Investigation of digital citizenship indicators through university students' perceptions

The aim of this study was to reveal digital citizenship indicators through university students' perspectives. Within the framework of this aim, a unique scale was developed to find out university students' digital citizenship levels, and the relationships between digital citizenship and its sub-factors. In addition, the relationship between digital citizenship and its sub-factors were examined according to gender, universities, faculties, grades, internet usage frequency and monthly income. Participants of the study were considered in two steps; namely participants involved in the development of the digital citizenship scale and participants involved in the application of the scale to the sample representing Turkey. Participants involved in the development of the scale consist of 625 students, who were studying in various faculties of Anadolu University during 2015-2016 fall and spring semesters. Following the development of the scale, 2148 students who were studying in six different state universities during 2015-2016 spring semester participated in the study. The scale was prepared based on Ribble and Bailey's (2007) nine digital citizenship elements, the studies conducted in this field were also reviewed, and it was developed using validity and reliability analyses. During the preparation of the data collection tool, an item pool; which was discussed on an expert panel, was created and the form was improved through expert opinions. Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were performed, then internal consistency coefficients were calculated. Regarding the application performed across Turkey, t-test, one-way ANOVA and Spearman Correlation were used to address sub-objectives of the research. During the scale development stage, a form consisting of 23 items and five factors was built. Through this scale, the sub-factors were set as online procedures, correct usage, access, health and social responsibility. As a result of the analysis, it was found that access factor had the highest means followed by correct usage, online procedures, health and social responsibility. The analysis of the university students' digital citizenship scores according to gender showed that there was a significant differentiation in favor of the female university students. The review of the results according to university variable further revealed significant differences. On the other hand, digital citizenship scores did not significantly differ among faculties. The comparisons made according to grades shoved that digital citizenship scores increased as the grade increasesd. In addition, its correlations with internet usage frequency and annual income were significant. Keywords: Digital citizenship, Digital citizenship elements, University students, Scale development.