Survey Measures of Web-Oriented Digital Literacy

Resource type
Journal Article
Author/contributor
Title
Survey Measures of Web-Oriented Digital Literacy
Abstract
This article presents survey measures of web-oriented digital literacy to serve as proxies for observed skill measures, which are much more expensive and difficult to collect for large samples. Findings are based on a study that examined users’ digital literacy through both observations and survey questions, making it possible to check the validity of survey proxy measures. These analyses yield a set of recommendations for what measures work well as survey proxies of people’s observed web-use skills. Some of these survey measures were administered on the General Social Survey 2000 and 2002 Internet modules, making the findings relevant for the use of existing large-scale national data sets. Results suggest that some composite variables of survey knowledge items are better predictors of people’s actual digital literacy based on performance tests than are measures of users’ self-perceived abilities, a proxy traditionally used in the literature on the topic.
Publication
Social Science Computer Review
Volume
23
Issue
3
Pages
371-379
Date
08/2005
Journal Abbr
Social Science Computer Review
Language
en
ISSN
0894-4393, 1552-8286
Accessed
12/01/2024, 09:29
Library Catalogue
DOI.org (Crossref)
Citation
Hargittai, E. (2005). Survey Measures of Web-Oriented Digital Literacy. Social Science Computer Review, 23(3), 371–379. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439305275911