Students’ Digital Media Self-Efficacy and Its Importance for Higher Education Institutions: Development and Validation of a Survey Instrument

Abstract Although digital media are in general very common, their role in academic settings and their relevance for academic achievement are not satisfactorily explored. A research gap that is particularly apparent during the corona crisis in 2020 when university processes in many countries are suddenly almost completely digitalised. Research suggests a link between students’ diversity, in particular, their socio-economic background, academic self-efficacy expectations, study-related attitudes, and academic achievement. However, previous empirical studies on digital media at universities predominantly describe different types of media usage patterns but little is revealed about the students’ study-related attitudes and performance. The present study aims at developing a survey instrument to explore the relationship of individual, contextual as well as social background factors concerning academic achievement, with a special focus on academic and digital media self-efficacy expectations (DMSE). For this purpose, a new scale for DMSE has been constructed, based on existing psychological research. After pre-testing the instrument in 2017, data was collected at four German universities in summer 2018 (n = 2039). Validity and reliability are shown and the instrument appears suitable for further research in order to explore the interplay of student learning and digital media use in higher education, integrating the institutional and social context.