Abstract
Digital competences represent essential skills for adapting to 21st-century conditions; encompassing the safe and critical use of information society technologies for work, daily life, and communication. Determining the digital competence levels of individuals is crucial to guide interventions aimed at enhancing these competences. This study presents the development process of a Digital Competence Scale for Faculty Members (DCS-FM), designed specifically to assess the digital competence levels of higher education instructors. The data collection process took place during the 2020–2021 academic year among faculty members working at ... University in ... province of Türkiye. Researchers collected the data themselves to ensure consistency and reliability throughout the process. As part of the validity studies, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted, yielding a six-factor structure. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed that the six-factor structure demonstrated good model fit indices. In the process of developing the scale and conducting validity and reliability studies, data were collected from a total of 740 unique faculty members. The scale development process involved two pilot applications and one main application, with exploratory factor, confirmatory factor, and item analyses conducted throughout. Confirmatory factor analysis of the collected data yielded a 30-item scale encompassing six factors. These factors align with the European Framework for Digital Competence of Educators (known as ‘DigCompEdu’) developed by the European Commission Joint Research Centre. Based on the validity and reliability analysis results and findings, it can be concluded that the scale possesses the sufficient psychometric properties sought in the literature.
Keywords
Digital competence scale development higher education instructors DigCompEdu psychometric validation
Ethical Statement
This research was conducted in accordance with the decision of the Mugla Sitki Koçman University Social and Human Sciences Research Ethics Committee dated March 12, 2021, and numbered 210066/93. The authors have no personal or financial conflicts of interest related to the research discussed in this article. This study is based on a part of Nurhayat Kocatürk Kapucu's doctoral thesis prepared under the supervision of Bilal Duman and Müge Adnan.
Supporting Institution
This study includes a part of the TUBITAK 1002 Project numbered 122K043.
Project Number
TÜBİTAK 1002 Project (Number: 122K043)
Thanks
We would like to thank the MSKU faculty members whose opinions were consulted during the research process. We would like to thank TÜBİTAK for the project support.
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Details
| Primary Language | English |
|---|---|
| Subjects | Scale Development, Instructional Technologies, Teacher Education and Professional Development of Educators |
| Journal Section | Research Article |
| Authors | |
| Project Number | TÜBİTAK 1002 Project (Number: 122K043) |
| Submission Date | December 3, 2025 |
| Acceptance Date | January 26, 2026 |
| Early Pub Date | February 26, 2026 |
| Publication Date | February 26, 2026 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.63612/ijesp.1835329 |
| IZ | https://izlik.org/JA84DT36EA |
| Published in Issue | Year 2026 Issue: Advanced Online Publication |
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