of put all the pieces together and get something out at the end.

There was a sense that supervisors’ perspectives of ICT might support this assertion too. For instance,

[ICT are] integral to everything now – there's no such thing as doing it without [them] anymore – these are the tools with which we do all the things we do.

In summary, this assertion captures the views of students who engage actively in making decisions about which, how and why they incorporate ICT into doctoral research practices.

Assertion 3: Knowing about ICT is only part of the thinking; what is more important is getting the “flow” right. ICT and the individual are in a complementary partnership.

Perhaps prompted by the nature of the drawing task, which was to illustrate how ICT fitted within the whole process of doctoral study, several students described the challenges to bringing everything together into one process made up of many parts, sections and subsections. One participant focussed on her “workflow” in order to manage the multiple documents, tasks and schedule involved in her doctoral research journey.

What systems do I use, what's my workflow? So, I actually spent some weeks looking at … ideas from other PhD students about their workflows and how they manage it.

Similar to Assertion 2-type comments, ‘getting one’s flow right’ involved exploration and an amount of reflective decision-making. For example,

So I did a play around with that [ICT] and found it was quite useful … So I’m trying to be quite disciplined about when I’ve got a document, entering it at the time, reading an article, throw in heaps of tags rather than not …And I simply keep a note, cross referencing to the actual articles. I like to have the articles and for some key ones I like to make a note. So, if it’s a seminal paper that I know I’ll be referring back to.

Thus, students talked about how hard they worked to set up routines and processes to enable them to manage time and their research projects. As in the above excerpts, they referred to categorising documents, searching for resources, undertaking analysis, managing data, and producing the thesis itself.

In working out one’s system or flow, this student highlighted the need to know about the affordances of ICT and how others had made use of them.

…you do need to know a bit about each of the individual … capabilities of the different systems to know what's even possible… but alongside that you're kind of reading other people's ideas of how they did it, and you think that bit might work for me oh, but that bit won't… so then you can kind of mix and match a bit.

The drawing in Fig.  3 highlights the “flow”. Absent of all words, this illustration draws attention to the movement of ideas, thoughts, processes and actions, from a number of different points but all ultimately converging or contributing to the one path.

ICT and the individual are in a complementary partnership

There was a hint that at least one of the supervisors saw the need for a workflow in this same vein: “So long as [the students are] happy with what they’re using – they should use ‘a’ system,”

In summary, this assertion highlights that what is important with respect to ICT and the doctoral process is how it all comes together within one’s flow. That flow incorporates active effort on the part of the individual in finding ICT and practices that suit the individual’s approaches as well as their project demands.

Assertion 4: ICT are not neutral; there is a two-way interaction between technologies as artefacts and the use of them to achieve ends. ICT and the person are intricately linked through multiple active, practical, goal-oriented connections.

This assertion draws attention to the nature of technology as a phenomenon; that technology is not an impartial tool that has no influence on the way humans act and react. This assertion presents ICT as an artefact of technological design activity; as a source of improving efforts to achieve an endpoint; but also as an influencer and even determiner of the thinking and practices of the person interacting with the ICT (e.g., Baird, 2002 ).

On what could be argued a superficial level, this student noted some active connection between the person and the software application, beyond simple use, when he commented:

I think it goes both ways, the product has to be intuitive and you’ve got to have a little bit of inclination to try out different things.

Others went beyond the superficial to describe more in-depth relationships between themselves and the ICT they were using. When discussing her use of software to help her manage her project and her time, this student talked about how the ICT she was using supported and enhanced her thinking.

Using the application] really changed the way I started to think about [my research]. I started to be less worried about the big overwhelming long term stuff that was out there and just think, okay, this week, what am I going to do this week, how am I going to be really efficient and targeted, and I think that really helped me.

Following is another example of how ICT helped solve a problem while simultaneously having an influence on behaviour; in this instance with organising notes, ideas and documents.

“… and it's the same with my note-taking because [the programme] that I use has a similar sort of functionality that it can search text that you've written but also search notes and PDF docs and those kind of things, so it means that when you've had a random thought and put it somewhere you can find it again. Which is huge for me, so I guess that … the power of the search engine is probably the thing that drove me to become paperless, so it helps me to organize myself much better. … filing paper is a skill that I have not mastered whereas filing digital stuff is not as important because you can always just find it again.

Figure  4 illustrates this intricately intertwined interactivity among person, purpose, project, ICT and outcomes.

ICT and the person are intricately linked through multiple active, practical, goal-oriented connections

While we did not find strong evidence for supervisors’ thoughts about this integrated and embedded notion of ICT, one supervisor did note “I could probably build them into my system, but I just never have”.

In summary, Assertion 4 highlights the integral role that ICT can be perceived to play in doctoral research processes. This is more than the working-alongside connection illustrated by Assertion 2 and the complementary partnership characterised by Assertion 3.

Assertions 1 and 2 highlight that individuals hold assumptions about, and have expectations of, ICT use; and those expectations and assumptions influence and determine their judgements about ICT and their use of ICT. The assertions point to connections between perceptions and practices. Assertion 1 describes a perception that ICT are separate from the person and the task-at-hand, while Assertion 2 presents a perception in which the person and the ICT are working alongside each other in harmony or at least in a loose partnership. Both assertions focus on endpoints, but the endpoints vary according to the perception of where ICT fit into the journey towards their achievement. For Assertion 1-type expressions, there is one major endpoint. For Assertion 2-type expressions, there are multiple, shorter-term endpoints that build towards achieving the major goal of completing the thesis.

Building on Assertions 1 and 2 are Assertions 3 and 4, which highlight what may be argued as more complex levels of perceiving and working with ICT. Both assertions give some focus to inter-connections, where people and ICT partner or collaborate. Assertion 3 depICT a perception that is about complementarity; where ICT affordances are seen as worthwhile when they support and enhance the work of the individual in ways that make sense to that individual. Assertion 4 builds on Assertion 3 by bringing to light the relationship in which the person alters and changes thinking or practices because of the influence that ICT affordances can have. No evidence was found to support a possible additional claim that as well as ICT causing individuals to alter and modify thinking and behaviours due to their existence, ICT, in turn, are perceived to be able to alter their ways of responding to the people who use them. This is not out of the realms of possibility of course, with ICT increasingly being designed and built to be able to respond to users’ needs.

It is also worth mentioning that the ‘types’ of ICT and the extent of their use by the participants was not the focus of this study. However, the findings suggested that the participants’ ICT use, regardless of their PhD phase and broad discipline background, might have reflected their inability to realise the advantages of learning how to use current ICT-related devices, tools, and applications to enhance the process of undertaking their doctoral research. The evidence that emerged in this study indicated that participants’ perspectives of ICT determined their adoption practices in general (i.e., as illustrated through the four assertions). The boarder higher education context including the specific institution and supervisors, might have neglected the explicit support of PhD students’ ICT capability development in this process.

In addition, while there is no similar study being found thus far, the insights gained from this study are actually similar to the findings in the research studies into the role of ICT in undergraduate education (Butson & Sim, 2013 ; Sim & Butson, 2013 , 2014 ). Results in those studies, demonstrated students’ low levels of ICT use, may be an indication that digital devices and digital tools do not play a significant role in daily study practices. Researchers such as Esposito, Sangrà & Maina ( 2013 ) also show that the PhD students’ learning to become researchers in the digital age is much more complex than is often suggested (e.g., the skills of Prenksy ( 2001 ) “digital natives”). Becoming a researcher involves developing a complex set of knowledge, intellectual abilities, techniques and professional standards. The Researcher Development Framework (Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC), 2010 ) illustrates one useful attempt at mapping out that complexity. It could be that both students’ and supervisors’ adoption of ICT for academic purposes has been overshadowed or taken for granted as a consequence of their advanced academic level.

Implications

The four assertions can be used to provide some guidance to those supporting and participating in doctoral research processes. Students and supervisors do possess a vast array of skills, knowledge and abilities. They have a variety of experiences as well as varying reasons and levels of motivation. Their skills and capacity to make use of ICT to support their roles in the research process vary as well. The assertions that have emerged from this study will inform the planning for support activities to enhance supervisors’ and students’ professional development, whatever their background and needs.

Depending on the perceptions held about ICT and the relationship between ICT and the person in the context of the task and its goals (i.e., the doctoral study) within the doctoral research process as depicted in the four assertions, ICT tend to be seen as a challenge, a change or an opportunity. In the context of ICT use, doctoral students and supervisors may:

assume that if they do not already know how to use something it is not worth learning or exploring as that learning brings with it risk to quality, efficiency and effectiveness of the doctoral research process; and/or.

assume that students will work out the place that ICT play within the research process for themselves.

The findings of this study suggest the need to.

challenge existing ICT knowledge and skill, and to support acceptance of the need to change practices;

teach technological thinking, to enable choice and decision making about ICT;

embed ICT into practices in meaningful ways to suit individual and project needs;

highlight (explicit) responsibilities about thinking and planning skills with respect to making the best use of ICT, to ensure efficiency and effectiveness;

realise that the research process is as much about how it happens as what happens;

recast assumptions about the doctoral research process to embed ICT within it;

reflect on the meaning of effectiveness and efficiency in the context of doctoral research; and the effects of ICT in supporting and facilitating them;

understand that there is a link among ICT thinking and practice: using ICT can enhance or raise ideas that were never thought of before.

This study explored perceptions of doctoral supervisors and students of the role and place of ICT in supervision and study. It generated four assertions characterising those perceptions the relationships among people, ICT and the task-at-hand, that is, the supervised research process. As Castañeda and Selwyn ( 2018 ) argue, it is important that we have an active commitment to ‘think otherwise’ about how ICT might be better implemented across higher education settings” (p. 8). We should not assume that ICT are not important enough to let them fade into the background as they become normalised, without questioning the interrelationships that are happening between the person and the ICT. In the doctoral research setting, as one example of a higher education context, ICT do have a role to play. They cannot and should not be ignored. But seeing ICT in relationship to the person and to the setting is essential.

This project has provided insights into the doctoral students and supervisors’ perceptions of the roles played by ICT during doctoral research process. There are complex human factors, including assumptions, attitudes and conceptions about academic practices, influencing and determining perspectives as well as how ICT are incorporated into doctoral research process, behaviours and practices. Just as Kandiko and Kinchin ( 2012 ) argue that supervision cannot be looked at in the absence of the research work in which it occurs, we argue that doctoral students’ understanding and use of ICT cannot be considered independently of their research work; and that work includes relationships with their project, their supervisors, within the context of the institution, and with the ICT they do and could engage with.

Directly associated with the outcomes of this study, future studies and further exploration could focus on:

ICT use by larger and more diverse groups of doctoral students from a range of fields within discipline areas at institutions outside New Zealand;

building on the findings in order to determine how intensity of ICT use might change for students across the course of their candidature, and in relation to the nature of their research projects;

the role of supervisors, academic departments, and institutions in supporting and enhancing students’ practices and beliefs about ICT in research processes;

the ways in which supervisors engage ICT in their daily academic practices, with a view to exploring how, or if, their ICT use is an influence on PhD students’ beliefs and behaviours in using ICT.

Studying ICT in these directions could offer fresh perspectives and opportunities to think differently and reveal an active way of understanding the role of ICT in doctoral education.

Availability of data and materials

These are not available for open access as their access is bound by the ethical agreement approved by the two institutions and made with the participants in the study.

Aghaee, N., Jobe, W. B., Karunaratne, T., Smedberg, Å., Hansson, H., & Tee, M. (2016). Interaction gaps in PhD education and ICT as a way forward: Results from a study in Sweden. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning , 17 (3) Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1805463156?accountid=14700 .

Åkerlind, G., & McAlpine, L. (2017). Supervising doctoral students: Variation in purpose and pedagogy. Studies in Higher Education , 42 (9), 1686–1698. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2015.1118031 .

Article   Google Scholar  

Baird, D. (2002). Thing knowledge: Function and truth. Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology , 6 (2), 96–105. https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/SPT/v6n2/ .

MathSciNet   Google Scholar  

Butson, R., & Sim, K. N. (2013). The role of personal computers in undergraduate education. International Journal of Digital Literacy and Digital Competence , 4 (3), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijdldc.201307010 .

Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) (2010). Researcher development framework , (pp. 1–22) Retrieved from https://www.vitae.ac.uk/vitae-publications/rdf- related/researcher-development-framework-rdf-vitae.pdf .

Castañeda, L., & Selwyn, N. (2018). More than tools? Making sense of the ongoing digitizations of higher education. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education , 15 (22), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-018-0109-y .

Cotterall, S. (2011). Doctoral students writing: Where's the pedagogy? Teaching in Higher Education , 16 (4), 413–425. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2011.560381 .

Dowling, R., & Wilson, M. (2017). Digital doctorates? An exploratory study of PhD candidates’ use of online tools. Innovations in Education and Teaching International , 54 (1), 76–86. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2015.1058720 .

Erickson F. (2012). Qualitative research methods for science education. In Fraser, B., Tobin, K., & McRobbie, C. J. (Eds.), Second international handbook of science education . (Springer International Handbooks of Education, Vol. 2, pp. 1451–69). Dordrecht: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9041-7_93 .

Google Scholar  

Esposito, A., Sangrà, A., & Maina, M. (2013). How Italian PhD students reap the benefits of instiutional resources and digital services in the open web. Proceedings of the International technology, education and development (INTED) conference , pp. 6490-6500. Valencia: Spain. ISBN: 978-84-616-2661-8.

Guba, E. G., & Lincoln, Y. S. (1989). Fourth generation evaluation . Newbury Park: Sage.

Kandiko, C. B., & Kinchin, I. M. (2012). What is a doctorate? A concept-mapped analysis of process versus product in the supervision of lab-based PhDs. Educational Research , 54 (1), 3–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2012.658196 .

Lee, A. (2008). How are doctoral students supervised? Concepts of doctoral research supervision. Studies in Higher Education , 33 (3), 267–281. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075070802049202 .

Mahmood, K. (2016). Do people overestimate their information literacy skills? A systematic review of empirical evidence on the Dunning-Kruger effect. Communications in Information Literacy , 10 (2), 199–212. https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2016.10.2.24 .

Marshall, S., & Shepherd, D. (2016). E-learning in tertiary education. Highlights from Ako Aotearoa projects . Wellington: Ako Aotearoa https://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/download/ng/file/group-4/e-learning-in-tertiary-education-highlights-from-ako-aotearoa-research.pdf .

Mayring, P. (2000). Qualitative content analysis. Forum: Qualitative Social Research , 1 (2) Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/867646667?accountid=14700 .

Nichols, M., Anderson, B., Campbell, M., & Thompson, J. (2014). An online orientation to open, flexible and distance learning Ako Aotearoa and the distance education Association of New Zealand (DEANZ). https://ako.ac.nz/knowledge-centre/an-online-orientation-to-open-flexible-and-distance-learning/ .

Prenksy, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants, part II. Do they really think differently? On the . Horizon , 9 (6), 1–6.

Silverman, D. (2001). Interpreting qualitative data. 2nd Ed. London: Sage.

Sim, K. N., & Butson, R. (2013). Do undergraduates use their personal computers to support learning? Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences , 103 , 330–339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.341 .

Sim, K. N., & Butson, R. (2014). To what degree are undergraduate students using their personal computers to support their daily study practices? IAFOR Journal of Education , 2 (1), 158–171 Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1080348&site=ehost-live .

Stensaker, B., Maassen, P., Borgan, M., Oftebro, M., & Karseth, B. (2007). Use, updating and integration of ICT in higher education: Linking purpose, people and pedagogy. Higher Education , 54 , 417–433. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-006-9004-x .

Thomas, D. R. (2006). A general inductive approach for analyzing qualitative evaluation data. American Journal of Evaluation , 27 (2), 237–246. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098214005283748 .

Wetton, N. M., & McWhirter, J. (1998). Images and curriculum development in health education. In J. Prosser (Ed.), Image-based research: A sourcebook for qualitative researcher , (pp. 263–283). London: Falmer Press.

Zhou, E., & Okahana, H. (2019). The role of department supports on doctoral completion and time-to-degree. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice , 20 (4), 511–529. https://doi.org/10.1177/1521025116682036 .

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the students and supervisors who shared their reflections and willingly engaged with us in this project.

We acknowledge the support of Ako Aotearoa, The National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence, New Zealand through its Regional Hub Project Fund (RHPF), and the support of our institutions, University of Otago and Victoria University of Wellington.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Distance Learning, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

Sarah J. Stein

Centre for Academic Development, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

Kwong Nui Sim

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

The authors are responsible for the entire project that is reported in this paper. The writing of the manuscript was led by the first author in collaboration with the second author. The authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sarah J. Stein .

Ethics declarations

Competing interests.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Stein, S.J., Sim, K.N. Enhancing the roles of information and communication technologies in doctoral research processes. Int J Educ Technol High Educ 17 , 34 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-020-00212-3

Download citation

Received : 02 February 2020

Accepted : 05 May 2020

Published : 10 September 2020

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-020-00212-3

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Doctoral research and supervision
• Information and communication technologies
• Participative drawing

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• Springer Nature - PMC COVID-19 Collection
• PMC10184081

Digital competence of teachers in the use of ICT for research work: development of an instrument from a PLS-SEM approach

Francisco d. guillén-gámez.

1 Department of Pedagogy, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Julio Ruiz-Palmero

2 Department of Didactics and School Organization, Faculty of Education Sciences, University of Malaga (UMA), Malaga, Spain

Melchor Gómez García

Associated data.

Not applicable.

All spheres of our life are being affected using technology, particularly its integration in the research processes carried out by teachers. The success of the integration of specific digital resources in research work can be affected by several factors, such as: digital skills for finding information, managing it, analyzing it, and communicating results; digital flow; anxiety in the use of ICT; digital ethics; quality of digital resources; and finally, the behavioral intention to integrate ICT. The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that influence the integration of ICT in the research process of the Higher Education teacher, and the relation between them. An online survey was used to collect data, and 1740 participants. This study used a causal model through partial least squares structural equations modeling (PLS-SEM). With this, the hypotheses established between the integration of ICT and its possible incident factors were verified. The findings revealed a significant influence path from factor integration to digital skills, ethics, flow digital, and behavior intention. Although, resource quality and ICT anxiety had significant effects on the causal model, they did not have a large impact on teachers’ integration of digital resources. The total of these factors corresponded to 48.20% of the variance in the integration of the researcher of the specific digital resources to be used in the research process. These results confirm that this model is effective in explaining the technological integration of teachers to use ICT in research work.

