The effect of digital footprint course design on students' academic achievement about digital citizenship

In this research, a lesson was designed about digital footprint. The importance of digital footprint which covers all kinds of activities carried out in the internet environment is increasing day by day, and the lack of this concept is seen in the curriculum. The aim of this research is to examine the effect of the digital footprint course design on the academic achievement of students about the subject of digital citizenship. It can be put forward that digital footprint constitutes individuals identities in the virtual environment and they can create false and evil identities through the use of an unconscious internet that this identity can never be erased and individuals in all areas of life can affect positively or negatively. The research group consisted of 49 students in the 5th and 6th grades of a college during the 2016-2017 academic year. The implementation of the designed digital footprint course lasted for a total of 9 weeks including the first week pre-test, 7 week implementation process and last week post-test within the scope of Information Technologies and Software course. In order to test whether there is a difference before and after the implementation process, the data obtained from pre-test and post-test scores of the students were tested by paired samples t-test. Cohen's d value was calculated to examine the effect size of the analysis performed. It was observed that there was a meaningful difference between pre-test and post-test scores in the result of the research and post-test scores showed a very large effective increase compared to pre-test scores. According to these results, it can be said that the design of the digital footprint course has positive effect on the academic achievement of the digital citizenship and this effect is meaningful. In the light of the findings and results obtained, some suggestions were made for research and further implementation.