Teachers’ digital competencies in higher education: a systematic literature review

Abstract

Digital competence has gained a strong prominence in the educational context, being one of the key competencies that teachers must master in today's society. Although most models and frameworks focus on the pre-university level, there is a growing interest in knowing the state of digital competencies of university teachers, that is, the set of knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for a teacher to make effective use of technologies. The aim of this research is to present a systematic review of the literature in the Web of Science and Scopus, to identify, analyze and classify the published articles between 2000 and 2021 on digital competences, and thus find and improve the research being done on digital skills and future avenues of teachers in the university context. The SciMAT software is used in the analysis. The initial search reveals more than 343 articles in English, of which 152 are duplicates and 135 are not related to the topic of study. After this filtering, 56 articles are obtained and analyzed in depth. The results reveal a predominance of research that focuses on analyzing teachers' self-assessment and reflection of their digital competencies. Teachers recognize that they have a low or medium–low digital competence, as well as the absence of certain competencies, especially those related to the evaluation of educational practice. Despite the multiple studies that address this issue, it is necessary to continue improving research in this area, deepening the assessment of teachers' digital competencies and design, on this basis, more practical and personalized training programs that respond to the needs of teachers in the digital era.

Digital Skills as A Significant Factor of Human Resources Development

“…[31] The article states that teachers have low or moderately low digital competences, as well as the absence of some competences, especially those related to the evaluation of educational practice. [32] Furthermore, it is necessary to continue to focus on this area and to deepen knowledge and to design a more practical and personalized educational program for students. Therefore, it is necessary to get know and implement the ISTE standards in educational institutions in order to improve the quality of the education.…”

Who engaged in the team-based assessment? Leveraging EdTech for a self and intra-team peer-assessment solution to free-riding

“…Many of our academics expressed their lack of confidence in using this new EdTech and welcomed support to develop their digital competency using this tool. The lack of academic digital competency in Higher Education is well recognised (Basilotta-Gómez-Pablos et al, 2022). As such, one-on-one support was provided to all academics using this strategy, whether they were new or requiring a refresh.…”

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