Introduction and problem statement

The current global pandemic that has appeared in 21st century society, caused by COVID-19, demands profound and revolutionary transformations that affect the symbiosis between the great deployment of existing technological devices on the market and the progress of science (Virgili, 2021 ). In this sense, in the context of Higher Education, a deep reflection is required on the part of teaching staff regarding how to systematise research processes in the digital era (López-Martín et al., 2017 ; Mandal, 2018 ) in order to be able to respond to this symbiosis.

Rubio et al. ( 2018 , p. 336) states that “research competence in teachers of different disciplines contributes to social development and to the improvement of innovation and competitiveness of institutions”. But to achieve this end, it is necessary for Higher Education teachers to develop skills to formulate problems, pose hypotheses, experiment, analyse, interpret and communicate the results (Roth & Roychoudhury, 1993 ) and, above all, to develop a hybrid and comprehensive competence in both scientific and digital competences, through the use of new information and communication technologies (ICT) (George & Salado, 2019 ; Suárez-Triana et al., 2020 ). In other words, today’s society demands teachers who know how to respond to the challenges presented by an increasingly complex and changing reality (Gómez & Granados, 2013 ), with an increasingly positive attitude towards ICT, so that they constitute the tools of transformation (Semerci & Aydin, 2018 ). This challenge implies ongoing teacher training in scientific competences (Lovat et al., 1995 ), under the umbrella of efficiency in ICT integration (Tanjung, 2019 ; Guillén-Gámez & Ramos, 2021 ; Şimşek & Ateş, 2022 ), focused on generating scientific knowledge more quickly and effectively among members of the scientific community (Arcila-Calderón et al., 2015 ).

In recent years, different institutions and research groups have been reformulating and developing the concept of digital competence in teaching, attempting to delimit and qualify its dimensions (Ortega-Rodríguez et al., 2022 ). In the European context, the DigCompEdu (Digital Competence Framework for Educators) model has gradually been refined with the development of instruments such as, for example, the one created by Ghomi and Redecker ( 2019 ) which have been analyzed in multitus of educational scenarios. The TPACK model by Koehler and Mishra ( 2009 ) or the PEAT model which is still being developed under the framework of the Erasmus + Project “Developing ICT in teacher education” (DiCTE, 2019 ) has also been implemented with great acceptance. However, when examining the scientific literature on digital competence in higher education, there are still few studies that focus on the construction of instruments that measure digital competence in research work (Guillén-Gámez & Mayorga-Fernández, 2020 ; Martínez et al., 2020 ), and/or on how teachers use digital resources to search, analyse and communicate the results of their studies (Sim & Stein, 2016 ; Seraji et al., 2017 ; Robelo & Bucheli, 2018 ; Guillén-Gámez et al., 2020 ).

In an attempt to reverse this trend, this study aims to understand the different factors that influence the development of digital competence in research work. Therefore, the objective of this study has been to design and analyze the psychometric properties of an instrument which evaluates through a causal model those possible factors involved in the acquisition of digital competence of Higher Education teachers when they use digital resources in investigative work.

Theoretical framework

Next, a conceptual approximation of the factors that affect the digital competence of teachers is carried out, as well as the incidence that some factors have on others. In addition, once the factors have been specified, the causal model is shown, which will be the basis for the creation of the instrument.

Anxiety towards ICT

attitude is an outwardly manifested state of mind. Some authors have classified attitudes towards ICT in terms of anxiety or stress (Loyd & Gressard, 1984 ; Yildirim, 2000 ; Téllez et al., 2022 ), understood as a person’s level of reluctance or negative emotional state when having to integrate ICT into their professional duties (Simonson et al., 1987 ).

The literature affirms that certain attitudinal behaviours may be predictive of other future behaviours (Henerson et al., 1987 ; Babie et al., 2016 ; Knezek & Christensen, 2016 ; Ünal et al., 2019 ) stated that a teacher’s attitude influences the intention to use ICT, and consequently, its integration into professional tasks (Joo et al., 2018 ; Paraskeva et al., 2008 ).

Digital Flow

the concept of flow state was first proposed by Csikszentmihalyi ( 1975 ) and defined as the combination of enjoyment and intrinsic interest in an activity, such that the experience intensifies with increased concentration on the task (Huang & Liao, 2017 ). Regarding ICT, Hoffman and Novak ( 1996 ) state that the more people that are immersed in a state of flow, the higher their expectations regarding future intentions to use them (Ahmad & Abdulkarim, 2019 ) and, consequently, the higher the actual use of technology (Kim & Jang, 2015 ). This finding is consistent with the conclusions of some research on flow experience with ICT (Calvo-Porral et al., 2017 ; Rodriguez-Sanchez et al., 2008 ). In addition, evidence was found to support the relationship between flow state and technological skills (Catino, 2000 ; Giasiranis & Sofos, 2017 ).

Digital skills for finding information, managing it, analysing it and communicating results

research skills can be defined as the practical domain that a person has to go in search of a problem and its solution through the scientific method (Pérez & López, 1999 ) using ICT in this process (Hassani, 2015 ; Murnane & Levy 1996 ), in such a way that allows them to search for information, manage data and know how to communicate them (García et al., 2018 ). ICT skills is a key factor that will influence the integration of ICT use (Alazam et al., 2013 ; Teo, 2009 ), which could lead to a decrease in negative feelings (anxiety) towards ICT use (Revilla et al., 2017 ).

Digital ethics: e thics refers to the codes and norms that value human behaviour in a community (Dewey, 2008 ). Currently, the scientific community is facing a great ethical challenge in its research approach (Luke, 2018 ) as the so-called digital culture predominates. In this sense, it is considered that a good researcher should have adequate knowledge of the basic ethical principles of research (Sanjuanelo et al., 2007 ), employing good practices with ICT (Dominighini & Cataldi, 2017 ; Stahl et al., 2014 ). Since as evidenced by Stahl et al. ( 2017 ) having a good ethical awareness can contribute to the deployment of innovative practices with ICT.

Intention and Integration: several ICT studies have demonstrated the importance of an individual’s intentions in predicting integration behaviour (Anderson & Maninger, 2007 ; Venkatesh et al., 2003 ; Shiue, 2007 , p. 427) assumes that “the extent of actual use is based on the teacher’s intention to use instructional technology”. The authors analyzed the intention to use 242 science teachers from Taiwan on the integration of ICT in the educational process, evidencing that “the intention to use instructional technology has the largest direct effect on its actual use” (p. 446). However, as stated by Banas and York ( 2014 , p. 730) “while intention does not guarantee future behaviour, well-grounded research has established it as a reliable predictor”. For instance, in Czerniak et al. ( 1999 ) study, teachers’ intentions to use ICT predicted between 18% and 24% of the true variance in actual technology use. In the same context, the stronger a person’s intention to use an ICT resource, the more likely their integration will materialise (Olugbara & Letseka, 2020 ). However, teachers are reluctant to integrate technology as a teaching tool if the technology is not good (Shiue, 2007 ), so it is also necessary to consider the quality of digital resources in the teacher’s research process.

Quality of ICT resources: a variety of external factors have also been identified that can significantly influence the integration of ICT resources in teachers’ work, such as Internet accessibility (Lin et al., 2012 ), the software or hardware available in schools (Gil-Flores et al., 2017 ) or the lack of technical and training support (Lawrence & Tar, 2018 ).

Research model

in the present study, the causal theories analysed in the literature review are operationalised with the underlying factors and relationships, all shown in Fig.  1 . Each arrow in the figure represents a hypothesis of the study, and from them we aim to analyse the viability of the structural equation model proposed, so that it explains the maximum proportion of variance shared between the exogenous and endogenous variables.

Hypotheses of the proposed model

Design and Participants. A non-experimental quantitative survey-type methodology was used. The study population is made up of 122,910 Higher Education teachers from the Spanish Education System (MECD, 2019– 2020 ). A non-probabilistic purposive sampling was used, collecting a total of 24,565 emails through the websites of the educational institutions, and subsequently contacting all of them by the same means. The sample consisted of 1740 teachers where 43.60% (n = 759) were female with a mean age of 48.15 ± 9.57years, while 56.40% (n = 981) were male teachers, with a mean age of 49.61 ± 29.53. Specifically, the participants belonged to the following areas of knowledge: Experimental Sciences (n = 248), Life Sciences (n = 206), Medical and Health Sciences (n = 261), Engineering and Architecture (n = 176), Social Sciences (n = 357), Legal Sciences (n = 118), Economic and Business Sciences (n = 165), and Humanities (n = 209).

Ethical considerations. Before the teachers filled in the online questionnaire, they have been informed about the purpose of the study. The data collection was carried out anonymously through a form without any label which could compromise the identity of the participants. During the data collection and in the presentation of the results in this study, the identity and confidentiality of the teachers has been kept private, guaranteeing the anonymity of the responses.

Instrument. In this study an instrument is created for the analysis of teachers’ digital competency, that enables the largest percentage of true variance in the integration of the use of ICT in research works to be explained, from a series endogenous and exogenous factors. The first version of the instrument was created by the authors of this study. In this version, the construct was operationally defined after a thorough review of the most used and relevant ICT resources, focusing on the interest in the predominant theoretical dimensions in scientific literature. Following this, it was reviewed by three experts in educational technology (validity of content). The adaption and relevance of the items and their underlying factors were evaluated, as well as the agreed review of the items. Eliminating those items with values less than 50% agreement between the experts.

As such, the original instrument remained composed of 40 questions made up closed categories. Each factor was measured on a seven-point Likert scale as follows: DIM.1 Digital abilities in searching for information, managing it, analysing it and communicating the results, from value 1 (I am notable to) to value 7 (I am able to); DIM.2 Digital ethics in digital investigation, from value 1 (I never do it) to value 7 (I do it frequently); DIM.3 Digital flow in investigation work, from value 1 (Totally disagree) to value 7 (Totally agree); DIM. 4 Anxiety towards the use of ICT in investigating, from value 1 (Totally disagree) to value 7 (Totally agree); DIM.5 Quality of ICT resources for investigation, from value 1 (It is poor) to value 7 (It is excellent); DIM. 6 Intention to use ICT resources for investigation work, from value 1 (Totally disagree) to value 7 (Totally agree); and DIM. 7 Integration ICT resources for research, from value 1 (I never do it) to value 7 (I do it frequently). Table  1 shows the items of each dimension together with their corresponding code.

Initial instrument

Note: Items with * in their name have an inverse score

Data analysis procedure and techniques.

This study used the partial least squared method (PLS) based on the analysis of principle components. This method falls within the family of structural equation models, where it is possible to carry out both the measurement model (reliability and validity of the underlying factor measurements) and the structural model (coincidence relations of the hypothesis established between the factors). For this purpose, the SmartPLS software was used, following the steps below:

• Internal consistency of the instrument. For this, the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was calculated, the Composite Reliability (CR), and the load factors of the items, with values greater than 0.707 (Carmines & Zeller, 1979 ).
• Convergent validity. The average variance extracted (AVE) was obtained where values greater than 0.50 would indicate a good fit of the model (Bagozzi & Yi, 1988 ).
• Discriminant validity. For this, three types of analysis were used. The criteria of Fornell-Larcker proposes that discriminant value exists between two underlying variables if the square root of the AVE coefficient of an underlying factor is greater than the variance of such factor together with the rest of the instruments’ factors. (Henseler et al., 2015 ; Clark & Watson, 1995 ) evaluate the discriminate value between underlying factors by means of heterotrait-monotrait correlations (HTMT), where a threshold less than 0.85 would be adequate. Lastly, the cross-loading analysis evaluates the grade in which an underlying variable is different from the rest of the variables, and consequently, their corresponding items measure that of the construct into which it has been incorporated.
• Evaluation of the structural model. The quality is evaluated through the determination coefficient R 2 which measures the amount of variance in the underlying endogenous variables (intention, integration, abilities, anxiety and digital flow) explained by the underlying exogenous variables (digital ethics and quality of resources). These criteria can be interpreted in the same way as the coefficients obtained through an analysis of multiple lineal regression. Furthermore, it tested if the path coefficients were significant through the bootstrapping method from the value obtained through t-Student. Finally, the residual mean square root normalisation coefficient was tested, considering it an adequate fit when the values are less than 0.08 (Hu & Bentler, 1999 ).

Internal consistency

In Table  2 appear the factorial loads of the items, as well as the composite reliability of each resultant factor and their Cronbach alfa coefficients. Taking into account the thresholds and recommended statistical values, the items that never surpassed the threshold were eliminated (D1_1; D1_2; D1_8; D2_9; D3_29; D5_22; D6_36; D7_14; D7_17; D7_18: D7_19).

Internal consistency reliability and Composite Reliability

Convergent validity

Table  3 presents the AVE coefficients for the factors of the instrument. As can be seen, the obtained values for each factor are greater than 0.50, with which it is established that more than 50% of the variance in the teachers score in the instrument is due to their indicators. As such, the AVE coefficients for the model factors grant an appropriate level of convergent validity that varied between 0.697 and 0.974.

Discriminant validity

the discriminant value was checked using the Fornell-Larcker criteria, showing the extent to which one factor is different from the other factors of the instrument, just as for the HTMT ratio. Table  4 shows the first analysed criteria, where the coefficients highlighted in grey (square root of AVE) is greater than the values produced below the diagonal line.

Fornell-Larcker criterion

Table  5 shows the coefficients obtained for the second analysed criteria (grey background), obtaining values great than 0.85. Both criteria grant a second contact with an appropriate discriminate value of the proposed model.

Heterotrait-Monotrait Ratio (HTMT)

On the other hand, said validity was also tested through analysis of the crossed loads, analysing how the items of one underlying factor correlate with those of other underlying factors, in order to ensure that the item is significantly in the appropriate factor over the rest. In Table  6 the items that correspond to their underlying factor are highlighted in order to distinguish them from the rest, demonstrating the strong correlation that it has with its corresponding factor and the weak correlation with the rest.

Cross Loadings

Evaluation of the structural model

For the purpose of knowing if the relation between the underlying factors is significant, answers were required to be given to the following question: (1) What percentage of the variance of the endogenous variables is explained by the rest of the exogenous variables of the proposed model? and (2) To what extent do the exogenous variables contribute to predicting the explained variance of the endogenous variables? In order to answer the first question, the determination coefficient (R 2 ) is used, while for the second question the path coefficients are used between the casual relations between such variables.

Figure  2 observes that the underlying factors included in the model explain 48.20% of the integration variable variance; the 30% of the intention factor variance is explained by factors anxiety and flow; the 24.10% of the abilities factor variance is explained by the flow factor; the 25.10% of the anxiety variable variance is explained by the ability factor; and finally, the quality factor explains the 5.90% of the flow factor variance.

The Hypothesized Structural Results

Table  7 shows the path weights in the established hypothesis, the level of significance between such relations and their corresponding effect sizes. Hypothesis 1 (H1) determines whether the behavioral intention of the researcher regarding the use of ICT in the research process significantly affects the subsequent integration in the research process. The link between the two factors is significant, reporting a t-value of 8.534 (β = 0.191, p-value < 0.01). Therefore, H1 is accepted. The hypotheses 2 (H2) about the relationship between the researcher’s digital skills and their subsequent integration into the investigative process (β = 0.465, t-value = 6.642, p < .001), is also corroborated. The hypotheses 3 (H3) focus on whether the researcher’s digital skills in the use of specific digital resources specific to the research area have a significant relationship with the level of anxiety that they can feel when using them. Results confirm this hypothesis (β = − 0.501, t-value = 25.366, p < .001).

Summary of hypothesis testing

Note: * p  < .05, ** p  < .01

Hypothesis 4 and 5 (H4 & H5) focus on whether the researcher’s flow state on using digital resources in research tasks has a significant relationship with, firstly, the behavioral intention of using these resources in the research process, to later integrate them into this process. Results confirm the two hypotheses: H4 (β = 0.549, t-value = 25.606, p < .001), H5 (β = 0.270, t-value = 9.092, p < .001). In addition, it was also confirmed how the state of digital flow significantly affects to the development of the digital skills of the researcher, hypothesis H6 (β = 0.491, t-value = 26.000, p < .001).

Hypothesis 7 (H7) tested whether the researcher’s state of anxiety about the use of specific digital resources used in the research process has an impact on the behavioral intention to use these resources, and later on the integration itself in the research process (Hypothesis H8). Results showed that teacher anxiety significantly negative effects on the behavioral intention to use ICT in research work (β = − 0.242, t-value = 11.627, p < .001), and its subsequent integration, albeit with minimal incidence (β = − 0.068, t-value = 2.437, p < .001). H7 and H8 are supported.

Hypothesis 9 (H9) hypothesized that digital ethical standards had a significant effect on the integration of ICT resources in the research process. The PLS-SEM findings revealed that the use of digital ethical norms had a significant prediction in the integration of ICT in this process (β = 0.392, t-value = 15.268, p < .005), which argues for H9. Lastly, the significant relationships between the quality of the technological resources and the state of flow of the researcher (Hypothesis H10) (β = 0.243, t-value = 9.403, p < .001) and their subsequent integration in the research process (Hypothesis H11) (β = 0.065, t-value = 3.609, p < .001), are also accepted.

As can be seen in Table  7 , all of the established relations between the factors were significant. To assess the strength of the relationship between the factors, the effect size coefficient is used (f 2 ). This was calculated using the f 2 procedure proposed by Cohen ( 1988 ), where a value equal to or less than 0.02 is interpreted as a small effect, a value of 0.15 as a medium effect and a value of 0.35 as a large effect. Through the PLS- SEM calculation, the values of f 2 ranged from 0.01 to 0.13, all of them with minor effects. Detailed information on the effect sizes for each pathway is shown in Table  7 . On the other hand, the SRMR criteria produced a coefficient of 0.78, being less than the 0.8 value recommended by Hu and Bentler ( 1999 ).

