The Impact of Digital Competence and Personal Innovativeness on the Learning Behavior of Students: Exploring the Moderating Role of Digitalization in Higher Education Quality

The integration of digitalization in higher education is a key to increasing the number of students getting access to education in the developing world. Inspired by the fast digitalization in higher education institutes and the lack of relevant empirical studies about the impact of this rapid digitalization on the learning behavior of students, we investigated: how does digital competence, along with personal innovativeness and attitudes toward digital learning, affect the learning behavior of students in China? This study also aims to examine the moderating role of the level of digitization at higher educational institutions between students’ personality traits and their learning behavior. For this purpose, cross sectional data were collected from 1,569 Chinese students through purposive and random sampling through a face-to-face survey. The data were analyzed using the partially least square structural equation model. The findings indicate that digital competence (β = .688, p < .01) exerts a robust positive influence on students’ learning behavior. The personal innovativeness had a significant impact on learning behavior (β = .720, p < .01). The study found that the attitude toward digital learning had a significant impact on students’ learning behavior (β = .573, p < .01). The results also indicated that digitalization at higher education institutes moderated positively between student personality traits and their learning behavior. Thus, the enables individuals to cultivate creativity, explore novel concepts, and acquire fresh insights that enhance their intellectual skills. Ultimately, DHEI also cultivates their attitude toward formal as well as informal digital learning, which significantly influences their learning behavior.