A Study on the Current Status of University Teachers’ Digital Literacy Under the Background of Educational Digital Transformation

Abstract

In the educational area, digital literacy is now an important capability required by university teachers. According to the national standard issued by the Ministry of Education, this investigation employs a mixed method combining questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to examine the digital literacy of 240 professors from four universities in Chengdu in five aspects: digital awareness, digital technology knowledge and skills, digital application, digital social responsibility, and professional development. The findings indicate that the overall digital literacy of university teachers is at a high level (mean score M=4.28), however, there exists an obvious imbalance: the mean scores of digital social responsibility (M=4.41) and professional development (M=4.33) are higher, whereas those of digital application (M=4.19) and digital technology knowledge and skills (M=4.20) are lower, suggesting a situation where “moral concepts are strong but technical application is weak.” Analysis of the differences reveals that gender and educational background do not have a great influence, while age, teaching experience, academic position, and disciplinary background have a significant impact. For example, teachers aged 31–40 and having 11–15 years of teaching experience have the highest comprehensive digital literacy, but professors in arts and humanities always obtain the lowest scores in all dimensions. Therefore, based on these results, this research proposes targeted and detailed measures to enhance the digital literacy of university teachers, aiming to provide an empirical basis and practical suggestions for the transformation of higher education into a digital environment.