Development of digital literacy indicators for Thai undergraduate students using mixed method research

Abstract

     Digital transformation and the Internet strongly affect students' integration of technologies and their acquisition of more skills supporting their education and preparation for the workplace. This research paper developed digital literacy indicators for Thai undergraduate students using mixed method research. The purpose was to identify the actual definition, factors, and indicators of digital literacy in Thai society. The key informants were five experts in ICT, HR, and education. The second phase was to develop the measurement of digital literacy indicators using the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) approach with a sample consisting of 1,183 undergraduate students. Data collection was conducted through a questionnaire with 54 questions. The results revealed that digital literacy criteria for Thai undergraduate students consisted of four factors containing 12 indicators. The first factor and its related operation skills consisted of cognition, invention, and presentation. The second factor was thinking skills consisting of analysis, evaluation, and creativity. The third factor was collaboration skills consisting of teamwork, networking, and sharing. The fourth factor was awareness skills consisting of ethics, law literacy, and safeguarding self. CFA was employed to test the construct validity of the research latent variables that revealed the harmony correlation of empirical data contained in this research model (chi-square = 25.007 with 21 degrees of freedom; p = 0.247; RMSEA = 0.0127; RMR = 0.00658; GFI = 0.996; and AGFI = 0.987). The weight factors of latent variables were 0.802, 0.897, 0.894, and 0.536, respectively. The value of reliability according to Cronbach's alpha coefficient of correlation was 0.644, 0.804, 0.799, and 0.288, respectively. Moreover the correlation matrix of the 12 observed variables showed correlation among latent variables with a significant level of statistic correlation at 0.01; the correlation values ranged between 0.031 and 0.612. These results were employed to develop a digital literacy test for undergraduate students to assess their skills and promote their study lives.