Self-assessment of digital competencies is fraught with difficulties: everyone measures their competencies differently. Moreover, people tend to overestimate them.
In order to gain insight into the problem, the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) Foundation has examined in detail the results of five studies conducted in five European countries.
The ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence) or PCIE (Passeport de Compétences Informatique Européen) is an internationally recognized certificate attesting to practical skills in using the most common computer applications. There are currently 14 ECDL modules and five certificates, which cover modern digital literacy requirements.
These studies in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany and Switzerland used the same protocol. Individuals were asked to self-assess their digital skills in the core modules of the ECDL framework: computer basics, web basics, word processing and spreadsheet. They were then asked to answer a series of practice questions and perform operations in a simulated work environment.
The results of these studies quantified the gap between self-assessment and "real" skills.
In Austria, for example, 94% of respondents rated their level of digital competence as "average" to "very good. Only 39% scored in line with their self-assessment in the test.
In Austria and Switzerland, the studies involved people aged 15 to 64. In Denmark, Finland and Germany, the research focused on students and high school pupils.
A recent study conducted in Quebec found similar gaps. 45% of Quebecers believe they have a high level of digital skills. The Cefrio that conducted the study found that nearly 20% of them have never posted messages on forums or social networks, nor uploaded images, videos or music to websites, nor used voice over IP services.
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