Digital literacy expectations in higher education

Despite the widespread use of the term digital literacy, there is no common understanding of what it means or what skills and capabilities should be captured within it. The impact for higher education is that the term is misunderstood and significant assumptions are made regarding students’ digital literacy capabilities. The study reported in this paper explores the mismatch between academic expectations and perceptions of students’ digital literacy capabilities. Data was collected via a survey distributed to all Australian higher education institutions. Outcomes indicate that academics expectations are far higher than what they observe of students’ digital literacy capabilities and that digital literacy skills are not being adequately scaffolded and extended through the curriculum. Improving digital literacy outcomes will not occur until responsibility for teaching these capabilities is explicitly expressed and actioned in the context of disciplines and that opportunities are included throughout students’ educational experiences to scaffold digital literacy learning.