A Qualitative Exploration of the DIGCOMP Digital Competence Framework: Attitudes of students, academics and administrative staff in the health faculty of a UK HEI

Abstract

This paper reports upon findings of a series of semi-structured interviews with students, academics and administrative staff from a health care faculty in a UK Higher Education Institution (HEI). Exploring their experiences of mapping to the EU DIGCOMP Digital Competence Framework, a hermeneutic lens enables a more nuanced approach to attitudes towards Digital Competence (DC). One of the eight lifelong learning key-competences required for managers, doctors, nurses and other health-related professionals, DC is crucial to professional development. Defined by 14 themes, the findings express the participants’ experiences, knowledge and level of comprehension of the subject. Our findings indicate students are conflating digital social media skills with their skills for the workplace, resulting in over-confidence; academics raising concerns about work/private life balance offered by the affordances of handheld devices; administrative staff that are far more confident and managing a range of technology’s effectively. The research further reveals that the DIGICOMP framework is applicable as a generic framework for professional practice.