Dimensions of the University Digital Ecosystem: Validation of the Instrument «University Digital Ecosystem» (UN-DIGECO)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17398/1695-288X.19.1.9Keywords:
Social media, Social network, Digital ecosystem, College students, Digital applications, Survey validationAbstract
The purpose of the study was to design and validate the UN-DIGECO (University Digital Ecosystem) instrument, aimed at learning about the use that undergraduates make of social media and/or digital applications. The content and comprehension validation was carried out in three phases: construction, refining and psychometric validation, based on confirmatory factor analysis, supported by the initial theoretical construct. The items, designed by experts, are in line with indicators assigned to six theoretically defined dimensions: Learning, Social Interaction, Content Creation, Online Consumption, Leisure, and Recreational. Own indicators were integrated together with others adapted from similar published instruments. The preliminary version of the questionnaire was tested by a group of 25 students, some items were refined and redefined to facilitate their understanding. The pilot version included 44 items and involved 484 students from Spanish and Colombian universities. The authors analysed the latent structure of the items by applying exploratory factor analysis and, after examining the composition of the factor structure of the indicators, excluded the non-relevant ones. The results confirmed the existence of these six dimensions, which include 37 items, with a Cronbach's alpha greater than 0.8. The instrument and its components show appropriate psychometric properties of validity and reliability, being applicable to other contexts. The originality of the designed questionnaire lies in the structuring of the information, establishing and integrating six dimensions related to the use university students make of SM.
Downloads
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish in this journal accept the following conditions:
Authors retain copyright over their works and grant the journal the right of first publication. Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which allows third parties to share, copy, distribute, publicly communicate, adapt, transform, and reuse the work in any medium or format, including for commercial purposes, provided that authorship is properly acknowledged, the original source is cited, a link to the license is included, and any changes made are indicated. Note: This license applies to articles published from Vol. 25, No. 2, 2026 onwards.
Authors may enter into separate and additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the published version of the article —for example, its deposit in an institutional repository or its subsequent inclusion in a book—, provided that it is clearly stated that the work was first published in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to deposit and disseminate their work on the Internet, for example, in institutional repositories, institutional websites, or personal websites before, during, and after the review and publication process, as this may foster scholarly exchange, increase the visibility of the work, and enable broader and faster dissemination of the published research.
