The mediating effect of digital literacy in the relationship between learning satisfaction and learning flow of middle school students in learning using smart devices

Objectives This study analyzed the structural relationship between middle school students' learning satisfaction, digital literacy, and learning flow in smart device-based teaching and learning, and verified the mediating effect of digital literacy. Methods A survey was conducted on 300 middle school students in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and six metropolitan cities to measure the structural relationship between learning satisfaction, digital literacy, and learning flow during classes using smart devices. The survey was conducted online for about 10 days from December 2nd to December 12th, 2023, using SPSS Statistics 25.0 and AMOS 25.0 programs, and the structural equation model was analyzed to understand technical statistics, person's moment correlation analysis, the significance of the research model, and the structural relationship between variables. Finally, using bootstrapping, the mediating effect of digital literacy was investigated. Results First, as a result of analyzing the results of the relationship between learning satisfaction, digital literacy, and learning flow in smart device utilization classes, it was confirmed that there was a positively significant correlation between learning satisfaction, digital literacy, and learning flow. Second, learning satisfaction, digital literacy, and learning flow were found to have an influence relationship. Third, it was confirmed that digital literacy has an indirect mediating effect in the relationship between learning satisfaction and learning flow using smart devices. Conclusions Through this study, it was confirmed that learning satisfaction and digital literacy act as important variables in learning flow in the learning environment using smart devices of middle school students. In particular, it was found that digital literacy is a variable mediating the relationship between learners' learning satisfaction and learning flow. This confirms the importance of digital literacy held by middle school students in classes using smart devices, suggesting that practical support and educational policies should be prepared to enhance students’digital literacy capabilities before introducing AI-based digital textbooks.