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the integration of specific digital resources by Higher Education teachers in the research process. For this, a measurement instrument was prepared with those factors and their relationships which significantly affect digital integration. This instrument is built from the findings of other researchers on incident factors in teacher digital competence, specifying all this in a new validated and relevant instrument which is linked to digital competences specifically in the teacher’s research process.

The instrument was configured by a total of 29 items distributed between the 7 established dimensions: digital abilities to search for information, managing it, analysing it and communicating the results (5 items), digital ethics in digital investigation (4 items), digital flow in investigation works (3 items), anxiety towards the use of ICT resources for investigating (5 items), quality of the ICT resources used for investigation (3 items), intention to use ICT for investigation works (5 items), ICT resource integration for investigating (4 items). After eliminating those items that did not fit with the required psychometric criteria, it can be concluded that the reliability of the instrument presents very satisfactory coefficients in all of the dimensions. The data, likewise, show that the discriminant validity is appropriate for the proposed model (Bagozzi & Yi, 1988 ), just as the discriminant validity in all the analysed criteria (Henseler et al., 2015 ; Clark & Watson, 1995 ), showing the correct saturation of all the items in their corresponding dimensions.

The hypotheses established between the integration of ICT and its possible incident factors were verified. The findings revealed a significant influence path from factor integration to digital skills, ethics, flow digital, and behaviour intention. Regarding the first hypothesis (H1), a link was confirmed between Intention to use ICT by the teacher and integration of these digital resources in the research process, corroborating the relationships found by Kovalik et al. ( 2013 ) and Ndlovu et al. ( 2020 ). In other words, achieving a real use of technology in the teacher’s research work is based, among other aspects, on the intention to use it (Shiue, 2007 ). Knowing that intentions have the potential to predict future integration, a comprehensive understanding of this factor as future work could help universities prepare constructive plans to increase the teacher training in scientific competences (Lovat et al., 1995 ), under the umbrella of efficiency in ICT (Tanjung, 2019 ).

Our next hypothesis (H2), it was also confirmed that there is a link between Digital skills and integration of digital resources in the research process. The digital skills of teachers in the use of technological resources in research processes has the third largest impact compared to the rest of the factors of the causal model, which is consistent with our earlier findings of Alazam et al. ( 2013 ) and Teo ( 2009 ). This discovery indicates the importance of teacher training in their practical domain for the use of technological resources in the scientific process (Pérez & López, 1999 ; El Hassani, 2015 ; Murnane & Levy 1996 ). In addition, as stated by Revilla et al. ( 2017 ), the continuous use of digital skills by teachers is a key factor that will positively influence the decrease in teachers’ negative attitudes about their levels of stress and anxiety, reaffirming the link between the dimension’s skills and anxiety, found in hypothesis H3. These results invite to reflect on the importance of permanent teacher training by the institutions that hire the TRS (teaching and research staff) both to reduce their levels of reluctance regarding technology in research work, but what is more important, so that they integrate into their research those digital resources that help them generate scientific knowledge more quickly and effectively among members of the scientific community (Tanjung, 2019 ; Arcila-Calderón et al., 2015 ).

The fourth and fifth hypotheses of the causal model (H4 & H5) showed a link between the digital flow and the intention of use, as well as the digital flow and the integration of digital resources in the research process. The results showed how the researcher’s digital flow has the biggest impact on the intention to use technology in the research process, and later its real integration in this process, coinciding with the results of Kim and Jang ( 2015 ), Calvo-Porral et al. ( 2017 ) and Rodriguez-Sanchez et al. ( 2008 ). These results underscore the need to encourage teachers to enjoy and be interested in technology for their scientific productions, either with incentives or reductions in teaching hours to be able to research, since, as Huang and Liao ( 2017 ) confirm, if the researchers are fully involved and concentrated in this process, they can even forget about time, fatigue and everything else, except the activity itself (Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi, 2009 ), in our case, the improvement of research processes in the digital age (López-Martín et al., 2017 ; Mandal, 2018 ). In addition, it was verified that there was a link between the teacher’s digital flow and their digital skills in the research process, confirming the hypothesis H6. That is to say, if the researcher has a good state of digital flow, their digital skills will also be better and consequently it will have an impact on the integration of the research process.

The findings also corroborate the hypotheses H7 and H8, confirmed that there is a link between anxiety towards technology and the intention to use digital resources for research (Babie et al., 2016 ; Knezek & Christensen, 2016 ; Ünal et al., 2019 ), and consequently towards the integration of digital resources by the teacher in the research process (Joo et al., 2018 ; Paraskeva et al., 2008 ). However, the results have shown a much greater inverse relationship on the intention than on the integration itself. A plausible explanation for these findings is that teachers could have a high level of stress towards the intention to use digital resources for research, but as they integrate it into their research tasks, little by little these levels disappear.

In relation to hypothesis H9, it is observed highlights a link between the digital ethical standards and the integration of these resources in the research process (H9). Although it is observed that this factor has a good significant weight in the integration of digital resources, few answers exist today about the causal relationship between these factors. These findings should invite reflection and seek possible answers that help to better explain this relation. What is clear, as stated by Mbunge et al. ( 2021 ) is that an ethical and digital framework is needed to use technology in the best possible conditions.

Lastly, the last hypotheses (H10) evidenced a link between the quality of technological resources and the digital flow (the enjoyment and motivation of teachers in their scientific processes), since the enjoyment experience can be greater if accessibility to technology is adequate (Lin et al., 2012 ; Gil-Flores et al., 2017 ), along with technical and training support (Lawrence & Tar, 2018 ). The model presented also highlights the relationship between the quality of technological resources and the integration (H11). This relationship is characterized by statistical significance; however, the incidence (β) is not highly significant for integration development. Although authors such as Gil-Flores et al. ( 2017 ) have determined that the access, availability, and quality of digital resources could affect their integration into the educational process, it must be considered that “teachers are reluctant to use technology as a teaching tool if the tool is not good” (Shiue, 2007 ; p. 446). Therefore, a plausible explanation of these findings is since the study has been carried out in a developed country which is committed to the advancement of innovation in technological matters through subsidies to university institutions. However, these statements must be taken with caution and the plausible causes of their low incidence in integration by teachers continue to be analyzed.

Conclusions and future works

Nowadays it is fundamental to have the tools to measure the level of development of university teachers’ digital competency to carry out investigation work, seen as it is fundamental that such teachers contribute to the building of knowledge and social transformation (Rubio et al., 2018 ; George & Salado, 2019 ; Suárez-Triana et al., 2020 ), being it essential that there exists a solid scientific community (Arcila-Calderón et al., 2015 ) and strongly interlinked.

The main results of this study showed that there was a direct and significant effect between the six factors analyzed in the causal model and the integration of digital resources in the research process by the Higher Education teacher. It has been found that the factors with the greatest incidence in the integration by the teacher have been the digital flow and the digital skills of the researcher. Therefore, a good implication in practice, not only for teacher-researchers and their professional development, but also for novice researchers and classroom teachers who can carry out small experiments with their group-class, is to emphasize training courses. MOOCs could be useful and be the basis for teacher training, motivating them with strategies on how to apply these resources in their educational processes.

However, other causal factors of the causal model, such as teacher anxiety about the integration of technological resources in the research process, have not had a great impact on teacher integration, although it has been a greater weight on the intention factor. These results invite us to continue looking for answers about why it affects one factor more than another. As future work, it would be interesting to know in depth the psychological state of teachers regarding the use of specific technological resources in their research process, which can generate anxiety and/or push them to adopt skeptical attitudes regarding the use of digital resources.

Although the factor with the least incidence on the integration of digital resources in the research process has been the researcher’s perception of the quality of the technological resources available to them, there may be considerable disparities between developed and developing countries. Educational institutions in developed countries tend to have more grants and technological resources. It would be important to demonstrate the value of the quality of resources and technological infrastructure that university institutions offer teachers for research. In this way, we could think about how this affects, to a greater or lesser extent, its integration in the research process.

In addition to reflecting and concluding on the results of the incident factors in the integration of technology in the research process, we now have to reflect on how to improve the design and methodology of the study. A weakness of the study is the type of sample used since it was non-probabilistic. Therefore, the results obtained must be interpreted with caution to other teachers with similar characteristics and not extrapolate the findings to all researchers. For this reason, it would be interesting as future work to be able to collect a more representative sample of researchers with the purpose of being able to generalize the results and that the instrument is equally valid for the entire scientific community.

In short, an effective researcher in the digital age will be able to consolidate an adequate professional identity not only with specialized knowledge in his area of knowledge, but also with instrumental skills for research activity on the Internet. This digital competence of the researcher is not reduced only to the knowledge and use of the necessary skills for the management of digital resources in the scientific process, but this competence has must also encompasses other factors such as motivational and enjoyment towards technology (flow), quality of resources technology, as well as ethical and behavioral attitudes about the intention to use of technology. A good researcher in the information and communication society must have good levels in all these incident factors in order to be able to develop professionally in a digital environment, since it is precisely through digital media that the rest of the scientific community is aware of its members.

Acknowledgements

This scientific article is part of my doctoral thesis, attached to the Doctoral Program in Education of the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM).

Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature.

Data Availability

Code availability, declarations.

This study has not been carried out with human or animal participants.

The authors do not have any type of interests.

All authors have accepted the submission of the article to the Journal, accepting the issuance of rights.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Contributor Information

Francisco D. Guillén-Gámez, Email: [email protected] .

Julio Ruiz-Palmero, Email: se.amu@oiluj .

Melchor Gómez García, Email: [email protected] .

• Ahmad N, Abdulkarim H. The impact of Flow Experience and personality type on the intention to use virtual world. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction. 2019; 35 (12):1074–1085. doi: 10.1080/10447318.2018.1509500. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Alazam AO, Bakar AR, Hamzah R, Asmiran S. Teachers’ ICT skills and ICT integration in the classroom: The case of vocational and technical teachers in Malaysia. Creative Education. 2013; 3 (08):70. doi: 10.4236/ce.2012.38B016. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Anderson SE, Maninger RM. Preservice teachers’ abilities, beliefs, and intentions regarding technology integration. Journal of Educational Computing Research. 2007; 37 (2):151–172. doi: 10.2190/H1M8-562W-18J1-634P. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Arcila-Calderón C, Calderín M, Aguaded I. Adoption of ICTs by communication researchers for scientific diffusion and data analysis. El profesional de la información. 2015; 24 (5):526–536. doi: 10.3145/epi.2015.sep.03. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Babie, S., Čičin-Šain, M., & Bubaš, G. (2016). A study of factors influencing higher education teachers’ Intenciónto use e-learning in hybrid environments. In 2016 39th International Convention on Information and Communication Technology, Electronics and Microelectronics (MIPRO) (pp. 998–1003). IEEE. 10.1109/MIPRO.2016.7522285
• Bagozzi RP, Yi Y. On the evaluation of structural equation models. Journal of the academy of marketing science. 1988; 16 (1):74–94. doi: 10.1007/BF02723327. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Banas JR, York CS. Authentic learning exercises as a means to influence preservice teachers’ technology integration self-efficacy and intentions to integrate technology. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology. 2014; 30 (6):728–746. doi: 10.14742/ajet.362. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Calvo-Porral C, Faíña-Medín A, Nieto-Mengotti M. Exploring technology satisfaction: An approach through the flow experience. Computers in Human Behavior. 2017; 66 :400–408. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2016.10.008. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Carmines, E. G., & Zeller, R. A. (1979). Reliability and validity assessment (17 vol.). Sage publications.
• Catino, R. J. (2000). Relationship between flow experience, flow dimensions, and the equivalence of challenges and skills in the web-based training environment (pp. 1–220). University of North Texas.
• Clark LA, Watson D. Constructing validity: Basic issues in objective scale development. Psychological Assessment. 1995; 7 (3):309–319. doi: 10.1037/1040-3590.7.3.309. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Cohen J. Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. 2. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates; 1988. [ Google Scholar ]
• Csikszentmihalyi M. Beyond boredom and anxiety: The experience of play in Work and Games. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass; 1975. [ Google Scholar ]
• Czerniak CM, Lumpe AT, Haney JJ, Beck J. Teachers’ beliefs about using educational technology in the science classroom. International Journal of Educational Technology. 1999; 1 (2):1–18. [ Google Scholar ]
• de Educación, M., D., C., & (MECD. (2020). Datos y cifras del sistema universitario español. https://www.ciencia.gob.es/stfls/MICINN/Universidades/Ficheros/Estadisticas/Informe_Datos_Cifras_Sistema_Universitario_Espanol_2019-2020.pdf
• Dewey, J. (2008). The later Works of John Dewey, volume 7, 1925–1953: 1932, Ethics (7 vol.). SIU Press.
• Dicte (2019). Pedagogical, ethical, attitudinal and technical dimensions of Digital competence in Teacher Education . Developing ICT in Teacher Education Erasmus + project https://dicte.oslomet.no/dicte/
• Dominighini C, Cataldi Z. Ética en la investigación en TICS: Formación en buenas prácticas en ciencia y tecnología. Revista de Informática Educativa y Medios Audiovisuales. 2017; 14 (22):20–25. [ Google Scholar ]
• El Hassani, A. (2015). The role of information literacy in higher education: an Initiative at Al Akhawayn University in Morocco. Nordic Journal of Information Literacy in Higher Education , 7 (1), 32–37. 10.15845/noril.v7i1.229.
• García NM, Paca NK, Arista SM, Valdez BB, Gómez II. Investigación formativa en el desarrollo de habilidades comunicativas e investigativas. Revista de Investigaciones Altoandinas. 2018; 20 (1):125–136. doi: 10.18271/ria.2018.336. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• George Reyes CE, Salado Rodríguez LI. Research competences with ICT in PhD students. Apertura. 2019; 11 (1):40–55. doi: 10.32870/Ap.v11n1.1387. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ghomi, M., & Redecker, C. (2019). Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu): Development and Evaluation of a Self-assessment Instrument for Teachers’ Digital Competence. In CSEDU (1) (pp. 541–548). 10.5220/0007679005410548
• Giasiranis S, Sofos L. Flow experience and educational effectiveness of teaching informatics using AR. Journal of Educational Technology & Society. 2017; 20 (4):78–88. [ Google Scholar ]
• Gil-Flores J, Rodríguez-Santero J, Torres-Gordillo JJ. Factors that explain the use of ICT in secondary-education classrooms: The role of teacher characteristics and school infrastructure. Computers in Human Behavior. 2017; 68 :441–449. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2016.11.057. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Gómez ÁP, Granados LP. Competencias docentes en la era digital. La formación del pensamiento práctico. Temas de Educación. 2013; 19 (1):67–84. [ Google Scholar ]
• Guillén-Gámez, F. D., & Mayorga-Fernández, M. J. (2020). Design and validation of an instrument of self-perception regarding the lecturers’ use of ICT resources: To teach, evaluate and research. Education and Information Technologies , 1–20. 10.1007/s10639-020-10321-1.
• Guillén-Gámez FD, Ramos M. Competency profile on the use of ICT resources by spanish music teachers: Descriptive and inferential analyses with logistic regression to detect significant predictors. Technology Pedagogy and Education. 2021; 30 (4):511–523. doi: 10.1080/1475939X.2021.1927164. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Guillén-Gámez FD, Ruiz-Palmero J, Sánchez-Rivas E, Colomo-Magaña E. ICT resources for research: An ANOVA analysis on the digital research skills of higher education teachers comparing the areas of knowledge within each gender. Education and information technologies. 2020; 25 (5):4575–4589. doi: 10.1007/s10639-020-10176-6. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hassani, A. (2015). The role of information literacy in higher education: an initiative at Al Akhawayn University in Morocco.  Nordic Journal of Information Literacy in Higher Education ,  7 (1), 32–37. 10.15845/noril.v7i1.229.
• Henerson, M. E., Morris, L. L., & Fitz-Gibbon, C. T. (1987). How to measure attitudes . Sage.
• Henseler J, Ringle CM, Sarstedt M. A new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling. Journal of the academy of marketing science. 2015; 43 (1):115–135. doi: 10.1007/s11747-014-0403-8. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hoffman DL, Novak TP. Marketing in hypermedia computer-mediated environments: Conceptual foundations. Journal of marketing. 1996; 60 (3):50–68. doi: 10.1177/002224299606000304. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Huang, T. L., & Liao, S. L. (2017). Creating e-shopping multisensory flow experience through augmented-reality interactive technology. Internet Research , 449–475. 10.1108/IntR-11-2015-0321.
• Hu L, Bentler PM. Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure 17 analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Eq 18 Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal. 1999; 6 (1):1–55. doi: 10.1080/10705519909540118. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Şimşek AS, Ateş H. The extended technology acceptance model for web 2.0 technologies in teaching. Innoeduca International Journal of Technology and Educational Innovation. 2022; 8 (2):165–183. doi: 10.24310/innoeduca.2022.v8i2.15413. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Joo YJ, Park S, Lim E. Factors influencing preservice teachers’ intention to use technology: TPACK, teacher self-efficacy, and technology acceptance model. Journal of Educational Technology & Society. 2018; 21 (3):48–59. [ Google Scholar ]
• Kim HJ, Jang HY. Motivating pre-service teachers in technology integration of web 2.0 for teaching internships. International Education Studies. 2015; 8 (8):21–32. doi: 10.5539/ies.v8n8p21. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Knezek G, Christensen R. Extending the will, skill, tool model of technology integration: Adding pedagogy as a new model construct. Journal of Computing in Higher Education. 2016; 28 (3):307–325. doi: 10.1007/s12528-016-9120-2. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Koehler M, Mishra P. What is technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK)? Contemporary issues in technology and teacher education. 2009; 9 (1):60–70. [ Google Scholar ]
• Kovalik, C., Kuo, C. L., & Karpinski, A. (2013). Assessing preservice teachers' information and communication technologies knowledge.  Journal of Technology and Teacher Education ,  21 (2), 179–202.
• Lawrence JE, Tar UA. Factors that influence teachers’ adoption and integration of ICT in teaching/learning process. Educational Media International. 2018; 55 (1):79–105. doi: 10.1080/09523987.2018.1439712. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Lin JMC, Wang PY, Lin IC. Pedagogy* technology: A two-dimensional model for teachers’ ICT integration. British Journal of Educational Technology. 2012; 43 (1):97–108. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8535.2010.01159.x. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Lovat T, Davies M, Plotnikoff R. Integrating research skills development in teacher education. Australian Journal of Teacher Education. 1995; 20 (1):30–35. doi: 10.14221/ajte.1995v20n1.4. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Loyd BH, Gressard C. Reliability and factorial validity of computer attitude scales. Educational and psychological measurement. 1984; 44 (2):501–505. doi: 10.1177/0013164484442033. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• López-Martín R, Dias P, Tiana A. E-Innovation in Higher Education. Comunicar. 2017; 51 (25):1–4. [ Google Scholar ]
• Luke A. Digital ethics now. Language and Literacy. 2018; 20 (3):185–198. doi: 10.20360/langandlit29416. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Mandal S. The competencies of the modern teacher. International Journal of Research in Engineering Science and Management. 2018; 1 (10):351–360. [ Google Scholar ]
• Martínez, S. J. R., Gámez, F. D. G., Camacho, X. G. O., & Fernández, M. J. M. (2020). Desarrollo y estructura factorial de un instrumento de actitud hacia el uso de la tecnología para la enseñanza y la investigación en docentes universitarios. Revista Tecnología, Ciencia y Educación, (16), 85–111.
• Mbunge E, Fashoto SG, Akinnuwesi B, Metfula A, Simelane S, Ndumiso N. Ethics for integrating emerging technologies to contain COVID-19 in Zimbabwe. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies. 2021; 3 (5):876–890. doi: 10.1002/hbe2.277. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Murnane, R. J., & Levy, F. (1996). Teaching the New Basic Skills. Principles for Educating Children To Thrive in a Changing Economy . Free Press, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
• Nakamura J, Csikszentmihalyi M. Flow theory and research. Handbook of positive psychology. 2009; 195 :206. [ Google Scholar ]
• Ünal, B., Kavanoz, S., Güler, A., & Karabulut, N. (2019). High school students’ attitudes towards ICT and media tools in learning English and academic self-efficacy beliefs. RumeliDE Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi , (17), 298–308. 10.29000/rumelide.656758.
• Ndlovu, M., Ramdhany, V., Spangenberg, E. D., & Govender, R. (2020). Preservice teachers’ beliefs and intentions about integrating mathematics teaching and learning ICTs in their classrooms.  ZDM ,  52 (7), 1365–1380. 10.1007/s11858-020-01186-2.
• Olugbara CT, Letseka M. Factors Predicting Integration of ELearning by Preservice Science Teachers: Structural Model Development and Testing. Electronic Journal of e-Learning. 2020; 18 (5):421–435. doi: 10.34190/JEL.18.5.005. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ortega-Rodríguez PJ, Gómez-García M, Boumadan M, Soto-Varela R. La competencia mediática del alumnado universitario para crear contenidos digitales. Innoeduca International Journal of Technology and Educational Innovation. 2022; 8 (2):69–82. doi: 10.24310/innoeduca.2022.v8i2.14169. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Paraskeva F, Bouta H, Papagianni A. Individual characteristics and computer self-efficacy in secondary education teachers to integrate technology in educational practice. Computers & Education. 2008; 50 (3):1084–1091. doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2006.10.006. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Pérez C, López L. Las habilidades e invariantes investigativas en la formación del profesorado. Una propuesta metodológica para su estudio Pedagogía universitaria. 1999; 4 (2):5–14. [ Google Scholar ]
• Revilla Munoz O, Alpiste Penalba F, Fernandez Sanchez J, Santos OC. Reducing techno-anxiety in high school teachers by improving their ICT problem-solving skills. Behaviour & Information Technology. 2017; 36 (3):255–268. doi: 10.1080/0144929X.2016.1221462. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Robelo OG, Bucheli MGV. Comparative analysis of Research skills and ICT: A Case Study in Higher Education. International Journal of Educational Excellence. 2018; 4 (1):15–27. doi: 10.18562/ijee.031. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Rodriguez-Sanchez AM, Schaufeli WB, Salanova M, Cifre E. Flow experience among information and communication technology users. Psychological Reports. 2008; 102 (1):29–39. doi: 10.2466/pr0.102.1.29-39. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Roth WM, Roychoudhury A. The development of science process skills in authentic contexts. Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 1993; 30 (2):127–152. doi: 10.1002/tea.3660300203. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Rubio MJ, Torrado M, Quirós C, Valls R. Autopercepción de las competencias investigativas en estudiantes de último curso de Pedagogía de la Universidad de Barcelona para desarrollar su trabajo de fin de Grado. Revista Complutense de Educación. 2018; 29 (2):335–354. doi: 10.5209/RCED.52443. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Sanjuanelo SL, Caballero-Uribe CV, Lewis V, Mazuera S, Salamanca JF, Daza W, Fourzali A. Consideraciones éticas en la publicación de investigaciones científicas. Salud Uninorte. 2007; 23 (1):64–78. [ Google Scholar ]
• Semerci A, Aydin MK. Examining High School Teachers’ Attitudes towards ICT Use in Education. International Journal of Progressive Education. 2018; 14 (2):93–105. doi: 10.29329/ijpe.2018.139.7. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Seraji F, Tavakkoli A, Hoseini M. The relationship between technological research skills and research self-efficacy of higher education students. Interdisciplinary Journal of Virtual Learning in Medical Sciences. 2017; 8 (3):1–7. doi: 10.5812/ijvlms.11893. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Shiue YM. Investigating the sources of teachers’ instructional technology use through the decomposed theory of planned behavior. Journal of Educational Computing Research. 2007; 36 (4):425–453. doi: 10.2190/A407-22RR-50X6-2830. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Sim KN, Stein S. Reaching the unreached: De-mystifying the role of ICT in the process of doctoral research. Research in Learning Technology. 2016; 24 :1–15. doi: 10.3402/rlt.v24.30717. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Simonson MR, Maurer M, Montag-Torardi M, Whitaker M. Development of a standardized test of computer literacy and a computer anxiety index. Journal of educational computing research. 1987; 3 (2):231–247. doi: 10.2190/7CHY-5CM0-4D00-6JCG. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Stahl BC, Eden G, Jirotka M, Coeckelbergh M. From computer ethics to responsible research and innovation in ICT: The transition of reference discourses informing ethics-related research in information systems. Information & Management. 2014; 51 (6):810–818. doi: 10.1016/j.im.2014.01.001. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Stahl BC, Timmermans J, Flick C. Ethics of Emerging Information and Communication TechnologiesOn the implementation of responsible research and innovation. Science and Public Policy. 2017; 44 (3):369–381. doi: 10.1093/scipol/scw069. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Suárez-Triana, Y. M., Rincón-Durán, R., & Niño-Vega, J. A. (2020). Aplicación de herramientas web 3.0 para el desarrollo de competencias investigativas en estudiantes de educación media. Pensamiento Y Acción, (29), 3–20.
• Tanjung RF. Answering the challenge of Industrial Revolution 4.0 through Improved Skills Use of Technology College. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Studies. 2019; 1 (1):11–14. doi: 10.29103/ijevs.v1i1.1374. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Teo T. Examining the relationship between student teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and their intended uses of technology for teaching: A structural equation modeling approach. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology. 2009; 8 (4):7–16. [ Google Scholar ]
• Téllez RC, Galisteo RPR, Bailón MR. Factores personales y docentes relacionados con el estrés percibido por docentes universitarios frente al COVID-19. Innoeduca International Journal of Technology and Educational Innovation. 2022; 8 (1):102–110. doi: 10.24310/innoeduca.2022.v8i1.11920. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Venkatesh, V., Morris, M. G., Davis, G. B., & Davis, F. D. (2003). User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view. MIS quarterly , 425–478. 10.2307/30036540.
• Virgili MET. Emergency remote teaching: Las TIC aplicadas a la educación durante el confinamiento por Covid-19. Innoeduca: international journal of technology and educational innovation. 2021; 7 (1):122–136. doi: 10.24310/innoeduca.2021.v7i1.9079. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Yildirim S. Effects of an educational computing course on preservice and in service teachers: A discussion and analysis of attitudes and use. Journal of Research on computing in Education. 2000; 32 (4):479–495. doi: 10.1080/08886504.2000.10782293. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]

