Social and health care educators' perceptions of competence in digital pedagogy: A qualitative descriptive study

Background: Digitalisation has made digital competence a necessity for those working in social and healthcare. A high degree of competence in digital pedagogy is required of educators to meet the challenge of educating future professionals who are themselves highly digitally competent. Objectives: The aim of this study was to describe the perceptions of competence in digital pedagogy that educators in social and healthcare have. Design: A qualitative descriptive study. Participants: The participants were Finnish-speaking social and healthcare educators (n= 37) working at six Finnish universities of applied sciences (UAS). Methods: Group interviews (n= 12) were conducted during spring 2018. Each group consisted of 2-5 educators, with a total of 37 educators. The data was analysed using an inductive content analysis. Results: According to the interviewed educators, competence in digital pedagogy involved pedagogical, digital, and ethical skills and awareness. The educators were aware of the possibilities afforded by digital technology and had a positive view on how the technology could be utilised in education. However, the educators were concerned that technology might solely be utilised for the sake of digitalisation instead of being pedagogically preferable. Conclusions: In the future, the results of this study can be utilised while developing an instrument to evaluate the level of competence in digital pedagogy. Examining the perceptions of the educators will allows us to better understand the phenomena from the educators' point of view.