This repository lists resources for measuring, self-assessing, and comparing the digital competences and skills of individuals. The resources are based on the DigComp framework and the 'DigCompSAT' instrument, both edited by the European Commission. The purpose of 'digcompsat-resources' on GitHub is to provide a repository for the reuse of DigCompSAT and resources based on it for scientific purposes, organised according to FAIR principles¹.

Authors: Alexander M. Schmid (ORCID 0000-0001-6872-7140), Jasmin Wandel (ORCID 0000-0001-7717-9107), & Dharneeka Jeyam (ORCID 0009-0007-0120-2463).

DOI:

About DigCompSAT

The DigCompSAT instrument is a validated self-assessment test developed by Clifford et al. (2020) to measure digital competence in accordance with the European DigComp 2.1 competence framework (Carretero Gomez et al., 2017)². The DigCompSAT tool enables users to assess their digital competences across three dimensions: knowledge, skills, and attitudes. These dimensions are broken down into 21 specific competences within the five areas defined by the DigComp framework: i) information and data literacy, ii) communication and collaboration, iii) digital content creation, iv) digital safety and v) digital problem solving. These competences are categorised into levels 1–6 (basic, intermediate, and advanced).

The DigCompSAT instrument serves three purposes:

1. measuring existing skills and competences based on the self-assessment of respondents,
2. identifying gaps and development potentials in digital skills and competences of organisations, and
3. raising awareness among individuals for digital skills and competence development.

The DigCompSAT instrument is the result of an iterative development process. It was validated through tests and pilot studies, particularly in Ireland, Latvia and Spain. The selected countries represented the three country categories defined in 2020 by the European Union's Digital Skills Indicator (DSI) in terms of the proportion of the qualified population in society: Ireland above the EU average, Spain close to the EU average, and Latvia below the EU average. People aged 16 to 65 were surveyed for the validation.

Resources in the 'digcompsat-resources' GitHub-Repo

The 'digcompsat-resources' repository contains resources derived from Version 2.1 of DigCompSAT, which has been revised and validated. These resources are used in various research and consultancy projects. In particular, they are used for organisational development purposes within digital transformation programmes for companies and public institutions. The resources in English, Spanish, and Latvian originate from Annex 14.1 of the DigCompSAT instrument according to Clifford et al. (2020)³. The German version of the items is a translation by the authors of this respository. The item batteries are available in the file formats .lss, .XML, .txt, and in a printable format.

Inventory:

• 82 Frage-Items und Antwortskalen des DigCompSAT-Messinstruments auf Deutsch. Diese Item-Batterie wurde von den Autorinnen und Autoren dieses Repositories an der Berner Fachhochschule (BFH) in der Schweiz zusammengestellt, übersetzt und adaptiert aus Annex 14.1 des DigCompSAT-Instruments nach Clifford et al. (2020)³. Die Übersetzung wurde entsprechend einer Forward- und Backward-Tranlsation-Technik⁴,⁵ unter Einbezug von mehrsprachigen Forscher*innen (DE-EN) sowie dem KI-Dienst DeepL.com gemacht.
• 82 Question items and response scales of the DigCompSAT measurement instrument in English.
• 82 Question items and response scales of the DigCompSAT measurement instrument in Spanish.
• 82 Question items and response scales of the DigCompSAT measurement instrument in Latvian.

License

Unless otherwise stated, resources in this repository are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence (CC BY 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). Resources may be reused, given that the source is acknowledged and any changes are indicated.

Acknowledgements

The following parties deserve recognition and thanks for their contribution to the development of the resources in this repository:

• Joëlle Simonet & Caroline Pulver for their collaboration in launching the initiative and in drafting individual repository components
• 'Fachstelle Open Science' der Berner Fachhochschule for co-financing the publication work

References

Footnotes

1. Wilkinson, M. D., Dumontier, M., Aalbersberg, Ij. J., Appleton, G., Axton, M., Baak, A., Blomberg, N., Boiten, J.-W., Da Silva Santos, L. B., Bourne, P. E., Bouwman, J., Brookes, A. J., Clark, T., Crosas, M., Dillo, I., Dumon, O., Edmunds, S., Evelo, C. T., Finkers, R., … Mons, B. (2016). The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. Scientific Data, 3(1), 160018. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2016.18 ↩

2. Carretero Gomez, S., Vuorikari, R. and Punie, Y., DigComp 2.1: The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens with eight proficiency levels and examples of use, EUR 28558 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2017, ISBN 978-92-79-68006-9, doi:10.2760/38842, JRC106281, URL: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC106281. ↩

3. Clifford, I., Kluzer, S., Troia, S., Jakobsone, M. and Zandbergs, U., DigCompSat, Vuorikari, R., Punie, Y., Castaño Muñoz, J., Centeno Mediavilla, I.C., O'keeffe, W. and Cabrera Giraldez, M. editors, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2020, ISBN 978-92-76-27592-3, doi:10.2760/77437, JRC123226, URL: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC123226. ↩ ↩²

4. Brislin, R. W. (1970). Back-Translation for Cross-Cultural Research. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 1(3), 185–216. https://doi.org/10.1177/135910457000100301 ↩

5. World Health Organization (WHO). (2011, January 3). WHODAS 2.0 Translation Package (v1.0): Translation and Linguistic Evaluation Protocol And Supporting Material. https://terrance.who.int/mediacentre/data/WHODAS/Guidelines/WHODAS%202.0%20Translation%20guidelines.pdf ↩