Empowering students to develop research skills

February 8, 2021

This post is republished from   Into Practice ,  a biweekly communication of Harvard’s  Office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning

Terence D. Capellini, Richard B Wolf Associate Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology, empowers students to grow as researchers in his Building the Human Body course through a comprehensive, course-long collaborative project that works to understand the changes in the genome that make the human skeleton unique. For instance, of the many types of projects, some focus on the genetic basis of why human beings walk on two legs. This integrative “Evo-Devo” project demands high levels of understanding of biology and genetics that students gain in the first half of class, which is then applied hands-on in the second half of class. Students work in teams of 2-3 to collect their own morphology data by measuring skeletons at the Harvard Museum of Natural History and leverage statistics to understand patterns in their data. They then collect and analyze DNA sequences from humans and other animals to identify the DNA changes that may encode morphology. Throughout this course, students go from sometimes having “limited experience in genetics and/or morphology” to conducting their own independent research. This project culminates in a team presentation and a final research paper.

The benefits: Students develop the methodological skills required to collect and analyze morphological data. Using the UCSC Genome browser  and other tools, students sharpen their analytical skills to visualize genomics data and pinpoint meaningful genetic changes. Conducting this work in teams means students develop collaborative skills that model academic biology labs outside class, and some student projects have contributed to published papers in the field. “Every year, I have one student, if not two, join my lab to work on projects developed from class to try to get them published.”

“The beauty of this class is that the students are asking a question that’s never been asked before and they’re actually collecting data to get at an answer.”

The challenges:  Capellini observes that the most common challenge faced by students in the course is when “they have a really terrific question they want to explore, but the necessary background information is simply lacking. It is simply amazing how little we do know about human development, despite its hundreds of years of study.” Sometimes, for instance, students want to learn about the evolution, development, and genetics of a certain body part, but it is still somewhat a mystery to the field. In these cases, the teaching team (including co-instructor Dr. Neil Roach) tries to find datasets that are maximally relevant to the questions the students want to explore. Capellini also notes that the work in his class is demanding and hard, just by the nature of the work, but students “always step up and perform” and the teaching team does their best to “make it fun” and ensure they nurture students’ curiosities and questions.

Takeaways and best practices

• Incorporate previous students’ work into the course. Capellini intentionally discusses findings from previous student groups in lectures. “They’re developing real findings and we share that when we explain the project for the next groups.” Capellini also invites students to share their own progress and findings as part of class discussion, which helps them participate as independent researchers and receive feedback from their peers.
• Assign groups intentionally.  Maintaining flexibility allows the teaching team to be more responsive to students’ various needs and interests. Capellini will often place graduate students by themselves to enhance their workload and give them training directly relevant to their future thesis work. Undergraduates are able to self-select into groups or can be assigned based on shared interests. “If two people are enthusiastic about examining the knee, for instance, we’ll match them together.”
• Consider using multiple types of assessments.  Capellini notes that exams and quizzes are administered in the first half of the course and scaffolded so that students can practice the skills they need to successfully apply course material in the final project. “Lots of the initial examples are hypothetical,” he explains, even grounded in fiction and pop culture references, “but [students] have to eventually apply the skills they learned in addressing the hypothetical example to their own real example and the data they generate” for the Evo-Devo project. This is coupled with a paper and a presentation treated like a conference talk.

Bottom line:  Capellini’s top advice for professors looking to help their own students grow as researchers is to ensure research projects are designed with intentionality and fully integrated into the syllabus. “You can’t simply tack it on at the end,” he underscores. “If you want this research project to be a substantive learning opportunity, it has to happen from Day 1.” That includes carving out time in class for students to work on it and make the connections they need to conduct research. “Listen to your students and learn about them personally” so you can tap into what they’re excited about. Have some fun in the course, and they’ll be motivated to do the work.

Advertisement

ICT learning experience and research orientation as predictors of ICT skills and the ICT use of university students

• Published: 02 February 2014
• Volume 21 , pages 71–103, ( 2016 )

Cite this article

• Jef C. Verhoeven 1 ,
• Dirk Heerwegh 2 &
• Kurt De Wit 3  

2024 Accesses

17 Citations

1 Altmetric

Explore all metrics

Since our first studies of information and communications technology (ICT) skills and ICT use at universities in 2004, ICT and its use by students has changed greatly. In order to obtain a more detailed picture of ICT skills, we first construct a new instrument to measure the self-perception of ICT skills (49 items) and of ICT use (53 items) by students. This allows us to find some patterns for ICT skills and ICT use. In order to explain these patterns, two basic hypotheses are formulated. The first suggests that positive ICT learning experiences at home, in school, and with peers could contribute to mastering a higher level of ICT skills and more frequent use of ICT among bachelor’s students, a hypothesis that aligns with Dewey’s learning theory. The second hypothesis suggests that there is a similarity between the characteristics of information systems and scientific research, and that students who identify more with scientific research would be more likely to have greater ICT skills and a higher frequency of ICT use. Both hypotheses are tested among bachelor’s students, using some important contextual variables (gender, domain of study, ICT course in secondary school or at university, and education level of parents). It can be concluded that there is a relationship between the ICT learning experience and the research-oriented identity commitment of bachelor’s students on the one hand, and their command of ICT skills and the frequency of use of computers, ICT instruments, and ICT programs on the other.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

The influence of using ICT in high-skills competences and ICT competences. A structural model

Gonzalo Almerich, Jesús Suárez-Rodríguez, … Natividad Orellana

Analysis of faculty use and perceptions of ICT: planning for effective professional development at a Japanese HEI

Ross Miller & Swapna Kumar

ICT Engagement in Learning Environments

Akyol, G., Sungur, S., & Tekkaya, C. (2010). The contribution of cognitive and metacognitive strategy use to students’ science achievement. Educational Research and Evaluation . doi: 10.1080/1380361100367234816 .

MATH   Google Scholar  

Alshumaimeri, Y. (2011). The effects of wikis on foreign language students writing performance. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences . doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.11.139 .

Google Scholar  

Anastasiades, P. S., Vitalaki, E., & Gertzakis, N. (2008). Collaborative learning activities at a distance via interactive videoconferencing in elementary schools: Parents’ attitudes. Computers & Education . doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2007.02.003 .

Aslanidou, S., & Menexes, G. (2008). Youth and the internet: uses and practices in the home. Computers & Education . doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2007.12.003 .

Barron, B., Walter, S. E., Martin, C. K., & Schatz, C. (2010). Predictors of creative computing participation and profiles of experience in two Silicon Valley middle schools. Computers & Education . doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2009.07.017 .

Becker, J. D. (2006). Digital equity in education: A multilevel examination of diffrences in and relationships between computer access, computer use, and state-level technology policies. Education Policies Archives Analysis, 15 (3), http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v15n3/ . Accessed 15 July 2013.

Bennett, R. (2009). Academic self-concept among business students in a recruiting university: definition, measurement and potential effects. Journal of Further and Higher Education . doi: 10.1080/03098770902856678 .

Bennett, J., & Hogarth, S. (2009). Would you want to talk to a scientist at a party? High school students’ attitudes to school science and to science. International Journal of Science Education . doi: 10.1080/09500690802425581 .

Bidaki, M. Z., Sanati, A. R., & Ghannad, F. R. (2013). Producing and introducing mobile books, as a new model of providing learning content in medical sciences. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences . doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.06.019 .

Broos, A. (2005). Gender and information and communication technologies (ICT) anxiety: male self-assurance and female hesitation. CyberPsycholgy & Behavior, 8 (1), 21–31.

Article   Google Scholar  

Bruneel, S., Elen, J., De Wit, K., & Verhoeven, J. C. (2011). Study and non-study related technologies use of Flemish students in higher education. In K. Moyle & G. Wijngaard (Eds.), Student reactions to learning with technologies: Perceptions and outcomes (pp. 227–248). Hershey: IGI Global.

Burke, P. J., & Reitzes, D. C. (1991). An identity theory approach to commitment. Social Psychology Quarterly, 54 (3), 239–251.

Carlsson, C., Carlsson, J., Hyvönen, K., Puhaikanen, P., & Walden, P. (2006). Adoption of Mobile Devices/Services – Searching for Answers with the UTAUT. Proceedings of the 39th Hawai International Conference on sytem sciences. http://www2.computer.org/plugins/dl/pdf/proceedings/hicss/2006/2507/06/250760132a.pdf?template=1&loginState=1&userData=anonymous-IP%253A%253A127.0.0.1 ). Accessed 15 July 2013.

Chatzoglou, P. D., Sarigiannidis, L., Vraimaki, E., & Diamantidis, A. (2009). Investigating Greek employees’ intention to use web-based training. Computers & Education . doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2009.05.007 .

Chen, S. Y., & Fu, Y. C. (2009). Internet use and academic achievement: gender differences in early adolescence. Adolescence, 44 (176), 797–842.

MathSciNet   Google Scholar  

Cheung, D. (2009). Developing a scale to measure students’ attitudes toward chemistry lessons. International Journal of Science Education . doi: 10.1080/09500690802189799 .

Cho, V., Cheng, T. C., & Lai, W. M. (2009). The role of perceived user-interface design in continued usage intention of self-paced e-learning tools. Computers & Education . doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2009.01.014 .

Colley, A., & Comber, C. (2003). Age and gender differences in computer use and attitudes among secondary school students: what has changed? Educational Research . doi: 10.1080/0013188032000103235 .

Cox, M. (2013). Formal to informal learning with IT: resaerch challenges and issues for e-learning. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning . doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2729.2012.00483.x .

De Wit, K., Heerwegh, D., & Verhoeven, J. C. (2012). Changes in the basic ICT skills of freshmen between 2005 and 2009: Who’s catching up and who’s still behind? Education and Information Technologies, 17 (2), 205–231.

Demir, I., Kiliç, S., & Ünal, H. (2010). Effects of students’ and schools’ characteristics on mathematics achievement: findings from PISA 2006. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences . doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.03.472 .

Dewey, J. (1917). The need for a recovery of philosophy. In J. Dewey (Ed.), Creative intelligence: Essays in the pragmatic attitude (pp. 3–69). New York: Holt.

Dewey, J. (1933 (1960)). How we think. Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and Company.

