Digital Literacy Competence for Academic Needs: An Analysis of Malaysian Students in Three Universities

AbstractEducators in Malaysia tend to assume that most students today are digital natives (Prensky, 2001); they are considered naturally proficient with digital technologies and environments. However, studies indicate despite students’ reliance on technology to collect information and communicate, “a significant number do not appear to use (or possess) the skills we expect digital natives to have” (Bennett, Maton and Kervin, 2008, p. 3). Hence, it is dangerous to over generalize the digital literacy ability and expectations of students. Without these skills, Malaysian students will not be able to cope with diverse ICT modes to access and process information for academic needs and, later on, employment purposes. The objective of this study is to analyse the digital literacy competence of Malaysian students which is needed in order to access and use digital contents for finding information required in academic tasks. The study was carried out as a qualitative focus group study in which three groups were selected, one from three universities in Malaysia, and interviews were conducted after each group had participated in a sequence of Internet based tasks. Using semi-structured questions, participants were asked to describe and reflect on their digital literacy practices during these tasks as well as in their everyday lives. The results of the study revealed that the digital literacy competence of students depended on several factors, including English language proficiency, and the design of multimodal forms in digital contents. To conclude, by analysing the digital literacy competence of students and identifying barriers that hamper them from attaining these skills, educators can find solutions to overcome the stated problem. Hence, the findings of this study will contribute to the development of a digital literacy education framework which will enhance Malaysian students’ digital literacy competence