Students’ Digital Competencies in Remote and Online Higher Education in the Security and Defence Field

Using digital tools for teaching and learning has become quite common in the latest years: while already before the year 2020 their use had been constantly increasing, the breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic at the beginning of the current decade gave a strong impulse to their diffusion. This phenomenon has become enduring also now that the presence of the virus does no longer constitute an emergency, with a view that certain changes will become essentially permanent. The use of digital tools in teaching brings some advantages, for example by allowing to teach and learn at a distance, but also challenges, since moving from using PCs and other devices for everyday life to using them in educational contexts is less straightforward than expected. In this research, we analyse how students perceived higher education during the transition scenario implied by the pandemic, through a survey delivered to military and civilian students enrolled in security and defence studies, which investigates students feelings while undergoing relevant changes in their educational habits. From the analysis of the questionnaire, it resulted that students had trouble, among other things, relating with teachers and feeling the same intensity of engagement when unable to see them in person. This research is part of the activities of the European project DIGICODE, aimed at the improvement of education quality in security and defence by fostering the correct use of digital tools, and by developing the relative competencies in both students and teachers.