Development of digital skills of university students in informal learning contexts

The purpose of this article is to explore the perception of university students about the development of digital skills in informal educational contexts. To this end, a sequential mixed research was conducted with university students from a private institution in the city of Cali, Colombia. The data collection techniques consisted of an electronic questionnaire and two discussion groups. Among the main results, it was found that students have a heterogeneous perception regarding the development of the different areas of digital skills, being stronger those related to the interaction and the creation/edition of graphic content. The lowest values were reported for security competencies and problem solving. The students referred a wide number of digital practices that they had learned autonomously, through interaction with other individuals, with web resources and from trial-error personal experiences. However, these competences are not usually transferred to the academic field. Finally, some proposals are presented. They can be considered as articulating axes for the development of digital competences inside and outside the classroom.