Dewey, J. (1938). Education and experience. http://www.schoolofeducators.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/EXPERIENCE-EDUCATION-JOHN-DEWEY.pdf . Accessed 14 March 2013.

DiStefano, C., Zhu, M., & Mîndrilă, D. (2009). Understanding and using factor scores: considerations for the applied researcher. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 14 (20), 1–11. http://pareonline.net/pdf/v14n20.pdf . Accessed 27 September 2013.

ECDL. (2010). ECDL syllabus 5.0 . Utrecht: ECDL Nederland NV.

Eow, Y. L., bte Wan Ali, W. Z., bt. Mahmud, R., & Baki, R. (2009). Form one students’ engagement with computer games and its effect on their academic achievement in a Malaysian secondary school. Computers & Education . doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2009.05.013 .

Evans, K. G. (2000). Reclaiming John Dewey: democary, inquiry, pragmatism, and public management. Administration & Sociey . doi: 10.1177/00953990022019452 .

George, R. (2006). A cross-domain analysis of change in students’ attitudes toward science and attitudes about the utility of science. International Journal of Science Education . doi: 10.1080/09500690500338755 .

Germann, P. J. (1988). Development of the attitude toward science in school assessment and its use to investigate the relationship between science achievement and attitude toward science in school. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 25 (8), 689–703.

Hargittai, E. (2010). Digital na(t)ives. Variation in Internet skills and uses among members of the “Net Generation”. Sociological Inquiry . doi: 10.1111/j.1475-682X.2009.00317.x .

Jeffrey, L., Hegarty, B., Kelly, O., Penman, M., Coburn, D., & McDonald, J. (2011). Developing digital information literacy in higher education: obstacles and supports. Journal of Information Technology Education, 10 , 383–413.

Kaminski, K., Switzer, J., & Gloeckner, G. (2009). Workforce readiness: a study of university students’ fluency with information technology. Computers & Education . doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2009.01.017 .

Kind, J., Jones, P., & Barmby, P. (2007). Developing attitudes towards science measures. International Journal of Science Education . doi: 10.1080/09500690600909091 .

Kolb, A. Y., & Kolb, D. A. (2005). Learning styles and learning spaces: enhancing experiential learning in higher education. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 4 (2), 193–212.

Kubiatko, M., & Vlckova, K. (2010). The relationship between ICT use and science knowledge for Czech students: a secondary analysis of PISA. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 8 (3), 523–543.

Lee, Y. C. (2008). The role of perceived resources in online learning adoption. Computers & Education . doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2007.01.001 .

Lee, M. C. (2010). Explaining and predicting users’ continuance intention toward e-learning: an extension of the expectation–confirmation model. Computers & Education . doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2009.09.002 .

Lee, B. C., Yoon, J. O., & Lee, I. (2009). Learners’ Acceptance of e-learning in South Korea: theories and results. Computers & Education . doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2009.06.014 .

Luu, K., & Freeman, J. G. (2011). An analysis of the relationship between information and communication technology (ICT) and scientific literacy in Canada and Australia. Computers & Education . doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2010.11.008 .

Martin, F., & Ertzberger, J. (2013). Here and now mobile learning: an experimental study on the use of mobile technology. Computers & Education . doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2013.04.021 .

McCleary, L., & Brown, G. T. (2003). Association between nurses’ education about research and their research use. Nurse Education Today . doi: 10.1016/S0260-6917(03)00084-4 .

McCloskey, D. J. (2008). Nurses’ perceptions of research utilization in a corporate health care system. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 40 (1), 39–45.

McMahon, G. (2009). Critical thinking and ICT integration in a Western Australian secondary school. Educational Technology & Society, 12 (4), 269–281.

Morley, D. A. (2012). Enhancing networking and proactive learning skills in the first year university experience through the use of wikis. Nurse Education Today . doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2011.03.007 .

O’Brian, J. A., & Marakas, G. M. (2009). Management information systems (9th ed.). Boston, Burr Ridge (IL), Dubuque (IA), New York, San Francisco: McGraw Hill Irwin.

Papanastasiou, E. C., Zembylas, M., & Vrasidas, C. (2005). An examination of the Pisa Database to explore the relationship between computer use and science achievement. Educational Research and Evaluation . doi: 10.1080/13803610500254824 .

Peter, J., & Valkenburg, P. (2006). Adolescents’ internet use: testing the “disappearing digital divide” versus the “emerging digital differentiation” approach. Poetics . doi: 10.1016/j.poetic.2006.05.005 .

Pole, C., & Lampard, R. (2002). Practical social investigation. Qualitative and quantitative methods in social research . Harlow: Prentice Hall.

Salajan, F. D., Schönwetter, D. J., & Cleghorn, B. M. (2010). Student and faculty inter-generational digital divide: fact or fiction. Computers & Education . doi: 10.1016/j.compedu2010.06.017 .

Strømsø, H. I., Grottum, P., & Lycke, K. H. (2004). Changes in student approaches to learning with the introduction of computer-supported problem-based learning. Medical Education . doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2923.2004.01786.x .

Teo, T., Lee, C. B., Chai, C. S., & Wong, S. L. (2009). Assessing the intention to use technology among pre-service teachers in Singapore and Malaysia: a multigroup invariance analysis of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Computers & Education . doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2009.05.017 .

Tuan, H., Chin, C. C., & Shieh, S. H. (2005). The development of a questionnaire to measure students’ motivation towards science learning. International Journal of Science Education . doi: 10.1080/0950069042000323737 .

van Dijk, J. A. (2006). Digital divide research, achievements and shortcomings. Poetics . doi: 10.1016/j.poetic.2006.05.004 .

Vekiri, I. (2010a). Socioeconomic differences in elementary students’ ICT beliefs and out-of-school experiences. Computers & Education . doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2009.09.029 .

Vekiri, I. (2010b). Boys’ and girls’ ICT beliefs: do teachers matter? Computers & Education . doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2009.11.013 .

Vekiri, I., & Chronaki, A. (2008). Gender issues in technology use: perceived social support, computer self-efficacy and value beliefs, and computer use beyond school. Computers & Education . doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2008.01.003 .

Verhoeven, J. C., Heerwegh, D., & De Wit, K. (2010). Information and communication technologies in the life of university freshmen: An Analysis of change. Computers & Education, 55 (1), 53–66.

Vermunt, J. (1994). Scoring key for the inventory of learning styles (ILS) in higher education . Tilburg: Tilburg University.

Volman, M., & van Eck, E. (2001). Gender equity and information technology in education: the second decade. Review of Educational Research, 71 (4), 613–634.

Wang, Y., Wu, M., & Wang, H. (2009). Investigating the determinants and age and gender differences in the acceptance of mobile learning. British Journal of Educational Technology . doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8535.2007.00809.x .

Wareing, C. (1982). Developing the WASP: wareing attitudes toward science protocol. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 19 (8), 639–645.

Wareing, C. (1990). A survey of antecedents of attitudes toward science. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 27 (4), 371–386.

Won, S. J., & Han, S. (2010). Out-of-School activities and achievement among middle school students in the USA and South Korea. Journal of Advanced Academics, 21 (4), 628–661.

Wu, Y., Tao, Y., & Yang, P. (2007). Using UTAUT to explore the behavior of 3G mobile communication users. Proceedings of the 2007 I.E. IEEM, (pp. 199–203). http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/ielx5/4419130/4419131/04419179.pdf?arnumber=4419179 . Accessed 4 July 2012.

Zhao, L., Lu, Y., Huang, W., & Wang, Q. (2010). Internet inequality: the relationship between high school students’ Internet. Computers & Education . doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2010.05.010 .

Zwass, V. (2012). Information system. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/287895/information-system . Accessed 15 July 2013.

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Centre for Sociological Research, University of Leuven, Parkstraat 45, Box 3601, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

Jef C. Verhoeven

Leuven Statistic Research Centre, University of Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200b, Box 2400, 3001, Leuven, Belgium

Dirk Heerwegh

Datamanagement, University of Leuven, Krakenstraat 3, Box 5200, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

Kurt De Wit

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jef C. Verhoeven .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Verhoeven, J.C., Heerwegh, D. & De Wit, K. ICT learning experience and research orientation as predictors of ICT skills and the ICT use of university students. Educ Inf Technol 21 , 71–103 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-014-9310-3

Download citation

Published : 02 February 2014

Issue Date : January 2016

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-014-9310-3

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Learning experience
• Research orientation
• University students
• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

Comparative Analysis of Research Skills and ICT: A Case Study in Higher Education

International Journal of Educational Excellence

Related Papers

Apertura Revista

The research processes are part of the activities of PhD students; regardless of the focus of training or the educational modality of the program, the students will need to obtain, select, organize and analyze relevant information of various media, mainly Internet, as well as collaborate with their peers and socialize their findings in virtual media. The objective of this research is to analyze the research competences related to the use of ICT in PhD students from three Mexican universities. This is an exploratory and descriptive research with a mixed approach, it was used as a tool to retrieve information a questionnaire with Likert type scale items, multiple choice questions and open questions. The main findings identify that students frequently use technologies for communicative purposes and information search; however, they have areas of opportunity to determine the accuracy of the information they consult from the Internet, using digital tools to analysis the information in addition to participating in the dissemination of their knowledge using Internet platforms.

International Journal of Media and Information Literacy

Iliana Nikolova

Journal of Educational Foundation

Anne E omori

The study examines the extent to which new technological tools usage influence quality research outcomes among post graduate diploma students in the University of Calabar, Nigeria. Two new technological tools investigated are: computer and internet. To achieve the main objective of the study, two research questions were raised and two hypotheses were formulated. The study adopted descriptive design of survey type. The population of the study comprising all Post Graduate Diploma (PGD) students in the University of Calabar admitted during 2015/2016 academic session. Using Purposive and simple random sampling technique, 157 Post Graduate Diploma students of institute of education were drawn as sample for the study. Participants were 73 male and 84 students female. New Technologies tools Usage (r =0.71) and students' quality research outcomes rating (r = 0.91) scales were used for data collection. Data were analysed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and independent t-test at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the analysis shows that computer-assisted significantly influence quality research outcomes among post graduate diploma students. The study contributes to the understanding of the cutting edge of technological advancement in learning, teaching and research. However, it was recommended among others that for sustainable quality research outcomes, new technological tools should be utilize in research by both supervisors and students in all tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

This research determines the factors that inhibit the systematic use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the educational processes of the Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste, SC (CIBNOR). In the same way it examines the level of affectation in the adoption of these technologies for factors such as age, the relation of the teaching practice, the perceived incentive by its exercise, the professional and job profile, among others. Therefore, a quantitative research was carried out, applying a survey to the entire academic staff of CIBNOR, statistically examining the correlation of the data and the graphical analysis of dispersion and regression. The results show that the profile of the institution's academics, generally of PhD dedicated to the research of some branch of biology, does not constitute a factor that affects the familiarity, use, attitude and competencies that they have on the ICT; age is shown as an insignificant factor, however, the insufficiency of the economic incentives towards the teaching is outlined as the factor that inhibits the adoption of the technology in their practices, causing the academics of the institution to subordinate the practice of teaching to their research activities.

Applied System Innovation

Adrián Gallardo Sánchez

Several kinds of research conclude that the level of digital competence of students is mainly oriented to their daily activities. Therefore, we present the current paper which seeks to determine the impact of implementing a blended learning course designed to improve digital competence for research (DCR) among a group of undergraduate engineering students. With this approach, a quasi-experimental explanatory methodology with a causal-comparative scope was applied. For this reason, the results were analyzed before and after applying a specially designed course to the experimental group, comparing it with a passive control group by collecting data using three previously validated instruments. For data analysis, students’ t-tests and two-way ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) were used, estimating the effects with Cohen’s study. Given the results, there was a statistically significant improvement (p ≤ 0.05) in their skills and attitudes, but not in their knowledge, obtaining a significant ef...

Turkish Journal of Computer and Mathematics Education

Juan Luis Cabanillas Garcia

The objective of the research was to observe the evolution of attitude, knowledge, and use of ICT resources in students during the progression of the Research Master's degree in Teacher Training and ICTs in the Faculty of Education at the University of Extremadura. A total of 21 students from the Master's program participated. A concurrent triangulation mixed method was used, combining descriptive and inferential data analysis with content analysis, developing the quantitative and qualitative designs in parallel. Among the main conclusions obtained, it is noted that no statistically significant differences were observed in the attitude, knowledge, and use of ICT resources of the students between the beginning and the end of the Master's program. However, a positive correlation was found between knowledge and the use of ICT resources, both at the beginning and at the end of the Master's program. Moreover, it was found that not only do the students have a positive attitude and a medium knowledge with the use of ICT resources but also that the main problems in the teaching/learning process in the online Master's program are related to the teaching staff and organization.

shanti tejwani

The present paper attempts to examine and explore the actualities & possibilities of quality improvement in Research work by using Information Communication Technology. The innovation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has revolutionized every spare of education includi ng educational research. ICT not only provides help to researchers prior to initiati on of the research work but also during the process and after the completion of the study too. The software packages & other ICT tools happen to help researcher in every step of the research i.e. gap finding, review of related literature, data collect ion, data analysis, report writing and, the last but not the least, presentation of the res earch work for written or oral communication. Inputs from ICT provide a major source for gap find ing or identification of the problem. There are numerous e-books, e-journals & other reading material available on internet, Books which are out of print, at prese nt can also be searc...

Competence, skills, information, research ABSTRACT. This research has as a target to determine the degree of correlation between information skills and research competences in students of the IX and X cycle of the Professional School of Education of the National University Santiago Antúnez de Mayolo of the Ancash region (Peru). The approach was descriptive-correlational quantitative with census sampling, the same one that was confirmed by 88 students of both sexes. The instruments used were the research questionnaire made of Rubio (2015) and the information skills questionnaire of Cabrejos and Montenegro (2017). The results revealed, using the Spearman&#39;s Rho non-parametric test, a moderate positive correlation of 0.3, with which it was established that there is a direct correlation between informational skills and research competences.

Education Sciences

Jesus Salinas

Although we live in a knowledge society, instruction in research is still given traditionally. Mobile devices are present in learning processes, but their possibilities for research have not been broadly explored. This paper explores the research skills that could be supported using information communication technology through mobile devices. We start from theoretical frameworks related to andragogy, knowledge management, the technology acceptance model, and mobile learning. As a case study, 20 Colombian virtual education students studying for master’s degrees answered a questionnaire. The results revealed an acceptance of mobile device use in education and a tendency to use apps for information management. These results suggest the need to change the teaching process and design a strategy for the inclusion of mobile learning in research. The use of mobile learning can enhance research training processes framed in the emergent mode of knowledge or context-centric research, especiall...

Interdisciplinary Journal of Virtual Learning in Medical Sciences

farhad seraji

RELATED PAPERS

Call/WA : 0812 1739 4188 | Kursus Digital Marketing Bandung

0857 3306 8896 Pelatihan Digital Marketing

Journal ISTIGHNA

Deden Saeful Ridhwan

Vadose Zone Journal

Ernst Spiess

Przegląd Spawalnictwa - Welding Technology Review

Eugeniusz Turyk

Journal of Investigative Dermatology

Marie-Noël M'Boutchou

International journal of paleopathology

Jelmer Eerkens

Investigación y Práctica en Psicología del Desarrollo

AHTZIRI ABIGAIL AVALOS MOLINA

Henry Nur Rahmad

International Journal of Computer Applications

shanthi bala

PUSAT KULINER DI WATES KEDIRI

Samchick Wates

bambang riyanto

PLOS Genetics

Alphaxard Manjurano

Asian Social Science

Chukwuma C Ukachukwu

Transplantation

Prasad Nair

Sustainability

Francoise Bergerat

Proceedings of the Mexican International Conference on Computer Science

Pedro Mejia-Alvarez

Head and Neck Pathology

Marisol Rodriguez martinez

Adem Özkara

Inmigración y ciudadanía: perspectivas …

Andrés García Inda

Demonstratio Mathematica

Juan Nápoles

Journal of biomedical optics

Bernhard Brehm

Presidential Studies Quarterly

kjgg fdfdgg

Rohini Sector 12 Call Girls

delhi munirka

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

Click through the PLOS taxonomy to find articles in your field.

For more information about PLOS Subject Areas, click here .

Loading metrics

Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Sources of individual differences in adults’ ICT skills: A large-scale empirical test of a new guiding framework

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation University of Siegen, Siegen, Germany

Roles Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Portland State University, Portland, OR, United States of America

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation GESIS–Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Mannheim, Germany

• Alexandra Wicht, 
• Stephen Reder, 
• Clemens M. Lechner

• Published: April 19, 2021
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249574
• Reader Comments

We develop an integrative conceptual framework that seeks to explain individual differences in the ability to use information and communication technologies (ICT skills). Building on practice engagement theory, this framework views the continued usage of digital technologies at work and in everyday life (ICT use) as the key prerequisite for the acquisition of ICT skills. At the same time, the framework highlights that ICT use is itself contingent upon individual and contextual preconditions. We apply this framework to data from two recent German large-scale studies ( N = 2,495 and N = 2,786, respectively) that offer objective measures of adults’ ICT skills. Findings support our framework’s view of ICT use as a key prerequisite for ICT skills. Moreover, they demonstrate that literacy skills have strong associations with ICT skills, largely by virtue of their indirect associations through ICT use. By comparison, regional digital cultures (as proxied by internet domain registration rates) evince only limited explanatory power for individual differences in ICT skills.

Citation: Wicht A, Reder S, Lechner CM (2021) Sources of individual differences in adults’ ICT skills: A large-scale empirical test of a new guiding framework. PLoS ONE 16(4): e0249574. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249574

Editor: Sergio A. Useche, Universitat de Valencia, SPAIN

Received: October 6, 2020; Accepted: March 20, 2021; Published: April 19, 2021

Copyright: © 2021 Wicht et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: The analyses are based on data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS): Starting Cohort 6 (DOI: 10.5157/NEPS:SC6:5.1.0 ) and the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), 1st Cycle (DOI: 10.4232/1.12560 ). The authors are not the owners of the data and have no permission to distribute this data. However, the data is available for scientific use under restricted conditions in order to comply with the relevant data protection regulations and to ensure the anonymity of the participants. The basis for the use of the data is a data use agreement. The authors got access to the PIAAC data through the Research Data Centre at GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences ( https://www.gesis.org/en/piaac/rdc ) and to the NEPS data through the Research Data Centre at LifBi – Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories ( https://www.neps-data.de/Data-Center/Data-Access ). Both data sources are publically available upon registration as a data user.

