Student Self-perception on Digital Literacy in STEM Blended Learning Environments

As students transition into tertiary blended learning environments, their digital literacy in terms of technical capabilities have potential to impact on their access to digital resources. The first foundational year of STEM degrees includes compulsory courses across a broad range of scientific areas, each of which incorporates online technology in a discipline-specific manner. Given the diversity of online resources that STEM students need to access across their first-year coursework, this study applies learning analytical methods to determine whether students’ perceived level of digital literacy has an effect on their navigation of learning management systems (LMS) and overall academic performance. The frequency and nature of LMS interactivity were examined across four first-year STEM courses offered in the same semester at a single institution, using a K-means cluster analysis to group student responses. It was observed that high achieving students accessed LMS resources more frequently than mid or low-achieving students across all four STEM courses. Students’ perceived level of digital literacy was collected via survey (n = 282), and students were sorted high (n = 106) and low-level (n = 176) of perceived digital literacy—HDL and LDL, respectively. HDL students were not consistently found in the high-achieving academic group and did not perform better in their overall grade when compared to LDL students. LDL students were observed to perform better in specific online assessment tasks, which may be attributed to their increased frequency of LMS interactivity. These findings highlight the delicate balance between students’ perceived level of digital literacy, motivation for engaging with online learning environments, and academic performance.