Proceedings of the 7th World Conference on Future of Education
Year: 2023
DOI:
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Digital Citizenship among Students in Oman: A Multi-Variable Analysis
Suad Al Wahaibi, Khalfan Al-Hijji, Raja Maznah Raja Hussain
ABSTRACT:
This study aimed at examining digital citizenship among grade ten students in Oman and its relationship to gender, online threats and time spent online. It was conducted in 2022 involving 1022 students from all over the country. The study employed a quantitative approach, utilizing a digital citizenship questionnaire for data collection. The five-Likert questionnaire, consisting of two sections, focuses on demographic data and includes 54 items based on REP model proposed by Ribble (2015). Cluster sampling random selection was used and data was analyzed using SPSS v.25. Results revealed that the overall level of digital citizenship among grade-ten students fell into the moderate category (M= 2.90, SD= 0.33). In addition, the overall difference in digital citizenship scores between the scores of males (M= 2.88, SD = 0.341) and the scores of females (M= 2.91, SD = 0.323) was not statistically significant as (t (1020) = -1.839, p = 0.066). Moreover, results showed that the differences in digital citizenship scores between students who faced online threats and those who did not were statistically significant (t (621) = -2.248, p = 0.025). Results also indicated that the differences in digital citizenship scores across the time spent online categories were statistically significant (F (3, 1018) = 7.815, p = 0.000). Findings are inconsistent with Oman’s Vision 2040 and more effort should be put into training students in the field of DC. This includes establishing a curriculum that targets preparing students from early ages to use the internet responsibly and appropriately.
keywords: digital citizenship education, DC curriculum, grade ten, Ministry of Education, Oman’s Vision 2040, students