Teacher' s digital competence after virtuality in sanitary emergency in three Argentine universities

Abstract

The article focuses on teacher's digital competence, linked to the use of ICT to teach and learn with didactic and pedagogical criteria, with ethical and moral awareness. In the COVID-19 pandemic stage, with face-to-face attendance suspended, teachers had to use a diversity of digital skills to support teaching. The hypothesis that guides the study indicates that, after two years of virtuality at the higher level -forced by the health emergency (2020 and 2021)-, the digital teaching competence may have changed in a positive sense, of improvement and development. The objective of this research is to compare the self-perception of digital competence of higher level teachers before (pre) and after the pandemic (post). Under the format of a quantitative, retrospective cross-sectional design, 372 university professors from three Argentine universities participated in the research, who answered a questionnaire on their digital competence in six areas. The results suggest an increase in the digital competence perceived by teachers after the pandemic in the three groups studied. These findings seem to indicate that the opportunity to put different digital skills into play is crucial for their development.