Campus Location
Dallas Campus (Online)
Date of Award
8-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Department
Organizational Leadership
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Timothy Stafford
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Marisa Beard
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Julie A. McElhany
Abstract
A shared global theme across higher education institutions is the need for training and development regarding digital competencies for higher education, yet there are little to no digital competency frameworks for faculty at higher educational institutions, like there are for K12. What can leaders in higher educational institutions do to prepare adult learners for a digital society and workplace that continues to expand globally in every field? Should every school adopt XYZ College’s approach, where leadership collaborated and developed an emerging technologies academy (ETA) to provide support and training on emerging technologies provided and supported by the college to self-enrolled faculty and staff? The ETA aimed to impact faculty’s attitudes and beliefs towards technology integration, increase digital competency self-efficacy, and impact student learning to prepare them for a digital society and workplace. The integrated theoretical framework approach to the academy included a mix of self-efficacy, connectivism learning theory, and heutagogy. Following the theoretical framework of pragmatism, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine existing higher education faculty beliefs and attitudes in all subject areas about the use of emerging technologies and digital competency self-efficacy after engaging in professional development on the adopted emerging technologies provided in a higher educational institution, particularly the ETA. A sample of 16 faculty out of 23 consenting participants responded to a qualitative Likert-type scale questionnaire, along with five open-ended questions to determine the impact on faculty digital competency, attitudes, beliefs, and teaching practices. In addition to the questionnaires, six structured interviews were conducted. A reflexive thematic analysis was applied to the dataset. Key findings included the ETA increased faculty’s digital competence and self-efficacy in using new technologies for teaching, positively impacted faculty’s beliefs and attitudes towards technology integration in teaching and learning, and had a positive impact on instructors, increasing their confidence and competence in using interactive technologies like Padlet, Yuja, and Poll Everywhere. The integration of new technologies in the classroom led to improved student engagement, learning, and digital competence.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Martinez, Yolanda T., "Assessing and Developing Higher Education Faculty Digital Competency for Workplace Preparation in a Digital Society" (2025). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 924.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/924