Digital competences for smart learning during COVID-19 in higher education students from Spain and Latin America

Abstract

Networked society before pandemic situation had become the context of a technology supported environment for learning and teaching. Since COVID-19 pandemic occurred learning happened essentially mediated through connected smart devices that demand digital skills and reinforced Smart learning. This study aims to present a descriptive and comparative analysis focusing on digital competences in three different areas: Use, Learning and Critical thinking, justified in a global situation of intensive use of technology. Each area was analyzed considering the five subareas of digital competence: information management, communication, content creation, safety and problem solving. The study was designed under a non-experimental quantitative methodology in which higher education students from Spain, Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico participated (N=926). Results show significant differences among countries that could help to improve not only formal education in Higher Education, but the digital skills needed for lifelong learning among citizenship in next future conditioned by recent global situation of pandemic.