Funding: This work was supported by the “Federal Ministry of Education and Research” (BMBF), project entitled “Identifying risk and protective factors for the development of low literacy and numeracy among German adults” under Grant No. W143700A (PI: Clemens Lechner). The publication of this article was funded by the Open Access Fund of the Leibniz Association.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

ICT skills in the information age

Across the past two decades, ICT skills—that is, the ability to use information and communication technologies—have gained currency for individuals and societies alike [ 1 ]. Recent studies, for example, attest to an important role of ICT skills for individuals’ employability, earnings, and social participation—as well as societies’ economic growth [e.g., 2 – 4 ]. As a consequence of this digital transformation, ICT skills have become a new fault line along which social inequalities emerge.

Given the growing importance of ICT skills, the question arises as to the factors that predict individual differences in ICT skills. However, extant evidence on adults’ ICT skills is sparse, scattered, and lacks theoretical coherence. In this study, we develop a unified conceptual framework that consolidates previous theorizing and research and aims to gain a better understanding of the correlates of individual differences in adult ICT skills. Toward that end, our framework seeks to identify the most important correlates (i.e., potential determinants) of ICT skills. Building on practice engagement theory [ 5 ] and related theoretical ideas, our framework assumes that the continued usage of ICT in the contexts of work and everyday life (henceforth “ICT use”) is a key prerequisite acquiring and maintaining ICT skills, thus highlighting the role of mostly informal learning processes. At the same time, building on the findings of previous studies the framework directs attention to the fact that ICT use is itself contingent upon a range of individual and contextual preconditions, most notably individuals’ literacy skills (i.e., reading competence) and the socio-cultural practices related to ICT in the wider regional context.

We put this framework to a test in two large-scale, high-quality studies on adult skills in Germany. Both studies measured the key constructs stipulated by our framework with comparable—albeit not identical—measurement instruments. Moreover, both studies addressed essentially the same target population, despite some differences in the age distribution because of the sampling frame and the waves under study. Analyzing both datasets in parallel allowed for a built-in replication of our findings. If both datasets lead to the same findings despite the differences in the specific measures used and the sample composition, this would greatly bolster our confidence in these findings.

Previous evidence on the sources of individual differences in adults’ ICT skills

Although there is an ongoing debate on the so-called “digital divide” or “digital divides”—the “haves” and the “have-nots”—regarding access to and usage of digital technologies in the information age and knowledge society [ 6 – 8 ], little is known about the factors that drive adults’ actual ICT skills. Only a few studies draw on objective, standardized measures of adults’ ICT skills to identify these skills’ potential determinants [ 9 – 12 ]. Other studies investigate individuals’ subjectively assessed ICT skills [ 13 – 17 ]. The latter set of studies must contend with the problem of self-report bias since previous research shows that subjectively and objectively assessed ICT skills correlate only moderately [ 18 – 20 ]. Besides being sparse, evidence on adults’ ICT skills is also highly scattered. Existing evidence comes from different disciplines and has focused on widely varying sets of potential determinants of ICT skills.

Research on the sources of individual differences in adults’ ICT skills has identified two groups of factors that are thought to be possible determinants of an individual’s ICT skills: socio-demographic characteristics and ICT use. The first type of study emphasizes the role of education, age, sex, and migration. Typically, lower-educated, older, female and immigrated individuals are found to have lower ICT skills on average [ 8 , 11 , 13 , 21 – 24 ]. The precise mechanisms behind the associations of these socio-demographic characteristics with ICT skills, however, are not entirely clear. The second group of studies looked beyond socio-demographic characteristics to also address the role of behavioural factors, highlighting the role of individuals’ ICT use at work and/or in everyday life, usage that positively correlates with digital skill [ 9 , 10 , 12 , 14 , 25 – 31 ]. These are the first studies that focus on how access, usage and ICT skills are related to each other. They suggest that ICT use is a key prerequisite for acquiring and maintaining ICT skills, championing the role of informal learning practices.

At the same time, it is important to note that ICT use is itself contingent on several preconditions [see 32 , 33 for exceptions]. In this regard, previous studies on ICT use have shown that besides traditional socio-demographic correlates of ICT use—age, gender, education, and ethnicity [ 34 , 35 ]—the regional macro-context may play an important role in shaping individuals’ ICT use. This is evidenced, for example, by a major urban-rural gap in the access to ICT [ 36 – 39 ]. Moreover, Brynner et al. [ 26 ] point to the importance of micro-contexts, such as home and workplace, in structuring individuals’ ICT use. Thus, both ICT skills and ICT use should be seen as dependent on individual socio-demographic characteristics and the multi-layered contexts in which individuals’ lives unfold. Together, socio-demographic characteristics and life contexts determine individuals’ access to ICT, their patterns of ICT use, and hence their opportunities for acquiring and maintaining ICT skills. From this perspective, ICT use can be regarded as a key mediator of the relationship between socio-structural opportunities and individuals’ ICT skills.

In the following, we offer theoretical perspectives that allow us to integrate the correlates of ICT skills identified by previous research—socio-demographic characteristics, ICT use, and socio-structural or contextual opportunities—into a unified conceptual framework. This framework gives centre stage to ICT use as a precondition for acquiring ICT skills while highlighting that ICT use is itself contingent upon a range of individual and contextual factors.

Theoretical perspectives on adults’ ICT skills

Ict use as a prerequisite to the acquisition of ict skills.

Practice engagement theory [ 5 , 40 ], which was developed in the context of literacy research (see Reder, Gauly and Lechner [ 41 ] for a recent application to numeracy), aims to explain how individual differences in proficiency arise by highlighting the role of practice in everyday settings such as work or home. It states that skills such as literacy and numeracy in general, and ICT skills in particular, reciprocally interact with individuals’ engagement in information-processing practices, such as using the computer or the internet for information acquisition, documentation or presentation of contents or communication with others [ 26 ]. Practice engagement states that such practices allow individuals to expand their skills, which in turn tend to further reinforce attendant practices, instigating a self-reinforcing cycle of practice and skill acquisition.

Practice engagement theory is in line with constructivist learning theories [ 42 , 43 ] according to which learning is rooted in the learner’s activities. Constructivist learning theories champion the role of non-formal and informal learning processes, that is, learning processes outside formal settings that do not lead to certificates. Such informal learning processes are thought to gain particular importance during adulthood after individuals have finished their formal education [ 44 , 45 ].

The social practices view espoused by practice engagement theory and by constructivist learning theories is particularly apt for explaining differences in ICT skills. This is because current cohorts of adults, especially the older ones, typically received no or only little formal training in ICT skills during their formative years. Instead, for them, the acquisition of ICT skills depended heavily on “learning-by-doing”—that is, on the extent to which they used ICT at home and/or at work [ 34 , 46 ].

Contextual opportunities for ICT use and digital skill acquisition

If recurring practice engagement–that is, ICT use–is central to the acquisition of ICT skills, the question then arises what are the sources of ICT use itself? Non-formal and informal learning processes are strongly contingent upon the learning opportunities offered by an individual’s social context. Contextual opportunities play an important role in the social cognitive theory [ 47 , 48 ] as well as in practice engagement theory [ 49 , 50 ], both of which highlight the relevance of context-specific role models and social practices in shaping individuals’ learning opportunities.

Which social contexts, then, offer relevant opportunities for adults to use ICT and, consequently, to acquire ICT skills? As noted earlier, learning during adulthood mainly takes place outside of formal educational settings. Regarding ICT skills, most learning takes place in a multitude of non-formal and informal learning environments. These learning environments can be regarded as distinct yet interrelated micro-contexts [ 51 ]. The workplace is arguably the most central context in which adults make use of ICT to fulfill given tasks. For instance, adults can learn to deal with complexity, generate, formulate and evaluate options, access knowledge, seek expert help with or without the aid of ICT [ 52 ]. Following practice engagement theory, the continued use of ICT to manage given work tasks will, over time, result in higher ICT skills.

Furthermore, Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory [ 51 ] directs attention to the fact that micro-contexts such as work or the family do not operate in a vacuum but are embedded in a set of more distal contexts that shape, and are in turn shaped by, different micro-contexts. In this regard, the regional context becomes relevant, as individuals’ behaviour in general, and their ICT use in particular, are always locally situated [ 53 ]. Regional contexts provide the “digital infrastructure” for using ICT in terms of access to high-speed internet [ 36 , 54 ], but, what might be more important, regional contexts are characterized by different “digital cultures” [ 55 ]. These digital cultures are objectified in regional-specific social practices that may encourage or discourage individuals and organizations from integrating digital technologies into their everyday practices by setting relevant social norms and providing role models [ 56 , 57 ]. Following social cognitive theory [ 47 , 48 ] and adoption and diffusion theories influenced by it [ 58 , 59 ], social learning is the most important driver of individuals’ behaviour, including attitudes and beliefs [ 8 ], and, in general, social change. That is, individuals in environments in which a stronger “digital culture” encourages them to adopt digital technologies may be more likely to adopt and use these technologies themselves, which in turn will positively influence the development of their ICT skills over time.

Literacy as a prerequisite to ICT use and digital skill acquisition

Focusing on the individual level, there seems to be a consensus among scholars that individuals’ ICT use, as well as their ICT skills, is strongly dependent on cognitive abilities [ 1 , 60 ]. In this regard, literacy skills can be seen as the most crucial set of cognitive skills, besides mathematical and problem-solving competences or the ability to think critically. Literacy skills refer to the ability to decode and comprehend written language. Following the literacy hypothesis ([ 61 ]; for an in-depth discussion see [ 62 ]), literacy skills can be assumed to be an indispensable prerequisite to using ICT and hence to acquiring ICT skills. After all, digital technologies are heavily based on text and abstract symbols that need to be processed and decoded. Consider, for example, a simple web search through Google or any other search engine. While this might seem a basic task for readers of this journal, it can be virtually inaccessible for individuals who cannot read and understand written information. In this regard, van Deursen and van Dijk [ 33 ] found that literacy skills particularly impact on formal internet use (e.g. navigating the internet by using hyperlinks), information internet use (e.g. locating required information, selecting and evaluating information) and strategic internet use (e.g. taking advantage of the internet by developing an orientation towards a particular goal or taking the right action to reach this goal). Furthermore, the study by Desjardins and Ederer [ 9 ] found that reading and writing (i.e., literary practices) on the job and in everyday life were positively related to individuals’ objectively measured ICT skills. Hence, literacy skills need to be considered as a precondition for ICT use and, by virtue of this, for the acquisition of ICT skills.

Despite the obvious centrality of literacy skills for ICT skills, literacy skills have rarely been taken into account in research on the determinants of ICT use and ICT skills [ 13 , 33 ]. Even so, in the debate on (functional) literacy of the last decade, literacy skills and ICT skills are more and more seen as interrelated entities [ 63 , 64 ]. Coiro [ 65 ] points out that the notion of literacy as individuals’ ability to read, write and understand the meaning of the content of conventional print media only, is no longer sufficient, as the internet provides new text formats and new ways to gain information that challenge individuals who only learned to read paper-based media [ 66 ].

Toward an integrative guiding framework

Outline of the framework.

In sum, major theories of skill acquisition such as practice engagement theory assign a key role to social practices—more specifically, ICT use—in settings such as the workplace or everyday life. As we argued, ICT use is likely to be of particular relevance to the acquisition of ICT skills because current cohorts of adults typically received little or no formal training in ICT skills and acquired them through non-formal and informal learning processes, that is, through “learning by doing.” However, ICT use itself depends critically on several prerequisites. Chief among them are the opportunities and encouragements to engage with ICT offered by the multi-layered contexts in which individuals live on the one hand, and individuals’ endowment with literacy skills, which are indispensable in order to engage with (heavily text-based) digital technologies on the other.

Our unified conceptual framework, shown in Fig 1 , summarizes these key ideas. Consistent with practice engagement theory, our framework puts ICT use to the centre stage. To pay heed to the fact that ICT use does not operate in a vacuum but is multiply determined, our framework distinguishes between three levels relevant for adults’ ICT use and ICT skills: (1) the individual level (particularly represented by individuals’ literacy skills and educational level, but also other socio-demographic characteristics), (2) the level of micro-contexts (represented by the workplace and in everyday settings in which ICT use takes place), and the level of more distal macro-contexts (represented by digital culture at the regional level). The framework assumes that factors on the individual, micro-contextual and macro-contextual level influence the acquisition of ICT skills mainly through their influences on ICT use.

• PPT PowerPoint slide
• PNG larger image
• TIFF original image

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249574.g001

An empirical application of the framework

In the following, we put our framework to an empirical test. For this purpose, we leverage the unique analytical potential of two representative German large-scale studies that offer objective measures of adults’ ICT skills, along with information on the other key components of our framework. Based on this framework, our core hypotheses are the following:

• Hypothesis 1: ICT use on the job and/or in everyday life is positively interrelated with ICT skills (path I).
• Hypothesis 2: Regional digital culture is positively related to individuals’ ICT skills by way of ICT use on the job and/or in everyday life (path I & path II).
• Hypothesis 3: The positive association between literacy and ICT skills is in part mediated by individuals’ ICT use on the job and/or in everyday life (path IV & path I).
• Hypothesis 4: Individuals with a high degree of literacy skills have higher ICT skills (path III).

Data and samples

First, we draw on data of the first cycle of the “Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies” (PIAAC, DOI 10.4232/1.12560 , ZA5846, and DOI 10.4232/1.12560 , ZA5846) in 2012. Second, we make use of the fifth wave in 2011/12 of the starting cohort 6 “Adults” of the “National Educational Panel Study” (NEPS, DOI 10.5157/NEPS:SC6:5.1.0 ). The data are public and available upon registration from the NEPS and PIAAC websites, respectively. Both data sets enable us to take into account the individual level, the level of micro-contexts (workplace and home) as well as the more distal macro level (regions). Especially the possibility of merging characteristics of the area of residence at the level of districts (“Landkreise,” NUTS-3) to the individual data makes these data unique with regard to our research question and enables us to investigate the interplay of regional conditions (digital culture), individual behaviour (ICT use) and ICT skills. However, concerning the occupational level, we are not able to distinguish between ICT use and relevant occupational conditions, as no occupational classification reflecting degrees of digitalization is available as yet. Therefore, our measure of using digital technologies on the job should be regarded as a conflated measure of individual action in context. In particular, the measure of ICT use on the job (described below) may often reflect characteristics of the job itself (in its layers of context) as well as characteristics of the individual in context.

PIAAC was initiated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and designed to provide internationally comparable measures of the cognitive abilities of the adult population aged between 16 and 65 years. While the whole study comprises data about 24 OECD and related countries, in our study, we only draw on the data for Germany. This restriction enables us to compare the results we obtain from PIAAC with those from NEPS.

The German sample of PIAAC comprises 5,465 persons. However, ICT skills are assessed only for persons reporting previous experience using computers, who consented to a computer-based skills assessment and who demonstrated basic capability using the computer keyboard and mouse). The missingness resulting from this routing process is informative in that it points to different stages of a “digital inclusion pathway” [ 28 ]. However, for this paper, we do not take such missing patterns into account, as no equivalent information is provided by NEPS. Hence, from the initial sample, we have valid information on the digital and literacy skills of 4,541 persons. Also, a large number of 1,578 cases must be excluded due to missing information about ICT use on the job, with 871 persons who currently were not employed. Further 90 persons provide no information on the use of ICT in everyday life, and 378 persons did not mention standard socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age, ethnicity, level of education). In the end, our analyses sample consists of 2,495 persons.

The data from the starting cohort 6 of the NEPS were collected as part of the “Framework Programme for the Promotion of Empirical Educational Research” funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research; as of 2014, the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories at the University of Bamberg conducts the NEPS survey in cooperation with a nationwide network [ 67 ]. The current release of the study comprises a representative sample of 15,249 individuals aged 24 to 70 years of which 6,135 individuals had their ICT skills assessed in the fifth wave. From this sample, only 3,676 individuals also have information from literacy skills assessed in wave 3. The large number of missing values results from the randomized allocation of literacy and numeracy tests in wave 3 [ 68 ]. In addition, 2,786 cases also have valid information on ICT use on the job; no further missing values occur concerning ICT use in everyday life and the basic socio-demographic variables we use for control purposes.

Individual and micro level measures

In what follows, we describe the relevant measures in PIAAC and NEPS we use to test the hypotheses derived from our theoretical framework empirically. Table 1 gives an overview of the basic descriptive statistic of these theoretically important variables and the socio-demographic characteristics used as controls.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249574.t001

ICT skills.

In the assessment framework of PIAAC, ICT skills are conceptualized and measured by an individual’s proficiency in “problem-solving in technology-rich environments.” This PIAAC framework combines general skills in problem-solving and specific skills in using ICT. We label this combination of competencies “ICT skills.” The assessment of individuals’ ICT skills was computer-based, where the test situation corresponds to a real-life situation in which the computer is used to solve the problems raised by the test items. The items rely on everyday problems, which typically can be solved by using ICT (for example items, see OECD [ 69 , pp. 53–55]).

Based on the data of all participating countries of PIAAC, the items were scaled using item response theory (IRT) producing a score ranging from zero to 500 points, with an average of 250 points and a standard deviation of 50 points. For each respondent ten plausible values were imputed, representing measurement error in the posterior distribution of their proficiency (for further information on IRT see [ 70 ]).

In line with PIAAC and other international large-scale assessments, NEPS defined ICT skills from a functional perspective that involves the knowledge and skills needed to manage everyday problems and to participate in society [ 71 ]. Using IRT, these assessments include Warm’s mean weighted likelihood estimations (WLEs) of individuals’ ICT skills as point estimates of individuals given their item responses [ 72 ]. Despite the similarities of NEPS and PIAAC on a theoretical level, their assessments of ICT skills are quite different. One major difference concerns the test mode: While the test in PIAAC was a computer-based assessment, the NEPS test was paper-based with simple multiple choice and true-false items. This comes along with differences in how they covered the variety of item difficulty levels. All items in NEPS require only one step, and no conclusions are necessary to answer the questions. In contrast to PIAAC, where ICT skills were assessed as individuals’ proficiency in problem-solving in the context of ICT use, the NEPS tests pure technological as well as information skills (for sample items, see [ 73 ]).

