Development and Validation of a Questionnaire to Measure Digital Skills of Chinese Undergraduates

Abstract

To keep sustainable development in a digital society, it is essential for young people to possess certain digital skills. Levels of the digital skills of Chinese undergraduates take a certain role in the process of educational digitalization promoted by the Chinese government, becoming an important concern for Chinese universities and policymakers. However, few valid and reliable instruments are available for the assessment of the digital skills of undergraduates in China. Thus, developing, and testing the reliability and validity of a questionnaire to measure the digital skills of Chinese undergraduates are necessary. Based on previous literature and situations in the Chinese educational context, this study developed and validated a questionnaire to assess the digital skills of Chinese undergraduates. Through factor analysis approaches, the internal factor structure of the questionnaire was explored, and its reliability and validity were verified. Development and validation of a questionnaire, in which 6 factors were extracted, were described: access to and management of digital content, use of digital means, communication of digital content, creation of digital content, digital empathy, and digital safety. The questionnaire was applied to the first sample of 222 undergraduates and the second sample of 231 undergraduates selected randomly from a university located in the east of China. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) through SPSS 26.0 with the first sample was used to determine the internal factor structure of the whole questionnaire, which showed the expected congruency between items and dimensions. Then a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) through Mplus 8.3 with the second sample was utilized to check model-data fit of the questionnaire, which showed a good fit between them. Convergent validity and discriminant validity of the questionnaire were also verified. The resulting questionnaire emerged as a useful tool for carrying out nationwide studies on digital skills in higher education generally or in different disciplines specifically in China in the future.