[publication] Evolving Digital Skills of first-year students: A Pre- and Post-Covid Analysis #zfhe #research

I am very happy that together with my colleagues we contribute to the newest issue of the “Zeitschrift für Hochschulentwicklung” about Digital Skills. Therefore we present our latest results concerning the skills of our beginners at Graz University of Technology:

Digital skills are necessary for first-year students at Austrian universities. This paper unveils results from two surveys among first-year students at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz): Pre-Covid-19 data (n=921) is derived from a larger study on digital literacy among first-year students in Styria (Janschitz et al., 2021, N=4,676). The same questions were posed in the 2021 ‘Welcome Days’ survey after the Covid-19 distance learning phases (n=1,207). Surprisingly, the only significant change is a noticeable increase of skills concerning the digital signature. This article additionally presents the development of a lecture on digital skills that was implemented at TU Graz as a massive open online course (MOOC).

[full article @ journal’s homepage]
[full article @ ResearchGate]

Reference: Ebner, M., Mair, B., Nagler, W., Schön, S., & Edelsbrunner, S. (2024). Evolving Digital Skills of first-year students: A Pre- and Post-Covid Analysis. Zeitschrift für Hochschulentwicklung19(1), 45–65. https://doi.org/10.21240/zfhe/19-01/03

[publication] A decade of first-semester students surveys concerning IT equipment and communication applications and effect of Covid-19 related experiences for first-year students in 2021 #edil22 #tugraz

One of our contributions to the EdMedia + Innovate Learning 2022 is about “A decade of first-semester students surveys concerning IT equipment and communication applications and effect of Covid-19 related experiences for first-year students in 2021

Abstract:
The technical equipment of first-year students and their preferred communication applications are changing, perhaps also influenced by their experiences in the Covid-19 pandemic concerning digital teaching and learning. This paper presents the 2021 survey of first-year students at Graz University of Technology (N=1,207) and compares the results concerning devices and applications with the results of the surveys conducted since 2011. It is striking that there are no striking changes in the endowment of the that can be interpreted as an effect of Covid-19 pandemic. A question introduced in 2021 about experiences with distance online instruction and experiences with online courses before and after Covid-19 shows clearly that new students’ prior experiences with online learning here have dramatically changed as a result of school closures in Austria.

[Full paper @ conference homepage]
[draft @ ResearchGate]

Reference: Nagler, W., Schön, S., Mair, B., Ebner, M. & Edelsbrunner, S. (2022). A decade of first-semester students surveys concerning IT equipment and communication applications and effect of Covid-19 related experiences for first-year students in 2021. In T. Bastiaens (Ed.), Proceedings of EdMedia + Innovate Learning (pp. 1060-1067). New York City, NY, United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved July 12, 2022 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/221412/