Abstract
There is a paucity of research on the digital literacy of graduate-level students. The study examined whether academic discipline, age, gender, race, parental education, international status, GPA, and self-perceived skills is associated with web-use skills among this population. Hargittai and Hsieh’s 27-item Web-use Skills Index was used to measure web-use skills. The Kruskal–Wallis H test with post hoc Fisher’s least significant difference test was used to determine statistical differences between groups of independent variables. Academic discipline, race/ethnicity, and gender had a greater number of statistically significant differences (p < .05) with 12, 15, and 20 variables respectively. Few web-skill variables were significantly different by age, GPA, international status, and parental education with 4, 3, 2, and 3 variables respectively. Gender plays a large role in the digital literacy of graduate and professional students compared to other demographic factors. This may be due to factors influenced by gender including family life, self-efficacy, and access to technology. The high web proficiency of Asian/Pacific Islander students is consistent with past research. However, African American students were more web-proficient than Caucasian students, which is inconsistent with previous research. Academic discipline may be independently associated with varying levels of web-use scores.
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Appendix: Web-use Skills Index (instrument)
Appendix: Web-use Skills Index (instrument)
Adapted from Hargittai and Hsieh (2012). Succinct survey measures of web-useskills social science computer review. Bibliographic entry.
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1.
What is your age?
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a.
Write in
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a.
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2.
What is your classification?
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a.
Undergraduate student
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b.
Graduate student
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c.
Other (please specify)
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a.
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3.
What is your race and/or ethnicity? (select all that apply)
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a.
Asian/Pacific Islander
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b.
Black/African American
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c.
Hispanic
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d.
White/Caucasian
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e.
Other (please specify)
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a.
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4.
Are you an international student?
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a.
Yes
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b.
No
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a.
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5.
What is the highest degree or level of school your parents have completed? If currently enrolled, highest degree received.
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a.
Some high school, no diploma
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b.
High school graduate/diploma or the equivalent
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c.
Some college credit, no degree
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d.
College degree
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e.
Graduate or professional degree
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a.
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6.
What school are you in?
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a.
Medicine
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b.
Pharmacy
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c.
Law
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d.
SSW
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e.
Nursing
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f.
Dental
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g.
Other, please specify
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a.
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7.
Is this your first semester at UMB?
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a.
Yes
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b.
No
Skip logic: If a student answers “No” to question 7 they will be asked their GPA. If they answer “Yes” question 8 will be omitted. This is done because first semester students do not yet have GPAs.
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a.
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8.
What is your estimated GPA?
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a.
Write in
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a.
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9.
What is your gender?
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a.
Male
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b.
Female
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c.
Transgender
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d.
Other
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a.
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10.
In terms of your Internet skills, do you consider yourself to be…
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a.
Not at all skilled
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b.
Not very skilled
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c.
Fairly skilled
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d.
Very skilled
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e.
Expert
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a.
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11.
The purpose of this question is to assess your attentiveness to question wording. For this question please mark the very often response.
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a.
Never
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b.
Rarely
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c.
Sometimes
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d.
Often
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e.
Very often
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a.
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12.
How familiar are you with the following internet-related items? Please choose a number between 1 and 5 where 1 represents having “no understanding” and 5 represents having “a full understanding” of the item. Please do not google to discover meaning. This is an anonymous survey and not an assessment of individual skill. [none, little, some, good, full]
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a.
Advanced search
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b.
Bcc (on email)
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c.
Blog
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d.
Bookmark
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e.
Bookmarklet
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f.
Cache
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g.
Favorites
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h.
Fitibly
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i.
Firewall
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j.
Frames
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k.
JFW
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l.
JPG
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m.
Malware
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n.
Newsgroup
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o.
PDF
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p.
Phishing
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q.
Podcasting
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r.
Preference setting
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s.
Proxypod
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t.
Reload
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u.
RSS
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v.
Social bookmarking
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w.
Spyware
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x.
Tabbed browsing
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y.
Tagging
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z.
Torrent
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aa.
Web feeds
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bb.
Weblog
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cc.
Widget
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dd.
Wiki
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a.
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Owens, J., Lilly, F. The influence of academic discipline, race, and gender on web-use skills among graduate-level students. J Comput High Educ 29, 286–308 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-017-9137-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-017-9137-1