Best Practices for Assessing Digital Literacy and Strengthening Online Teaching Pedagogy of Digitally Immigrant Stakeholders in Higher Education

Here, we add to the growing body of e-learning and teaching literature by examining the digital literacy of full-time and adjunct faculty at a public regional secondary education institution, examining the relationship between digital literacy and technology self-efficacy and understanding the role that digital immigration status plays in faculty’s technology-based choices. How faculty’s digital literacy translates into hybrid and online teaching environments and how faculty categorize their technologically based self-efficacy is also explored, particularly the role of user-based decision making through the lens of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). Findings suggest that, to engage digitally immigrant and digitally native faculty teaching with technology, training should be scaffolded, with a particular focus on screening and assessing potential participants, with a focus on rigorous training that moves faculty from one stage or behavior change to another. Other suggestions and implications for strengthening online teaching pedagogy are discussed.