Digital Inequality During a Pandemic: Quantitative Study of Differences in COVID-19-Related Internet Uses and Outcomes Among the General Population.

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization considers coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to be a public emergency threatening global health. During the crisis, the public's need for web-based information and communication is a subject of focus. Digital inequality research has shown that internet access is not evenly distributed among the general population. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to provide a timely understanding of how different people use the internet to meet their information and communication needs and the outcomes they gain from their internet use in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. We also sought to reveal the extent to which gender, age, personality, health, literacy, education, economic and social resources, internet attitude, material access, internet access, and internet skills remain important factors in obtaining internet outcomes after people engage in the corresponding uses. METHODS: We used a web-based survey to draw upon a sample collected in the Netherlands. We obtained a dataset with 1733 respondents older than 18 years. RESULTS: Men are more likely to engage in COVID-19-related communication uses. Age is positively related to COVID-19-related information uses and negatively related to information and communication outcomes. Agreeableness is negatively related to both outcomes and to information uses. Neuroticism is positively related to both uses and to communication outcomes. Conscientiousness is not related to any of the uses or outcomes. Introversion is negatively related to communication outcomes. Finally, openness relates positively to all information uses and to both outcomes. Physical health has negative relationships with both outcomes. Health perception contributes positively to information uses and both outcomes. Traditional literacy has a positive relationship with information uses and both outcomes. Education has a positive relationship with information and communication uses. Economic and social resources played no roles. Internet attitude is positively related to information uses and outcomes but negatively related to communication uses and outcomes. Material access and internet access contributed to all uses and outcomes. Finally, several of the indicators and outcomes became insignificant after accounting for engagement in internet uses. CONCLUSIONS: Digital inequality is a major concern among national and international scholars and policy makers. This contribution aimed to provide a broader understanding in the case of a major health pandemic by using the ongoing COVID-19 crisis as a context for empirical work. Several groups of people were identified as vulnerable, such as older people, less educated people, and people with physical health problems, low literacy levels, or low levels of internet skills. Generally, people who are already relatively advantaged are more likely to use the information and communication opportunities provided by the internet to their benefit in a health pandemic, while less advantaged individuals are less likely to benefit. Therefore, the COVID-19 crisis is also enforcing existing inequalities.

Internet skills of medical faculty and students: is there a difference?

BACKGROUND: The shift from a more didactic to student-centred pedagogical approach has led to the implementation of new information communication technology (ICT) innovations and curricula. Consequently, analysis of the digital competency of both faculty and students is of increasing importance. The aim of this research is to measure and compare the internet skills of medical school faculty and students and to investigate any potential skills gap between the two groups. METHODS: A survey of medical school faculty and students across three universities in Ireland was carried out using a validated instrument (Internet Skills Scale) measuring five internet skills (Operational, Information Navigation, Social, Creative and Mobile). Three focus groups comprising a total of fifteen students and four semi-structured interviews with faculty across three institutions were carried out to explore further findings and perceptions towards digital literacy, give further insight and add context to the findings. RESULTS: Seventy-eight medical faculty (response rate 45%) and 401 students (response rate 15%) responded to the survey. Mean scores for each internet skill were high (above 4 out of 5) for all skills apart from Creative (mean of 3.08 for students and 3.10 for faculty). There were no large differences between student and faculty scores across the five skills. Qualitative results supported survey findings with a deeper investigation into topics such as online professionalism, use of licencing and mobile application development. Needs based skills training and support were highlighted as areas for faculty development. CONCLUSION: Both medical educators and students tend to have similar competencies with respect to internet skills. When implementing online and distance learning methodologies however, medical schools need to ensure appropriate skills training and support for faculty as well as providing targeted training to improve the creative skills of both their educators and students.

The first-level digital divide shifts from inequalities in physical access to inequalities in material access.

For a long time, a common opinion among policy-makers was that the digital divide problem would be solved when a country's Internet connection rate reaches saturation. However, scholars of the second-level digital divide have concluded that the divides in Internet skills and type of use continue to expand even after physical access is universal. This study-based on an online survey among a representative sample of the Dutch population-indicates that the first-level digital divide remains a problem in one of the richest and most technologically advanced countries in the world. By extending basic physical access combined with material access, the study finds that a diversity in access to devices and peripherals, device-related opportunities, and the ongoing expenses required to maintain the hardware, software, and subscriptions affect existing inequalities related to Internet skills, uses, and outcomes.

Collateral benefits of Internet use: Explaining the diverse outcomes of engaging with the Internet.

This article examines the extent to which economic, cultural, social, and personal types of engagement with the Internet result in a variety of economic, cultural, social, and personal outcomes. Data from a representative survey of the Dutch population are analyzed to test whether engagement with a certain type of activity is related to "collateral" benefits in different domains of activities, independent from the socioeconomic or sociocultural characteristics of the person. The results show that what people do online and the skills they have affect outcomes in other domains and that this is independent of the characteristics of the person. This means that policy and interventions could potentially overcome digital inequalities in outcomes through skills training and providing opportunities to engage online in a broad variety of ways. A semiologic rather than an economistic approach is more likely to be effective in thinking about and tackling digital inequalities.

