Digital Literacy Profiles of Biology Education Students Across Three Academic Levels at Universitas Negeri Medan: An Analysis of Greenstein’s Six Indicators

Digital literacy is an essential competency for prospective biology teachers, who must locate, use, select, evaluate, and appropriately apply digital information. This study characterized the digital literacy profiles of biology education students using Greenstein’s six indicators and examined whether these profiles were consistent across semesters 1, 3, and 5 of a 4-year degree program. A quantitative, descriptive-comparative survey was conducted with a purposive sample of 90 biology education students at Universitas Negeri Medan (30 per academic level). The 30-item, five-point Likert instrument demonstrated adequate content validity (mean Aiken’s V: 0.72 relevance, 0.82 clarity) and reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.798). The overall mean digital literacy score was 71.07% (SD = 6.53), classified as “strong”, and was consistent across academic levels (semester 1 = 72.09%; semester 3 = 69.02%; semester 5 = 72.11%; Kruskal–Wallis H = 3.144, p = 0.208). At the indicator level, students performed best on ‘Finds’ (79.56%) and weakest on ‘Evaluates’ (61.82%). After Holm–Bonferroni correction, only ‘Selected’ remained significant (H = 10.104, pHolm = 0.038), with semester 3 outperforming semester 1. These findings suggest biology education students develop digital literacy early and that it remains stable across academic progression, with credibility evaluation identified as a priority for instructional enhancement.