Track 12. Educational Innovation Authors: Miguel-Angel Sicilia, Elena Garcia-Barriocanal and Salvador Sanchez-Alonso. https://youtu.be/2GHelpUiNy0

1. DigitalskillstraininginHigherEducation:
insightsabouttheperceptionsofdifferent
stakeholders
M.A. Sicilia, E. García-Barriocanal, S. Sánchez-Alonso (University of Alcalá, Spain)
P. Różewski, M. Kieruzel,T. Lipczyński(West Pomeranian University of Technology,
Poland)
C. Royo , F. Uras (EUCEN, Belgium)
C. Hamill (Canice Consulting Ltd. , United Kingdom)

2. Outline
▪ What are digital skills?
▪ Different stakeholders in digital skills
▪ Different perceptions on importance?
▪ Are HE students prepared?
▪ Limitations
▪ Conclusions and outlook

3. Whataredigital
skills?
▪ According to the European Qualifications Framework
(EQF) are part of competences, concretely:
▪ cognitive skills
▪ that require the use of digital tools
▪ in purposeful activities
▪ and can be observed and assessed in the workplace
when contextualized in particular job roles or practical
tasks.

5. Different
stakeholders
▪ Higher Education students, that are receiving digital
skills training and will eventually use these skills when
entering the workforce.
▪ Employers that require new employees to be digitally
skilled for a variety of tasks, contexts and situations.
▪ Instructors and educational experts that are in charge
of introducing digital skills in the curriculum.
▪ Other institutions, as civic organizations, that expect
digital skills as essential abilities to citizenship in
cyberspace.

6. Differentperceptions?Survey+focusgroups
Higher education
students
• Are digital skills perceived as important for entering the job market?
• Do you think the University is providing sufficient digital skills training?
Employers • Are digital skills perceived as important for the daily work activities in your
organization?
• Which are the key skills that are most critical for a typical employee in your company?
• Is the Higher Education system providing the needed digital skills to students?
• Which are the most important digital skill gaps that you find in students coming from
the University?
Higher education
institutions
• Are digital skills perceived as important for entering the job market?
• Do you think the University is providing sufficient digital skills training?
• How is your organization providing such training?
• Do you think there are training methods that could improve the provision of digital
skills?
Civic institutions • Are digital skills perceived as important for engagement in civic activities in the
digital?
• Do you think the University is providing sufficient digital skills training for those needs?

7. Employers HE staff Students Civic institutions
[Evaluating information] INFO [Browsing, searching and
filtering information] INFO
[Evaluating information]
INFO
[Managing digital identity]
COMM
[Interacting though technologies]
COMM
[Evaluating information] INFO [Storing and retrieving
information] INFO
[Interacting though
technologies] COMM
[Browsing, searching and filtering
information] INFO
[Storing and retrieving
information] INFO
[Protecting devices] SAF [Engaging in online
citizenship] COMM
[Collaborating though digital
channels] COMM
[Interacting though
technologies] COMM
[Sharing information and
content] COMM
[Browsing, searching and
filtering information] INFO
[Sharing information and content]
COMM
[Sharing information and
content] COMM
[Interacting though
technologies] COMM
[Collaborating though digital
channels] COMM
[Developing content] CONT [Collaborating though digital
channels] COMM
[Engaging in online
citizenship] COMM
[Evaluating information] INFO

8. Highcorrelationsinthethreefirstgroups,lowerforcivicinstitutions.The
latterranksamonghighest“managingdigitalidentity”and“engagingin
onlinecitizenship”
0.9
0.82
0.87
0.63
0.64
0.81

9. Conclusions and
outlook
▪ There is high correlation among the perception of
stakeholder groups, considering information
competencies as more important, then
communication.
▪ Perception that HE does not train with sufficient
intensity, and training programs are not systematic.
▪ For educators:
▪ Digital skills are transferable, but they should be taught
as situated.
▪ Emphasis on autonomy to learn and use digital tools.