Both PIAAC and NEPS include extensive information on self-reported ICT use on the job and in everyday life. Both measures depict individuals’ practice engagement within predefined micro-contexts. Within PIAAC, the ICT use on the job variable is only available for respondents who were employed at the time of the interview or during the year preceding the interview; in NEPS it is only available for currently employed individuals.

In order to measure ICT use on the job and in everyday life, PIAAC respondents were asked how often they use different kinds of applications. The scale ranges from 1 (“never”) to 5 (“every day”). Based on the single items on ICT use on the job and in everyday life, PIAAC provides WLEs, which are normalized relative to the most active user in the dataset. We use the discrete form of this index in our analyses, which consist of five percentile groups: “zero to 20%,” “more than 20% to 40%,” “more than 40% to 60%,” “more than 60% to 80%,” “more than 80%.”

For the NEPS data, we constructed a sum score for ICT use on the job based on six items answered with yes or no; we calculated the score only for those who answered at least four out of the six questions. This item battery was surveyed in wave 4. The data on individuals’ self-reported use of ICT in everyday life were compiled with the question of how often the respondent has used the computer in the last year: “daily or almost daily,” “several times a week,” “several times a months,” “rarely,” or “never.” We combined the last two groups due to a limited number of cases within each category.

Literacy skills.

In order to measure the prerequisites of ICT use and digital skill acquisition at the individual level, we draw on individuals’ literacy skills that are believed to be fundamental to both ICT use and ICT skills. In PIAAC, literacy skills were always assessed in a computer-based mode for individuals whose ICT skills were assessed. Individual proficiency measures (as plausible values) were derived in the same way with IRT as done for ICT skills. In the NEPS study, literacy skills were tested in a paper-based test mode in wave 3, two waves before the assessment of their ICT skills. The items were scaled the same way as for ICT skills, using IRT.

Regional digital culture

In order to capture the extent to which the regional context harbors a “digital culture” that demands and encourages ICT use, we used data on the number of in Germany registered internet domain,.de-domains, in the year 2012 at the level of German districts (Landkreise, NUTS-3), their distribution is shown by Fig 2 . “.de” is the country code top-level domain for the Federal Republic of Germany. The.de-domains are administered by the main domain registry DENIC eG, which is a German non-profit cooperative. The data are part of the publicly available regional database Germany published by the Federal Statistical Office and the Statistical Offices of the Länder [ 74 ]. This regional indicator was a suitable proxy for the “digital culture” of a region because it captures ICT-related practices—namely, registering internet domains as a prerequisite for producing and publishing content online—at the regional level. It also reflects the unequal distribution of access to the internet and the economic makeup of the region to the extent that these factors relate to social practices in terms of content production at the regional level [ 56 , 57 ].

(A) © GeoBasis-DE/BKG (2011).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249574.g002

In order to investigate the association of regional digital culture as well as individual resources and ICT skills, we draw on generalized linear regression models. We follow a stepwise approach to analyse the mediating role of ICT use. As the data are structured hierarchically, we conduct both kinds of analyses with a Huber-White sandwich estimator of variances in order to obtain cluster-robust standard errors [ 75 ]. PIAAC additionally requires taking the IRT approach into account, as for each person ten plausible values are available which represent their proficiency distribution. For this purpose, we treat the plausible values for ICT skills as multiply imputed values.

When analysing the relevance of using digital technologies for adults’ ICT skills, we are faced with the problem of endogeneity resulting from reverse causality, i.e., individuals who use digital technologies more often show higher values in ICT skills and vice versa. This reciprocal relationship is also predicted by the practice engagement theory [ 5 ]. With cross-sectional data, we are not able to make causal inferences.

We present the results of our analyses separately for PIAAC in Fig 3 and NEPS in Fig 4 . We control for socio-demographic characteristics, including gender, age, and migration. The regression results for these control variables are omitted from the figures for simplicity; the complete results of the full Models are in S1 Table . Because all continuous predictor variables are standardized, including the dependent variable, the regression coefficients in Figs 3 and 4 should be interpreted as changes per standard deviation.

(A) Control variables: gender, age, migration. (B) Continuous variables standardized, cluster robust standard errors, 95% confidence intervals. (C) PIAAC Germany 2012, N(individuals) 2,495, N(regions) 245.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249574.g003

(A) Control variables: gender, age, migration. (B) Continuous variables standardized, cluster robust standard errors, 95% confidence intervals. (C) NEPS starting cohort 6 2012/13, N(individuals) 2,786, N(regions) 259.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249574.g004

All in all, the results from both data sources, PIAAC, and NEPS, give a similar picture: Starting with investigating the association between internet domain registrations per capita at the regional level and individuals’ ICT skills (Model 1 of Figs 3 and 4 ), the results indicate only a moderate, albeit not negligible positive relationship. In the next step, we introduce individuals’ ICT use on the job and in everyday life. In line with Hypothesis 1, ICT use in both contexts is strongly related to individuals’ ICT skills (Model 2 of Figs 3 and 4 ). However, introducing these variables does not lead to a substantial reduction of the regression weight for.de-domains per capita. Therefore, in contrast to Hypothesis 2, the use of digital technologies within both micro-contexts, workplace and everyday life, seems to play a less significant role for the association between regional digital culture and individuals’ ICT skills (the regression results for the sources of ICT use at workplace can be found in the appendix in S2 Table and for ICT use in everyday life in S3 Table .

The sources of the association between ICT use and ICT skills can be revealed after taking into account individuals’ literacy skills (Model 3 of Figs 3 and 4 ). Also, we introduced individuals’ level of formal education which tends to show no incremental association with ICT skills. Considering individuals’ literacy skills and level of formal education leads to a decline of ½ of the initially large regression coefficients for ICT use on the job and in everyday life. These results support Hypothesis 3, which stated that the positive association between literacy and ICT skills is in part mediated by individuals’ ICT use on the job and/or in everyday life. However, ICT use on the job and in everyday life is still incrementally related to ICT skills after controlling for education and literacy skills. Only in PIAAC, the regression weights for ICT use on the job are no longer statistically significant.

Literacy skills are not only indirectly correlated with ICT skills through ICT use; they are incrementally associated with individuals’ ICT skills (hypothesis 4). In the PIAAC data, for instance, a one standard deviation change of literacy skills is associated with a .67 standard deviations increase in ICT skills. Introducing literacy skills further reduces the regression weight for regional digital culture. As the regression coefficients for the educational level show, medium and low levels of education are associated with successively lower ICT skills.

The rapid digital transformation that is taking place across the globe has led to a surge in the importance of ICT skills for individuals and societies alike. In this context, a question of high relevance to researchers, policymakers, and practitioners is why some adults are better able to successfully deal with modern ICT than others. In the present study, building on previous research and theorizing from different disciplines, we developed a new guiding framework that aims to explain individual differences in ICT skills. Borrowing from practice engagement theory [ 5 ] and related theoretical ideas, our framework highlights social practices in terms of ICT use as key prerequisites to the acquisition of ICT skills. Building on the insight that most adults in current cohorts received little formal training regarding ICT, we argued that adults mainly acquire ICT skills through informal learning processes, that is, through the continued application of ICT at the workplace or in everyday life. We conceive such ICT-related social practices to be embedded in multi-layered micro- and macro-contexts on the one hand and contingent on individuals’ literacy skills on the other hand. Thus, contextual opportunity structures and individuals’ literacy skills jointly shape the acquisition of ICT skills mainly through their influence on the frequency and intensity of ICT use.

We empirically tested this framework with two recent German large-scale surveys, NEPS and PIAAC. These surveys offered unique analytic potential for this endeavour, as both offer objective—and comparable—measures of adults’ ICT skills in large and diverse samples of adults. These analyses yielded three main findings. First, in line with our framework’s main tenet, ICT use at the workplace and in everyday life emerged as strong correlates (i.e., potential determinants) of ICT skills in both surveys. This suggests that individuals’ ICT skills are inextricably interwoven with the learning opportunities afforded by the micro-contexts of work and everyday life.

Second, adults’ literacy skills are another potent correlate of ICT skills in both data sets, in addition to the already well established sources of individual differences in ICT skills (education, age, sex, and migration). When literacy skills were added to the equation, the coefficients for ICT use dropped considerably, in line with the idea literacy skills have both direct associations with ICT skills and indirect associations through ICT use. This pattern of findings is consistent with our assumption that literacy skills are indispensable for successfully dealing with ICT and the acquisition of ICT skills.

Third, we also found some (albeit more limited) support for the idea that social practices in the macro-context are related to individuals’ ICT skills, again mainly through individuals’ ICT use at work and in everyday life. More specifically, living in a region with a stronger digital culture—as proxied by the internet domain registration rate, one aspect of digital culture in the sense of content production—is associated with higher ICT skills. The shrinkage of the coefficient when ICT use is added to the model indicates this may be partly due to adults in high registration regions being more likely to use ICT.

Taken together, our findings lend support to the idea borrowed from practice engagement theory that ICT use at work and in everyday life is of paramount importance for the acquisition of ICT skills. At the same time, the findings direct attention to literacy skills as a prerequisite to both ICT use and ICT skills. Without a sufficient level of literacy, adults will be unlikely to fully meet the challenges in acquiring the ICT skills necessary to successfully deal with modern ICT at work and beyond.

Limitations and directions for future research

Our empirical analyses are certainly not without limitations. First, both data sources we used were cross-sectional. The reported associations can, therefore, not be interpreted as causal, even though some directions of influence are certainly more likely than others (e.g., ICT skills cannot influence age or gender). Especially with regard to the relationship between ICT use and ICT skills, we face the potential problem of reverse causality. Tackling this issue is only possible with longitudinal data and/or an instrumental variable approach, which both would greatly enhance the possibility for causal inferences. However, as expressed by the two-sided arrow in Fig 1 , we deem it very likely that the relationship between ICT use and ICT skills is reciprocal. That is, individuals will acquire ICT skills through ICT use—and those who possess higher ICT skills will use ICT more frequently. Nonetheless, future studies that track the development of ICT skills over time—ideally from childhood into adulthood—are needed to better understand not only the causal associations but also the temporal dynamics of the relationships stipulated by our framework.

Second, we emphasize that we were not able to disentangle structural opportunities from individuals’ ICT use, as this would require further measures related to the micro-contexts workplace and everyday life settings, such as partners’ ICT use and skills or the degree of digitalization of occupation. Regrettably, the NEPS and PIAAC data contain no further information on partners and, as yet, no occupational classification relevant to digitalization is available.

Third, although literacy skills are a strong predictor of adults’ digital skills, they cannot perfectly explain them. This speaks to the fact that ICT skills are a multifaceted construct that cuts across other skill domains. Almost anything can be done with digital technologies (even in early childhood where literacy skills are absent or less developed): Play activities, learning activities, creative activities, or social activities, and these activities require different further skills (e.g., mathematical skills). Further research is needed that focuses on the factors that are relevant for using digital technologies in a way that is detached from written language.

Fourth, the moderate observed relationship between individuals’ skills and regional digital culture (through ICT use) might result from the specific aggregate level used in our analyses. Previous research has shown that the results of regional data analyses are highly sensitive to the scale and zoning of the chosen regionalization; this phenomenon is known as the modifiable areal unit problem [MAUP; 76 ]. However, data on.de-domains per capita that we used to proxy digital culture are only available for German districts (Landkreise, NUTS-3) or more highly aggregated regions. Although districts are small-scale regions, they might be too large to operationalize individuals’ actual horizon for action. In addition, while.de registrations have been shown to be a good proxy for social practices in terms of content production, they may not entirely represent what constitutes digital culture (e.g., corporate culture, information culture, communication culture), and therefore, correlations between regional influences and ICT skills may be underestimated. Further studies are needed to compare correlations between individuals’ skills and regional digital culture at different regional levels and using different measures for regional digital culture. These findings can be a valuable starting point for future research.

Our study contributes to the literature on the origins of individual difference in adults’ ICT skills in several ways. In line with our framework, our findings highlight that ICT skills do not emerge in a vacuum but are strongly related to individuals’ ICT use. That is, adults’ ICT skills are largely associated with “learning by doing” at home and work. At the same time, our framework and findings direct attention to the individual and to a lesser degree contextual preconditions of ICT use. Above and beyond well-established socio-demographic characteristics, our findings identify literacy skills as a key precondition for both ICT use and ICT skills. Literacy skills show both direct associations with ICT skills and indirect associations through ICT use at the workplace and in everyday life. Moreover, our findings suggest that regional macro-context co-shape ICT skills, mainly through their influence on ICT use in the micro-contexts of home and workplace. However, micro-level factors, such as literacy skills and ICT use, were found to be more strongly related to ICT skills than regional macro-level factors. This suggests that future research and policies aimed at narrowing the “digital divide” should pay particularly attention to the fundamental role of individual literacy skills in shaping patterns of ICT use, which in turn might be the key vehicle of digital skill acquisition. Although macro-level factors appeared to be less important for ICT skills, our study points to the importance of a stimulating environment for ICT use and ICT skills, which may be less important at the regional level than at the lower level of companies or communities. This should also be the subject of future research in order to establish viable targets for policies and interventions aimed at fostering ICT skills and decreasing social inequality therein.

Supporting information

S1 table. ict skills regressed on individual and contextual factors, full regression results for piaac and neps..

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249574.s001

S2 Table. ICT use on the job regressed on individual and contextual factors, ordered logistic regression (logit coefficients), PIAAC and NEPS.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249574.s002

S3 Table. ICT use in everyday life regressed on individual and contextual factors, ordered logistic regression (logit coefficients), PIAAC and NEPS.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249574.s003

• 1. International ICT Literacy Panel. Digital Transformation: A Framework for ICT Literacy. A Report of the International ICT Literacy Panel. [Internet]. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service (ETS); 2007 [cited 2018 Apr 10]. Available from: https://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/Information_and_Communication_Technology_Literacy/ictreport.pdf
• 2. European Commission. Monitoring the Digital Economy & Society 2016–2021 [Internet]. 2015 [cited 2018 Jul 2]. Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/341889/725524/Monitoring+the+Digital+Economy+%26+Society+2016-2021/7df02d85-698a-4a87-a6b1-7994df7fbeb7
• 3. Falck O, Heimisch A, Wiederhold S. Returns to ICT Skills [Internet]. Paris, FR: OECD Publishing; 2016 [cited 2018 Apr 10]. [OECD Education Working Papers]. Report No.: 134. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5jlzfl2p5rzq-en
• 4. Felstead A, Gallie D, Green F, Zhou Y. Skills at Work, 1986 to 2006. Cardiff, UK: ESRC Research Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organizational Performance; 2007.
• 5. Reder S. The Development of Literacy and Numeracy in Adult Life. In: Reder S, Bynner J, editors. Tracking Adult Literacy and Numeracy Skills: Findings from Longitudinal Research. New York: Routledge; 2009. p. 59–84.
• View Article
• Google Scholar
• PubMed/NCBI
• 26. Brynner J, Reder S, Parsons S, Strawn C. The Digital Divide: Computer Use, Basic Skills and Employment. A Comparative Study in Portland, USA and London, England. London: National Research and Development Centre, University of London; 2008. https://doi.org/10.14219/jada.archive.2008.0045 pmid:18832269
• 40. Reder S. Participation, Life Events and the Perception of Basic Skills Improvement. In: Derrick J, Howard U, Field J, Lavender P, Meyer S, von Rhein EN, et al., editors. Remaking Adult Learning: Essays on Adult education in Honour of Alan Tuckett. London, UK: Institute of Education; 2010. p. 31–55.
• 42. Bandura A. Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.; 1977.
• 43. Piaget J, Inhelder B. The Psychology of the Child (trans. H. Weaver). New York: Basic Books, Inc.; 1969.
• 44. Eaton SE. Formal, Non-Formal and Informal learning: The Case of Literacy, Essential Skills, and Language Learning in Canada. Calgary, AB: Eaton International Consulting Inc.; 2010.
• 45. Livingstone DW. Adults’ Informal Learning: Definitions, Findings, Gaps, and Future Research. Toronto, CA: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education; 2001. [NALL Working Paper]. Report No.: 21.
• 46. Wicht A, Lechner C, Rammstedt B. Wie steht es um die Digitalkompetenz deutscher Erwachsener? Eine empirische Analyse mit dem Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). In: Mensch und Gesellschaft im digitalen Wandel. Berlin: Berufsverband Deutscher Psychologinnen und Psychologen e. V.; 2018. p. 15–25.
• 47. Bandura A. Social Foundations of Thought and Action. Vol. 1986. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.; 1986.
• 48. Bandura A. Social Cognitive Theory of Mass Communication. In: Bryant J, Zillmann D, editors. Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research. 2nd ed. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum; 2001. p. 121–53.
• 51. Bronfenbrenner U. The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 1979. https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-8993(79)90419-0 pmid:83896
• 55. Opiela N, Tiemann J, Gumz JD, Goldacker G, Bieker L, Weber M. Deutschland-Index der Digitalisierung 2017. Berlin, DE: Kompetenzzentrum Öffentliche IT; 2017.
• 58. Rogers EM. Diffusion of Innovations. 4th ed. New York, NY: Free Press; 1995.
• 60. Rammstedt B, editor. Grundlegende Kompetenzen Erwachsener im internationalen Vergleich: Ergebnisse von PIAAC 2012. Münster, DE: Waxmann; 2012.
• 63. Buckingham D. Defining Digital Literacy. In: Bachmair B, editor. Medienbildung in neuen Kulturräumen. Wiesbaden, DE: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften; 2010. p. 59–71.
• 64. Warschauer M. Technology and Social Inclusion: Rethinking the Digital Divide. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; 2004.
• 67. Blossfeld H-P, Roßbach H-G, von Maurice J, editors. Education as a Lifelong Process: The German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). Wiesbaden: Springer; 2019. [Edition ZfE; vol. 3].
• 68. Fuß D, Gnambs T, Lockl K, Attig M. Competence Data in NEPS: Overview of Measures and Variable Naming Conventions (Starting Cohorts 1 to 6). Bamberg, DE: Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi), National Educational Panel Study (NEPS); 2016.
• 69. OECD. Literacy, Numeracy and Problem Solving in Technology-Rich Environments: Framework for the OECD Survey of Adult Skills. Paris, FR: OECD Publishing; 2012.
• 70. Von Davier M, Gonzalez E, Mislevy R. What Are Plausible Values and Why Are They Useful. 2009 p. 9–36. [IERI Monograph Series: Issues and Methodologies in Large-Scale Assessments]. Report No.: 2.
• 71. Senkbeil M, Ihme JM. NEPS Technical Report for Computer Literacy: Scaling Results of Starting Cohort 6 –Adults. Bamberg, DE: Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi), National Educational Panel Study (NEPS); 2015. [NEPS Working Paper]. Report No.: 61.
• 73. Ihme JM, Senkbeil M, Wittwer J. The NEPS ICT Literacy Framework and Item Examples. Bamberg, DE: Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi), National Educational Panel Study (NEPS); 2015.
• 74. Federal Statistical Office, Statistical Offices of the Länder. Statistik der.de-domains, regionale Tiefe: Kreise und kreisfreie Städte. 2018.
• 76. Openshaw S. The Modifiable Areal Unit Problem. Concepts and Techniques in Modern Geography. Norwich, England: Geo Abstracts Ltd; 1984.

