Exploring students’ perceptions of digital citizenship: A case study of South East European University

Volume 3 | No 2 | December 2024
Hava Mustafa
Doctoral candidate, Faculty of Languages, Cultures and Communication, South East European University

Abstract

This paper discusses the state of digital citizenship in higher education, with a focus on literature review and educational approaches, pedagogical strategies, and challenges for improvement. It includes a survey of 60 respondents, which explores students’ perceptions and experiences related to digital citizenship at the undergraduate level of studies. This research examines the key aspects of digital citizenship education, pedagogical methods, various strategies and their effectiveness, demographic factors, limitations of current research, the role of technology and the challenges that educators face, curriculum changes, and development. By promoting digital citizenship education activities, institutions, and educators are expected to contribute through collaboration with the private sector, and student engagement and activism. The study found that rapid technological advancements were perceived as limitations in digital citizenship education. The findings show that respondents strongly favor comprehensive ways to teach digital citizenship, often endorsing multifaceted tactics covering a range of subject areas. Hence, there is broad recognition of the impact of demographic factors such as gender, age, and socioeconomic status on students’ perception of digital citizenship education. The results highlight the potential of digital skills enhancement and learning and the evolving of digital platforms in higher education study programs, the need for diverse teaching methods, integrated curriculum, and improvement of collaboration between educational institutions and the private sector. This research adds to the general knowledge of digital citizenship education, by providing insights for higher education institutions, students, educators, and policymakers, for developing inclusive digital citizenship programs in higher education.

Keywords: Digital citizenship, higher education, methodology approaches, curriculum, technology in education.

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