[Parents' and Children's Perspectives of Parental Mediation Strategies in Association with Children's Internet Skills]. / Elterliche und kindliche Einschätzung von elterlichen Medienerziehungsstrategien und deren Zusammenhang mit der kindlichen Internetnutzungskompetenz.

Parents' and Children's Perspectives of Parental Mediation Strategies in Association with Children's Internet Skills The purpose of this study was to examine the association of parental mediation strategies (from parents' and children's perspective) and children's internet skills. In total 194 parent-child dyads were questioned about their parent's mediation strategies. The children (fifth to ninth grade) additionally answered questions about their internet skills and the amount of time they spent daily on the internet. Parents' and children's ratings of the parental mediation strategies showed moderate associations. Parents reported to use more often mediation strategies than was perceived by their children. The mediation strategies had only limited value for the prediction of the children's internet skills. Parents' and children's perspective about restrictive content mediation were both negatively associated to children's internet skills. After controlling for children's age, sex and time spent daily on the internet, results showed that only congruencies between children's and parental perspectives regarding the parental restrictive content mediation were associated with decreased technical and social internet skills. Additionally, discrepancies between the children's and parental perspectives regarding the parental use of technical mediation were associated with decreased technical internet skills. Discrepancies regarding the parental mediation strategy monitoring were related to increased information navigation skills.

Assessing the Impact of Internet Skills on Depressive Symptoms Among Chinese Middle-Aged and Older Adults: Cross-Sectional Instrumental Variables Analysis.

Background: The potential benefits of IT for the well-being of older adults have been widely anticipated. However, findings regarding the impact of internet use on depressive symptoms are inconsistent. As a result of IT's exponential growth, internet skills have supplanted internet access as the source of the digital divide. Objective: This study evaluates the effect of internet skills on depressive symptoms through an instrumental variables (IV) approach. Methods: Data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study's wave 4 (2018) were used. This included 16,949 community residents aged 45 years and older. To overcome the endogeneity issue, we used an IV approach. Results: Our results reveal the emergence of a second-level digital divide, the disparity in internet skills, among Chinese middle-aged and older adults. Liner regression suggests that a 1% increase in internet skills is associated with a 0.037% decrease in depressive symptoms (ß=-.037, SE 0.009), which underestimates the causal effect. As expected, internet skills are an endogenous variable (F test P value <.001). IV regressions indicate that a 1% increase in internet skills reduces 1.135% (SE 0.471) to 1.741% (SE 0.297) of depressive symptoms. These 2 IV are neither weak (F-1=16.7 and 28.5; both >10) nor endogenous (Wu-Hausman test P value of .10; >.05 or >.01). Conclusions: Better mental health is predicted through improved and higher internet skills. Consequently, residents and policy makers in China should focus on bridging the digital divide in internet skills among middle-aged and older adults.

Social Workers as Information Navigators: Insights into the Use of the Web for Serving Clients.

Social workers' critical role as service navigators on behalf of their clients is expanding in the online space at a faster pace than ever before. This study examined the process and outcome of online information navigation through the lens of service providers and service users based on observational and interactive surveys. T tests and correlation results showed that human services providers demonstrated a higher capacity to visit more websites and yield more accurate search outcomes in a similar duration of time compared with general service users. Results suggest that digital literacy for navigating information online can be improved through educational opportunities. At the same time, both groups shared some common feedback on desired features for future service navigation online, including but not limited to an open search bar, search filters, instruction videos, live chat, and discussion forums for seeking mutual help and networking. The findings bear implications for formulating the roles, responsibilities, and desired competencies of social workers for online service navigation in the digital and postpandemic future.

An Assessment of the Structural Validity and Measurement Invariance of the Web-Use Skills Scale for Aging Internet Users.

Research on digital inequality has found that aging adults are often at risk of digital exclusion. Understanding the validity of survey measures assessing Internet skills in this population is critical to providing the high-quality data needed for effective digital inclusion policy interventions. This cross-validation study examines the structural validity and measurement invariance (across age, gender, and education groups) of the Web-Use Skills scale (WUS), which is commonly used as a proxy measure of Internet skills. We tested the 14-item version of the WUS. The scale was translated into the Slovenian language and pretested with older Internet users. Data were collected from two independent samples of Internet users aged 50+ years (N1 = 259 and N2 = 256) drawn from an online opt-in panel in Slovenia. The examination of structural validity confirmed that the WUS adequately reflects the one-factor structure of the web-use skills construct, although in a shorter six-item form. Moreover, the analysis confirmed strict measurement invariance between the two samples and, at least, scalar invariance between age, gender, and education groups. The results support the applicability of WUS in cross-group comparisons of Internet skills in the population of aging Internet users and point to several opportunities for future work.

Survey data of internet skills, internet attitudes, computer self-efficacy, and digital citizenship among students in Indonesia.

