Assessments of Teachers’ Digital Skills as the Main Factors of Willingness for University Digitalization

There are four trends associated with the introduction of digital technologies and tools into the educational process: the formation of a blended learning model; transition to online learning; creation of a virtual (digital) educational and social environment; changing the approach to managing educational organizations. Digitalization introduces significant changes in the roles of the teacher and student in the learning process, which requires appropriate adaptation. The aim of the current study is to assess teachers’ digital skills in pandemic and post-pandemic period and analyze the impact of Covid19. For this study we conducted an online survey among teachers of Peter the Great Polytechnic university (Institute of Humanity). The surveys were conducted two times: in March of 2020 (the beginning of the pandemic) and in June of 2021 (post-pandemic period). 44 teachers of different specialties (Law, Linguistics, Pedagogy and Psychology) completed the first survey and 42 teachers completed the second survey. To assess the level of digital skills we used the Digital Competence Scale that consist of 10 subscales that reflect the 22 digital competences of DigCompEdu2.0. The results of the study showed that teachers had quite high level of digital skills before the pandemic that facilitated the transition of the learning processes to online format. A positive impact of this transition on the development of the teachers’ digital competences also can be noted. The highest impact was on such indicators as Communication and Collaboration, Teaching and Learning and Assessment.

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