Teachers’ Digital Competence. The Case of the University System of Galicia

Abstract

The digital teaching competence of university professors is of vital importance to improving the quality of higher education, and for the strategic positioning of public universities in our country. The purpose of this study is to find out the level of digital competence of Galician university professors, as well as to identify whether there are significant variable-based differences. To this end, a non-experimental design with a descriptive approach and hypothesis contrast is proposed. The sample studied is made up of a total of 610 teachers from the three public universities of Galicia (Spain), who responded to the DigCompEdu Check-In instrument adapted to the Spanish context (Cabero-Almenara & Palacios-Rodríguez, 2020). In general terms, the results show a medium-low level and the existence of significant differences depending on the age, recruitment profile and area of knowledge of the teaching staff. Specifically, the younger teaching and research staff, together with Social and Legal Sciences, have a higher level of competence, whereas tenured teaching and research staff have a lower level of competence with respect to contracted workers. Therefore, training plans should be developed which focus on teaching. Expert advice and personalized methodological support should shift the focus of the intervention radically from technology to teaching.