Dataset provides wide measurement data on internet skills, internet attitudes, computer self-efficacy of the students related to the digital citizenship in Indonesia. Due to the pandemic of Covid-19, the survey was conducted online by considering the informant consent on assessing demographic information (7 items), internet skills (9 items), internet attitude (5 items), expertise and skills in using a computer (5 items), respect (6 items), educate (5 items), and protect (4 items), which was carried out from March to April. There were a total of 581 respondents selected through probability sampling based on random convenient sample from 12 public and private senior high schools which spread throughout 5 cities in Central Java, Indonesia. The survey data were analyzed using multivariate analysis and partial least structure with the analysis technique of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). In the future, this data can help educators, researchers, and educational policy makers to determine the level of readiness of students' digital citizenship attributes and efforts to conduct further research on efforts to strengthen digital citizenship in curricular programs.

Digital inequality in communication during a time of physical distancing: The case of COVID-19.

In times of physical distancing, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic, people are likely to turn to digital communication to replace in-person interactions. Yet, persisting digital inequality suggests that not everyone will be equally able or disposed to increasing digital communication during a public health crisis. Using survey data from a national sample of U.S. participants (N = 2,925) that we collected during the early months of the pandemic, we analyzed how sociodemographics, living arrangements, and Internet experiences and skills relate to increases and decreases in various digital communication methods. We find that people privileged in their socioeconomic status, their Internet skills and online experiences are more likely to increase and less likely to decrease digital communication during the pandemic. The findings illustrate how digital inequalities can put already disadvantaged groups at greater risk of diminished social contact during a public health crisis. We discuss the theoretical implications of our findings for digital inequality research, the practical implications for inclusive crisis responses, and directions for future research.

Students' prior knowledge and skills in computer and internet use: An exploration of incoming first year undergraduate health sciences students at Gulu University, Uganda

Internet has provided infrastructure that enables access to a variety of information resources for use by medical students at Gulu University in Northern Uganda. However, little attention has been put to explore prior internet knowledge of undergraduate medical students in Uganda. Cross-sectional research design was used. Fifty-six first year undergraduate health sciences students participated in the study. Self-administered structured questionnaire was used for data collection and analysis was done using SPSS version 16. Results shows that a majority of the participants had prior knowledge of computer 48 (86.0%) and internet 44 (79.0%). 38 (68.0%) participants had access to internet and 34 (61.0%) owned computer before joining the University. Majority owned mobile phones 41 (73.0%) and used it for internet access 43 (84.0%). Use of internet was high in social media 46 (86.8) and searching general information 44 (84.6%). Participants expected easy access to teaching materials 52 (94.5%) and communication 49 (90.7%) via internet. These findings suggest need for healthcare librarians to train incoming medical students on use of ICTs; including social media platforms and mobile phones to improve their ICT literacy skills to enable them access the best academic information resources to enhance medical education.

Serviços de governo eletrônico no Brasil: uma análise a partir das medidas de acesso e competências de uso da internet / Servicios de gobierno electrónico en Brasil: un análisis a partir de medidas de acceso y competencias de uso de Internet / Electronic government services in Brazil: an analysis based on measures of access and users' internet skills

Resumo Este artigo tem como objetivo analisar como medidas de disponibilidade de acesso à internet e de competência de uso influenciam o uso de serviços de governo eletrônico no Brasil. A pesquisa se baseou na abordagem das capacidades de Amartya Sen para a análise dos microdados da pesquisa TIC Domicílios coordenada pelo Centro Regional de Estudos para o Desenvolvimento da Sociedade da Informação (CETIC.br), referente ao ano-base de 2013. Para o tratamento e a análise dos dados, empregou-se um conjunto de técnicas estatísticas multivariadas. Os resultados indicam que nas classes C, D e E o aumento da chance de uso de serviços de e-gov é fortemente influenciado pela disponibilidade de acesso à internet em casa ou no trabalho (acesso individual), assim como pela maior competência de uso de outros recursos da internet.

Resumen En este artículo se pretende analizar cómo la disponibilidad de medidas de acceso a internet y las habilidades de uso de internet (capacidades) influyen en el uso de los servicios de gobierno electrónico en Brasil. La investigación se fundamenta en el enfoque de las capacidades de Amartya Sen para el análisis de los microdatos de investigación TIC Domicílios coordinados por el Centro Regional para el Desarrollo de la Sociedad de la Información (CETIC.br), para el año base de 2013. Los resultados indican que en las clases C (clase media), D y E (clase baja) el incremento de la probabilidad de adopción de servicios de gobierno electrónico está fuertemente influenciado por el acceso a internet en casa o trabajo (acceso individual), así como la amplitud de competencias del usuario en utilizar otros recursos de internet.

Abstract This article aims to analyze how measures to promote Internet access, and users' competencies influence the use of electronic government services in Brazil. We adopted Sen's Capability Approach as theoretical framework in order to analyze the microdata from the ICT Households 2013, a national-wide survey coordinated by the Regional Center for Studies on Development of the Information Society (Cetic.br). The results indicate that for social classes C (middle class), D and E (lower class) the increase in the odds ratio of the use of e-gov services is strongly influenced by both internet access preferably at home or work (individual access) as well as the users' internet skills.