Students' E-Skills, Organizational Change and Diversity of Learning Process: Evidence from French Universities in 2010

Information and communication technologies (ICT) play a crucial role in higher education. They modify the scope, the borders and the content of learning. Most of European Universities try to change their pedagogical concepts in order to face the challenges of efficiently integrating ICT in their curricula. One key result in integrating ICT in higher education is the fact that students acquire new e-skills and further develop their initial ones. By e-skills we refer to the ability to efficiently and critically use ICT. At least four layers of students' e-skills are identified: Operational e-skills imply that students know how to operate a computer. With formal e-skills students additionally use some basic Internet applications. Students who also use ICT tools for learning purposes are supposed to have information e-skills. Finally, strategic e-skills, which are the most advanced, refer to students who use ICT intensively in order to collaborate with others. Our article claims that organizational changes at European Universities are a necessary condition in order to equip students with high levels of e-skills. We have analysed this hypothesis for French Universities and we have found a strong correlation between the implementation of a "student-centred model of learning" or "active way of learning" and students' levels of e-skills. More precisely, three main results were obtained: Firstly, students' involvement in using ICT enhances students' operational e-skills. ICT training enhances students' information e-skills. Students who spend more time surfing on the Internet have more sophisticated e-skills. Secondly, the diversity of learning processes enhances the accumulation of students’ e-skills. Thirdly, collaborative and cooperative learning facilitates the accumulation of students' strategic e-skills.

Ben Youssef, Abdel, Mounir Dahmani and Nessrine Omrani (2012), Students' E-Skills, Organizational Change and Diversity of Learning Process: Evidence from French Universities in 2010, ZEW Discussion Paper No. 12-031, Mannheim.