• Mature students
• Student Engagement Dashboard
• News archive
• Postgraduates
• International students
• Final year and beyond
• Student opportunities
• Library and IT essentials
• Exam Period
• Study abroad
• Students' Union
• Your assessment results
• Standards of behaviour
• Email this Page

Research in Action 2024: skills, tools, and current debates

Previously titled 'Research Integrity Week', the event is now in its fourth consecutive year, building upon its increasing success and popularity. Renamed ‘Research in Action 2024: Skills, Tools, and Current Debates’, the new title reflects the value and activities spanning all research career stages.

The planning of the event has brought together expertise and knowledge from across the university, organised by the University of Nottingham Research Integrity and Research Ethics Committee, with support from Research and Innovation and the Researcher Academy.

This year’s program delves into crucial topics shaping the research landscape, including the ethical dimensions of social media, fake participants in research, exploring research involving BAME and indigenous communities, and navigating the complexities of Human Tissue in research.

The sessions include insights into teams and resources from across the university that support researchers, covering areas such as Research Contracts, Post Award management, Research Information Systems, Trusted Research, and NHS ethics.

Renowned organisations such as the UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO) and The UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) will share their expertise, guiding participants on fostering a healthy research culture and collectively working towards improving research quality and integrity.

Researchers stand to gain valuable insights, making Research in Action Week an invaluable opportunity.

Book now for the sessions outlined below

Monday 17 June 2024

• 11am - 12.30pm - Introduction to the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN)
• 2pm - 3.30pm - Introduction to Research Contracts - Tips and Advice

Tuesday 18 June 2024

• 10.30am - 12pm - Social Media and Research Ethics 
• 1pm - 2.30pm - Research Information Systems (RIS) at UoN

Wednesday 19 June 2024

• 10am - 11.30am - Good Research Practice and a Healthy Research Culture (UKRIO)
• 12pm - 1.30pm - Trusted Research and Export Controls
• 2pm - 3.30pm - Research Post Award - Financial Management and Compliance

Thursday 20 June 2024

• 10.30am - 12pm - Fake Participants in Online Research
• 1pm - 2.30pm - Human Tissue at UoN

Friday 21 June 2024

• 10.30am - 12pm - What does it mean to be ethically and socially-just in 'decolonial' times?
• 1pm - 2.30pm - NHS Research at UoN

Student Communications Officer

Communications and Marketing University Park Campus Nottingham, NG7 2RD

telephone:+44 (0)115 82 32353 e: [email protected]

Legal information

• Terms and conditions
• Posting rules
• Accessibility
• Freedom of information
• Charity gateway
• Cookie policy

Connect with the University of Nottingham through social media and our blogs .

Browser does not support script.

University of Missouri

• Faculty Directory
• Staff Directory
• Calendar & Events

Mizzou Engineering

Gain technical skills and community by getting involved in undergraduate research.

April 09, 2024

It’s Show Me Research Week, and engineering students are showing up to present work on the world’s most pressing problems. From sustainability to drug delivery systems to artificial intelligence, findings from these projects help determine next steps for our leading-edge research teams.

Kate Barnard has been involved in research since her sophomore year. A mechanical engineering student, she’s been working with civil engineering Assistant Professor Maryam Salehi on multiple research projects in order to reduce the number of microplastics in our water.

“Dr. Salehi presented to my statics class, and I was interested in the work she was doing with microplastics,” Barnard said. “I also wanted to get into undergraduate research, and this was something with real-world applications and ties to health and materials science that I was really interested in.”

Barnard presented her first project with Salehi’s lab on creating a membrane filter for microplastics at Show Me Research Week last spring. Since then, her work has taken her further into the realm of microplastics, exploring the safe disposal of plastics used in agriculture and ways to transition away from plastic use in agriculture, as well as sediment quality in Florida after Hurricane Idalia .

“Some of what I’m doing right now includes sieve analysis for a grad student in the lab,” she said. “I am using equipment to analyze the particle size distribution in sediment samples collected from the Apalachicola Bay, Florida. We are attempting to understand the effect of hurricane on redistribution of sediment particles as well as how it affects the migration of microplastic particles down the sediment column.”

Barnard’s time in the lab is just one example of how students experience the Missouri Method, hands-on research experiences that have applications in the real world.

“I loved the diversity of these projects, learning new things and understanding new things” she said. “Building relationships with grad students has been really beneficial for me, and I’ve enjoyed having the outside purpose of going to work, being a useful part of a team in that lab, and also getting practice with engineering applications that you can’t get in the classroom as easily. I’m seeing what developing new technologies really looks like.”

Barnard says that her research experience is preparing her for a corporate career. It’s improved her professional and research communication skills, time management and technical expertise. But she also says the experience is essential for students thinking about graduate school.

Joining a research lab was also how she got involved with and first connected to the Mizzou Engineering community outside of the classroom.

“When I started in the lab, I was feeling a little disconnected,” she said. “Being in a lab, with a group of people who were all working toward the same goal gave me that sense of belonging that I’d been looking for. Being able to talk to and work with the graduate students in the lab on these shared projects, discussing our shared interests, has been something I’ve really loved. I now walk around the engineering building and think, ‘these are my people, this is what I do.’”

Get involved in research that can change the world as an undergraduate. Choose Mizzou Engineering !

• Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Missouri Compacts - Student Success
• Undergraduate Research

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• 10 April 2024

How to supercharge cancer-fighting cells: give them stem-cell skills

• Sara Reardon 0

Sara Reardon is a freelance journalist based in Bozeman, Montana.

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

A CAR T cell (orange; artificially coloured) attacks a cancer cell (green). Credit: Eye Of Science/Science Photo Library

Bioengineered immune cells have been shown to attack and even cure cancer , but they tend to get exhausted if the fight goes on for a long time. Now, two separate research teams have found a way to rejuvenate these cells: make them more like stem cells .

Both teams found that the bespoke immune cells called CAR T cells gain new vigour if engineered to have high levels of a particular protein. These boosted CAR T cells have gene activity similar to that of stem cells and a renewed ability to fend off cancer . Both papers were published today in Nature 1 , 2 .

The papers “open a new avenue for engineering therapeutic T cells for cancer patients”, says Tuoqi Wu, an immunologist at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas who was not involved in the research.

Reviving exhausted cells

CAR T cells are made from the immune cells called T cells, which are isolated from the blood of person who is going to receive treatment for cancer or another disease. The cells are genetically modified to recognize and attack specific proteins — called chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) — on the surface of disease-causing cells and reinfused into the person being treated.

But keeping the cells active for long enough to eliminate cancer has proved challenging, especially in solid tumours such as those of the breast and lung. (CAR T cells have been more effective in treating leukaemia and other blood cancers.) So scientists are searching for better ways to help CAR T cells to multiply more quickly and last longer in the body.

Cutting-edge CAR-T cancer therapy is now made in India — at one-tenth the cost

With this goal in mind, a team led by immunologist Crystal Mackall at Stanford University in California and cell and gene therapy researcher Evan Weber at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia compared samples of CAR T cells used to treat people with leukaemia 1 . In some of the recipients, the cancer had responded well to treatment; in others, it had not.

The researchers analysed the role of cellular proteins that regulate gene activity and serve as master switches in the T cells. They found a set of 41 genes that were more active in the CAR T cells associated with a good response to treatment than in cells associated with a poor response. All 41 genes seemed to be regulated by a master-switch protein called FOXO1.

The researchers then altered CAR T cells to make them produce more FOXO1 than usual. Gene activity in these cells began to look like that of T memory stem cells, which recognize cancer and respond to it quickly.

The researchers then injected the engineered cells into mice with various types of cancer. Extra FOXO1 made the CAR T cells better at reducing both solid tumours and blood cancers. The stem-cell-like cells shrank a mouse’s tumour more completely and lasted longer in the body than did standard CAR T cells.

Master-switch molecule

A separate team led by immunologists Phillip Darcy, Junyun Lai and Paul Beavis at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia, reached the same conclusion with different methods 2 . Their team was examining the effect of IL-15, an immune-signalling molecule that is administered alongside CAR T cells in some clinical trials. IL-15 helps to switch T cells to a stem-like state, but the cells can get stuck there instead of maturing to fight cancer.

The team analysed gene activity in CAR T cells and found that IL-15 turned on genes associated with FOXO1. The researchers engineered CAR T cells to produce extra-high levels of FOXO1 and showed that they became more stem-like, but also reached maturity and fought cancer without becoming exhausted. “It’s the ideal situation,” Darcy says.

Stem-cell and genetic therapies make a healthy marriage

The team also found that extra-high levels of FOXO1 improved the CAR T cells’ metabolism, allowing them to last much longer when infused into mice. “We were surprised by the magnitude of the effect,” says Beavis.

Mackall says she was excited to see that FOXO1 worked the same way in mice and humans. “It means this is pretty fundamental,” she says.

Engineering CAR T cells that overexpress FOXO1 might be fairly simple to test in people with cancer, although Mackall says researchers will need to determine which people and types of cancer are most likely to respond well to rejuvenated cells. Darcy says that his team is already speaking to clinical researchers about testing FOXO1 in CAR T cells — trials that could start within two years.

And Weber points to an ongoing clinical trial in which people with leukaemia are receiving CAR T cells genetically engineered to produce unusually high levels of another master-switch protein called c-Jun, which also helps T cells avoid exhaustion. The trial’s results have not been released yet, but Mackall says she suspects the same system could be applied to FOXO1 and that overexpressing both proteins might make the cells even more powerful.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01043-2

Doan, A. et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07300-8 (2024).

Article   Google Scholar  

Chan, J. D. et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07242-1 (2024).

Download references

Reprints and permissions

Related Articles

• Medical research

ROS-dependent S-palmitoylation activates cleaved and intact gasdermin D

Article 10 APR 24

FOXO1 enhances CAR T cell stemness, metabolic fitness and efficacy

Blocking cell death limits lung damage and inflammation from influenza

News & Views 10 APR 24

Biological age surges in survivors of childhood cancer

Research Highlight 11 APR 24

FOXO1 is a master regulator of memory programming in CAR T cells

The PARTNER trial of neoadjuvant olaparib in triple-negative breast cancer

Article 08 APR 24

mRNA drug offers hope for treating a devastating childhood disease

News 03 APR 24

Diabetes drug slows development of Parkinson’s disease

Husbandry Technician I

Memphis, Tennessee

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (St. Jude)

Lead Researcher – Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation & Cellular Therapy

Researcher in the center for in vivo imaging and therapy, scientist or lead researcher (protein engineering, hematology, shengdar q. tsai lab), lead or senior researcher - flow cytometry.

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

Salesforce is closed for new business in your area.

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Reading Lists
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

A “Growth-at-All-Costs” Mindset Can Stall Your Company

If leaders don’t consider employees in their growth strategies, then disengagement, burnout, and lack of innovation will persist.

The strength of any organization depends on its people. Research has found a strong positive relationship between employee well-being and firm performance. When people feel healthy and engaged, their work performance improves, their relationships are stronger, and they’re better motivated to impact change. This is what’s at the heart of “human sustainability”— a concept introduced in Deloitte’s “2023 Global Human Capital Trends” report. It’s about creating value in people’s lives — from their physical and mental well-being to their career skills and overall sense of purpose. It starts with individuals, but ultimately has a ripple effect to the people they encounter and the organizations they’re part of. Research shows that a focus on human sustainability drives stronger business results. All organizations need a business growth strategy where people feel they’re prioritized. Before you launch your next growth initiative, make sure you’re not sabotaging your employees, and your company in turn. This article offers five questions to ask yourself as you’re setting your own growth strategy.

Sustainable growth can be elusive. Research has shown that only about 15% of the companies in the top growth quartile in 1985 were able to sustain their top-quartile performance for at least 30 years. While factors such as operating systems, financial health, and internal processes are all critical in determining whether growth can continue, studies show that of all the resources a company has, human capital is the most important. In other words, consistent and profitable growth is never easy, but it’s nearly impossible without “the quality, talent, and mindset of its people.”

• Jenn Lim  is a global workplace expert , one of the World’s Top 50 Keynote Speakers, the bestselling author of Beyond Happiness , and CEO/Cofounder of Delivering Happiness .
• Jen Fisher  is Deloitte’s Human Sustainability leader in the United States. She’s also the bestselling author of the book,  Work Better Together , a  TEDx speaker , the  Human Sustainability Editor-At-Large for Thrive Global , and the host of the  WorkWell podcast series .

Partner Center

Nevada Today

Researchers develop innovative method of teaching self-help skills to preschoolers who are deafblind, study demonstrate the effectiveness of system of least prompts (slp) as part of an intervention.

MaryAnn Demchak, Ph.D., BCBA-D, supporting Jill Grattan, Ph.D., as she successfully defended her dissertation for her doctoral degree.

A groundbreaking approach to teaching essential self-help skills to preschoolers who are deafblind has been developed by researchers. Led by MaryAnn Demchak, Ph.D., BCBA-D. , professor of special education at the University of Nevada, Reno, and Jill Grattan, Ph.D. this innovative method employs the System of Least Prompts (SLP) .

“Very little research occurs with students who have severe, multiple disabilities that include deafblindness,” Demchak said. “This study extends prior research to this population and provides teachers and other practitioners with effective educational strategies.”

In their study, the researchers focused on teaching three crucial self-help skills – hand washing, hand drying and entry routines – to preschoolers aged 3 to 5 with vision and hearing impairments, along with multiple disabilities. Remarkably, 75% of the participants showed increased independence in mastering these targeted skills.

Self-help skills play a pivotal role in daily life, impacting health and shaping social acceptance. However, until now, research in this area for deafblind preschoolers with multiple disabilities has been limited.

The findings of this study demonstrate the effectiveness of SLP as part of an intervention package in teaching self-help skills to young children with multiple disabilities, including deafblindness. Although the mastery criterion wasn't universally achieved, the significant increase in independence among 75% of the participants is noteworthy.

“Interacting with the students and seeing their progress as a result of systematic teaching using SLP was very rewarding,” Grattan said.

Preschoolers with multiple disabilities, including deafblindness, often require extensive support in their daily activities. Therefore, any progress toward independence, even with some level of support or modification, is significant. Educators working with this population can now rely on evidence from this study to inform their teaching strategies, particularly emphasizing the effectiveness of SLP.

Jill Grattan, who earned her doctoral degree in Education: Special Education and Disability Studies from the University of Nevada, Reno, has collaborated with Demchak on various research studies focusing on individuals with disabilities.

“It is a privilege to collaborate with current and former doctoral students to make contributions to the field of severe, multiple disabilities, including the area of deafblindness,” Demchak said.

This study offers valuable insights, demonstrating that self-help skills can be effectively taught to deafblind preschoolers. This not only promises to foster healthy habits and well-being but also lays the foundation for future independence, ultimately enhancing the quality of life for both the children and their caregivers.

Research & Innovation

University geothermal research center holds Geothermal Town Hall

The free, public event will share information about geothermal energy production in Nevada

FAA grants civil UAS operations waiver for University operated Nevada Autonomous Test Site

1,000 square-mile test site area in Northern Nevada, first in a series of sites planned for drone research, development, testing

Anthropology doctoral candidate places second in regional Three-Minute Thesis Competition

Kendra Isable represented the University at the Western Association of Graduate Schools annual conference

Senators Rosen, Cortez Masto worked with University President Brian Sandoval to secure more than $4 million for research programs at the University of Nevada, Reno

The funding will support research initiatives across the state

Editor's Picks

A look at careers of substance and impact

NASA astronaut Eileen Collins shares stories at Women in Space event

University of Nevada, Reno and Arizona State University awarded grant to study future of biosecurity

Manager of food systems programs brings global experience and perspectives to Desert Farming Initiative

Hosmer-Henner aims to use his unique blend of experience to help strengthen state’s food systems

Sagebrushers season 3 ep. 2: Executive Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Melanie Duckworth

President Sandoval welcomes new leader who will guide university efforts to enable inclusive excellence for students, faculty and staff

Making their MARC: Yajahira Dircio

Dircio is one of four students in the second MARC cohort

The University of Nevada, Reno Orvis School of Nursing ranks as top nursing program in the country

2023 National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX®) nursing graduate passing rates place the University at the top of the charts in the state and country

Earth Month events focus on increasing campus sustainably, gardening, thrifting and more

Campus community asked to take the pledge to Make Silver and Blue the New Green

Researchers and students gain new insights and make new connections in Panama

Student participants join researchers to support international conservation efforts

Iranian Culture Celebration event

The first Iranian Culture Celebration Event to be held on April 18, at the University of Nevada, Reno

Faces of the Pack: Viktor Cruz-Calderon

A journey filled with happy mistakes and new adventures, Gilman Scholarship recipient Viktor Cruz-Calderon takes on Spain