Influence of Digital Skills on The Academic Performance of University Students: A Socioeconomic Approach

Purpose: Analyzing the influence of digital competencies on the academic performance of university students through a socioeconomic approach. Theoretical framework: Theories associated with digital competence, academic performance and the influence of socioeconomic factors were addressed. Method: A mixed Ditriac-type approach was applied, with a non-experimental and cross-sectional design, where the total population was 1215 university students and the probabilistic sample for the survey was 292 students and the non-probabilistic sample for the interview was 29 students who served to collect quantitative and qualitative data respectively. Quantitative data were obtained through the COMPDIG-PED instrument of digital competence in pedagogy, whose reliability was assessed by Cronbach's Alpha coefficient α = 0.911 and academic performance was evaluated through documentary analysis of the institution's academic records, which were then processed in SPSS, and qualitative data were analyzed with Atlas.ti software considering 15 codes, 10 sub categories and 6 categories, also taking into account the socioeconomic aspect throughout the process, from the selection of participants to the interpretation of the results. Results and conclusions: The results support a moderate degree of positive correlation of digital competencies and academic performance with an rs = 0.546 and with a significance level p = 0.000, where with respect to the coefficient of determination it is shown that digital competency influences 30.5% on the academic performance of university students, while the remaining 69.5% is affected by other socioeconomic factors. Concluding that there is positive correlation and 30.5% of influence of digital competencies with respect to academic performance, where the remaining 69.5% is due to socioeconomic factors such as educational level in parents, economic level, work, sentimental relationship and the management of time dedicated to study. Originality/value: To provide insight into students' perceptions on the management of digital competencies and their influence on academic performance, integrating socioeconomic aspects.