Abstract
The digital era has ignited a metamorphosis of digital competencies and competence for all students to function in a digitised society. Students’ digital competence cannot be developed without digitally competent lecturers. The integration of digital technologies for lecturers’ professional engagement, pedagogy, and facilitating learner competence has become key discussion areas for recent research.
The study aimed to determine lecturers’ perceptions of their digital competence to teach online from a Private Higher Education Institution. The study used a cross-sectional exploratory-sequential research design, starting with a qualitative approach using self-perception surveys followed by a quantitative approach to clarify results from the survey. The DigiCompEdu Framework was used to frame the study. The quantitative results were measured by administering an online survey to 37 lecturers at a Private Higher Education Institution on how they perceive their digital competence levels. For the qualitative results two focus group discussions comprising 18 lecturers, were used.
In general, the quantitative statistics results indicated that lecturers perceived to integrate technologies in all six areas of the DigCompEdu framework on average at integrator level 3, but at different levels from level 2 to level 4 within the subcategories.
The qualitative data supported lecturers integrating technology in all six areas. However, there were mixed responses for Areas 2 – 6.
The results from the study will inform current policies on what intervention strategies can be used in all six areas of the DigiCompEdu framework to improve the digital competencies of lecturers.