Investigating the relationship between teachers' digital literacy and their views on the usability of Student Educational Network (SHAD software)

The new situation caused by the outbreak of the Coronavirus imposed unprecedented conditions on the education system of the countries. Although, prior to this situation, teachers mostly would appear in their classrooms and use classical methods like lectures to teach, now the new situation they are faced with demands continuing their teaching only with the use of distance communication tools and teachers are forced to turn to online teaching and change their teaching styles according to this space. Therefore, in these circumstances and due to the importance of teachers' efficient use of this space and due to the large amount of unreliable information in the digital space and the need to have a critical and evaluative view of this space, teachers must have the required skills appropriate to these conditions. We call this skill digital literacy. In Iran, the Ministry of Education has made decisions to compensate for the effects of school closures, one of which is the launch of a "student education network" abbreviated as "SHAD". From the very beginning, there has been a lot of discussion about its efficiency from the users' point of view. In this regard, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the level of digital literacy of teachers and their views on the usability of the student educational network (SHAD).

The method of the present research was applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-correlational in terms of data collection. The statistical population of this study includeed all primary teachers in Torbat-e Heydarieh in the academic year 1399-1400; they were about 585 people. Statistical sample was determined using Cochran's formula of 232 people and also simple random sampling method was used. In order to collect the required data and information related to digital literacy, the standard digital literacy questionnaire of Ng (2012) was used. Regarding usability, Bangor et al.’s (2009) system usability scale was used. This test consisted of 10 items. Odd test questions were direct questions and even questions were indirect ones.

After analyzing the data using SPSS software, the results obtained in descriptive statistics showed that the average of digital literacy and its dimensions (technical, attitudinal, emotional-social and cognitive) as well as usability were all above the average. The results of correlation test, which examined the relationship between two variables, showed that the relationship between digital literacy and its dimensions with usability was significant and the highest value was related to the relationship between digital literacy and usability, which was 0.49. The results of regression test with the aim of predicting usability based on digital literacy also showed that digital literacy could predict 24% of the usability variable. The results of regression test with the aim of predicting usability based on the dimensions of digital literacy showed that the effect of technical and attitudinal dimensions on usability was confirmed and could predict almost 26% of the usability variable and the effect of cognitive and emotional-social dimensions was rejected.

The results of the study indicated that there was a significant relationship between digital literacy and its technical and attitudinal dimensions with usability and the relationship between cognitive and emotional-social dimensions with usability was rejected. The benefits of using e-learning led to a positive attitude in people, and on the other hand, those who were technically skilled in working with software found it practical. According to the results obtained in this study, the importance of teachers' digital literacy is clear because teachers with higher digital literacy will not have much difficulty in teaching in digital space and using educational software, and this would improve their performance in this field.