Tertiary students in Singapore not as good in digital skills as they think they are

If you consider yourself a tech-savvy person, think again.

Just because you use a computer everyday doesn't mean you're good at digital skills. Well, at least that's what Singapore's tertiary students are guilty of.

A study titled Perception and Reality, conducted by International Computer Driving License (ICDL) Asia, found that tertiary students here think highly of their digital literacy in basic application software, overestimating their actual information and communications technology (ICT) literacy standards, reported TODAY and thetechrevolutionist.com.

Presented at the ICDL Digital Literacy Day at the Singapore Management University (SMU) yesterday (July 20), results showed that over 90 per cent of its participants perceived their digital skills as "fair" to "excellent".

However, their actual competency standard, which stood at 55 per cent, fell below the global passing standard mark of 75 per cent.

Participants of the study include 373 Singaporean students aged between 20 and 22 years old who are receiving education from eight higher education institutions such as Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore Polytechnic, National University of Singapore, SMU, Kaplan Singapore, and PSB Academy.

A 20-question online practical test was administered during the study testing students on several skills including web browsing, file and data management, word processing, and spreadsheets.

These modules were mapped to the Workforce Skills Qualifications framework under the Ministry of Education.

Results revealed that students perceived their proficiency levels for word processing and spreadsheets at 68 per cent and 60 per cent respectively, but their actual skills stood at 45 per cent and 35 per cent respectively - way below the global passing standard of 75 per cent.

While many higher education institutions have implemented measures to help students increase their digital literacy, such as SMU which require their business students to complete a spreadsheet course, the study results show that those efforts have not been enough.

"Students cannot completely rely on obtaining such skills from their universities," said Ms Swapna Gottipati, 41, assistant professor of information systems at SMU.

"They need to go and get skills from other places - through internships, projects, workshops or additional short courses," she added.

ongymm@sph.com.sg