Digital Competencies as Predictors of Academic Self-Efficacy: Correlations and Implications for Educational Development

This study focuses on determining the correlation between digital competencies and academic self-efficacy of students in universities in the Selva Central (Central Jungle) region of Peru to establish the significance of these factors in academic achievement. This study employs a quantitative, hypothesis-testing design and is both fundamental and co-relational in nature; 84 students from Universidad de la Selva Central were selected. Validated questionnaires were used to gather data on the participants' DCs including information literacy, communication, content creation, security, and problem-solving skills, as well as the academic self-efficacy of the participants, with all having reliability scores of 0.823 and 0.895, respectively, for the Spearman correlation coefficient. By using statistical analysis, it was established that there is a stronger positive relationship between academic self-efficacy and every dimension of the digital competencies; this was particularly the case with communication and collaboration, rho = 0.853, and digital content creation, rho = 0.863. As such, there is evidence that increasing digital literacy may help improve the learners' self-confidence in achieving academic success and address the problem of early school leaving, as well as improve competitiveness in the European Union labor market. This study suggests that appropriate curricula and/or workshops to strengthen these effectiveness- and efficiency-related competencies be disseminated to education stakeholders and the findings published in relevant outlets. This research therefore fits within the larger body of literature on the inclusion of digital literacy within tertiary education, information science, and technology.