Digital Skills in the COVID-19 Era
During Spring 2020, millions of college students in the United States (U.S.) became distance-learners overnight due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Learning delivery methods involving substantial digital assets became the norm in a matter of days, not months or years but days.
At least three technologies were essential during Spring 2020 for higher education remote instruction: learning management systems (e.g., D2L, Canvas, Moodle); video-conference technology (e.g., Zoom, WebEx, GoogleMeet); and collaboration tools (e.g., Google Drive, Microsoft Teams, GitHub).
In this article we discuss some facts about digital readiness, online learning, and 21st century skills.
Digital Divide
Despite narrowing in recent years, a clear digital divide still persists in the United States and it is observed when considering attributes such as income and location.
According to the Pew Research Center, nearly 44% of households with annual incomes below $30,000 do not have broadband services, while 46% do not own a traditional computer. On the other hand, among households that earn $100,000+ a year, 94% of them have broadband services and ownership of desktop or laptop computers.
The Pew Research Center also determined that 75% of urban and 79% of suburban adults have broadband internet connection at home, versus 63% of rural Americans. Moreover, only three-in-ten adults residing in rural communities have multiple gadgets to access the web. On the other hand, more than four-in-ten suburban adults own a desktop or laptop computer, a smartphone, a home broadband connection and a tablet.
Digital Readiness
Digital readiness is defined by three main parameters:
Digital skills: expertise needed to launch an online session, explore the internet, and pass on content.
Trust: ability to discern credible sources and thus reliable information, together with capacity to protect personal information.
Use: frequency in completing online tasks aided with digital tools.
The U.S. adult population splits its digital readiness in 52% of Relatively Hesitant versus 48% of Relatively More Prepared. Only 17% in the latter are considered Digitally Ready, with characteristics such as higher income households, higher educational levels and age groups in the 30’s and 40’s. A sizable percentage of American adults are considered Reluctant (33%) and Unprepared (14%), which tend to include lower income households, lower levels of formal education and age groups 50+. Commonly, the Reluctant and the Unprepared lack familiarity with new educational technology terms and have little-to-no use of the internet for learning.
Attitudes Towards Online Learning
A study from Eduventures in 2019, assessed the attitudes of college-bound high school students toward online learning. Most traditional-aged students prefer face-to-face instruction, as part of a campus experience that is enhanced by participation in activities, clubs and formal/informal interactions with fellow students.
Furthermore, this study also found that “students with [prior] online learning experience indicate slightly more interest in some online [courses] (22%) compared to those with no online course experience (16%)."
Growth in Four-Year Enrollments
In recent years, national enrollment in four-year academic programs sustained systemic declines. Figure 1 reports annual longitudinal counts from Fall 2013 through Fall 2018, where growth is only observed in Fall 2014.
Figure 1. Enrollment in four-year institutions of higher education across the United States. Source: National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
Figure 2 summarizes data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics for two groups of students at four-year institutions: those enrolled in no distance education courses; and students registered in at least one distance education course. The annual relative percent change in enrollment is displayed for each group.
Figure 2. Annual relative percent change in enrollment at four-year institutions of higher education. Source: National Center for Education Statistics.
The number of students taking no distance education courses declines in most years (5 out of 6), and has almost no change in Fall 2016. On the other hand, enrollment in at least one distance education course has positive change every single year. This means the only growth in four-year undergraduate education is yielded by distance-learners, with substantial contributions from online delivery. Even when the total four-year enrollment is declining, Fall 2015 -- Fall 2018, the observed growth ranges between 5.56% and 12.64%.
New Foundational Skills
The 21st Century Foundational Skills resulted from an examination of 150 million job postings, conducted by the Business-Higher Education Forum and Burning Glass Technologies, they include:
Human Skills
Business Enabler Skills
Digital Building Block Skills
According to Anant Agarwal, founder and CEO of edX, “digital skills leverage technology to add value and align with functional domains that are critical to the information economy. Examples of such skills are computational thinking, data science, and machine learning. [They] are especially useful to current or aspiring functional analysts and data-driven decision makers.”