The mediating role of digital informal learning in the relationship between students' digital competence and their academic performance
Introduction
The rapid development of digital technologies has spurred strong interest among scholars to employ these technologies for educational purposes, not only to facilitate learning in formal settings (Farrokhnia et al., 2019; Hassanzadeh et al., 2016; Heidari et al., 2020; Noroozi et al, 2016, 2018; Seo et al., 2021; Winkler et al., 2021) but also in informal, out of the class, settings (Chan et al., 2015; Coll & Treagust, 2015; Hubbard, 2019; Song & Lee, 2014). With the recent advent and affordance of new technologies, increasing attention has been paid to digital informal learning (DIL) and the way students learn in such settings (Reinders & Benson, 2017). In DIL, there are no time and space restrictions (Yang, 2020). Thus, DIL provides learners with new opportunities to learn anywhere at any time (Ang et al., 2018, pp. 87–101; Jin et al., 2019; Jurkovič, 2019). DIL is driven primarily by learners’ high interests and excitement because they are more motivated to learn in this technology-based learning environment (Sackey et al., 2015) and thus can better improve their academic performance (Doleck et al., 2019; Mishra, 2020).
Academic performance, as one of the most important indicators of success in universities (Mthimunye & Daniels, 2020), refers to students' ability to perform classroom tasks, problem-solving activities, and academic affairs (Hung, 2005; Yu et al., 2010). Although scholars reported that academic performance could be positively influenced by students' DIL experiences (Ali & Naylor, 2010), the empirical research on DIL is still insufficient (He & Li, 2019), especially regarding its effect on higher education students’ academic performance (Baker, 2014). The picture is also unclear when it comes to influential factors that may regulate the DIL process and outcome (Chan et al., 2015). For instance, scholars claimed that DIL demands proper digital competence (Hubbard, 2019; Nyikes, 2018) to form students' optimal learning and behavior in such a digital-based learning environment (He et al., 2018). Digital competence, as one of the key competencies for lifelong learning (see Ferrari, 2013), is supported by digital literacy (Martin & Grudziecki, 2006). Digital literacy is often referred to as media literacy focusing more on its functional dimension. Digital functional literacy or technical skills means having the practical skills needed to use digital technologies, including operational and creative skills (Falloon, 2020; Helsper et al., 2015). Although digital literacy is often used as a synonym for digital competence (Calvani et al., 2012; He & Zhu, 2017; Ilomäki et al., 2011), they have distinct roots and meanings (Iordache et al., 2017). Digital literacy refers more to a set of skills and activities to achieve digital competence in ICT (Ferrari et al., 2014). According to scholars, the scope of digital competence is beyond digital literacy (Fraillon et al., 2014; Jin et al., 2020) and includes attitude and mindset besides the skills (Janssen et al., 2013). Recent studies suggest digital competence should be replaced with digital literacy in educational contexts since digital competence pays more attention to the ethical, safety, and social dimension (Foulger et al., 2017; Lund et al., 2014) and identifies more diverse knowledge, abilities, and desires of individuals (Falloon, 2020).
Despite the importance of digital competence, so far, only a few studies have investigated the role of students' digital competence in their DIL experiences. For example, Han and Yi (2019), examined the effects of higher education students' digital competence and technology expectancy and how these two interact with cultural differences on DIL. Their results highlighted the essential role of digital competence and technology expectancy in DIL. Moreover, they showed that students' cultural differences play a mediating role in the relationship between their digital competence and DIL behaviors. Pagani et al. (2016), in their study with secondary school students, reported that digital competence had a positive impact on students’ academic performance. However, these studies have been conducted separately, and to our knowledge, no study has yet investigated the role of digital competence in both their DIL and academic performance, especially with the focus on higher education students.
As a result, the primary purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating role of DIL between digital competence and academic performance. Based on the reviewed literature (e.g., Baker, 2014; He & Li, 2019; He & Zhu, 2017; Hubbard, 2019; Mangiri et al., 2019), we postulated that there might be an asymmetric relationship between these three constructs. Thus, we first dive into the related literature to formulate different hypotheses related to the key constructs of the study. Afterward, these hypotheses are analysed by structural equation modeling for revealing possible relationships.
Section snippets
Digital informal learning and academic performance
Learning can occur in a formal or informal context. According to Meyers et al. (2013), formal learning occurs in a structured and organized educational environment and is explicitly designed in terms of time, objectives, and resources. From the learner's perspective, formal learning is intentional, which leads to degrees and certifications (Czerkawski, 2016). In contrast, informal learning occurs relatively in an unstructured and unorganized environment, mostly outside the formal classroom, and
Study design and sample
This study was explanatory by nature. The study was conducted at Shiraz University, one of the largest comprehensive higher education institutes in Iran, in the academic year 2019–2020. Based on the Cochran formula for a finite population (see Cochran, 1977), 350 students were recruited to participate in this study with 95% confidence and a 5% error level, which was also determined as an adequate sample size based on Westland's (2010) formulas. Moreover, with the effect size of 0.18, the
Preliminary analyses
Table 2 demonstrates the means, standard deviations, skewness, kurtosis, Cronbach's alpha, and correlations between all the research variables. The means scores of digital competence dimensions ranged from 3.39 to 3.45, the means scores of DIL dimensions ranged from 3.68 to 3.76, and the mean score of academic performance was 3.44, which were higher than the average level (3) based on a 5-point Likert scale, and they were in the third quartile (Q3). The standard deviations ranged from 0.68 to
Discussions
This study aimed to identify the mediating role of DIL between higher education students' digital competence and academic performance. In general, the study results indicated that DIL has a positive effect on students' academic performance. The analysis also confirmed that digital competence has a significant positive effect on students' DIL and academic performance. Moreover, DIL experiences contributed to students’ academic performance in two ways, (1) by a direct effect on their performance
Conclusion, limitations, and implications
The results of this study showed positive mediating role of DIL in the relationship between students' digital competence and their academic performance. Although digital competence has a direct positive effect on students' academic performance, together with DIL experiences, it yields a greater effect on their performance in their formal classes. Since the DIL plays a mediating role in the relationship between students’ digital competence and their academic performance, digital competence can
Credit author statement
The authors would like to thank you for your time and careful review on our article CAE-D-20-01164, “The Mediating Role of Digital Informal Learning in the Relationship between Students’ Digital Competence and their Academic Performance.” I ensure that all the authors (Mahboobe Mehrvarz, Elham Heidari, Mohammadreza Farrokhnia & Omid Noroozi) had the same role in Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Data curation, writing- Original draft preparation, etc. Thanks again for reviewing our
Funding
The authors received no financial support for this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank all the students of Shiraz University who have participated on this study.
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2023, Computers in Human BehaviorCitation Excerpt :In this context, these technologies can be used for knowledge creation and transfer (Leftheriotis & Giannakos, 2014), as a space for interacting and collaborating with other members of an organization across space, time, and organizational boundaries (Cao et al., 2016), developing a sense of belonging (Song et al., 2019), receiving feedback from peers (Colbert et al., 2016), acquiring new competencies to face new challenges (Mohammadyari & Singh, 2015) and improving creativity and innovation (Oldham & Da Silva, 2015), which can improve performance. Existing studies on the relationship between DC and performance have been conducted primarily in the educational field (Mehrvarz et al., 2021; Mohammadyari & Singh, 2015). Few studies have addressed this relationship in an organizational context (Mohd Abas et al., 2019; Santoso et al., 2019).