An examination of digital footprint awareness and digital experiences of higher education students

Abstract

Rapid changes are occurring in life owing to information and communication technologies. During this change period, digital
identities have begun to emerge. These identities are associated with actions that users perform in online environments. A
digital footprint is formed with these actions. The purpose of this study is to determine the digital footprint awareness and
digital footprint experiences of higher education students. In order to collect data for the study, researchers developed a
data collection tool titled ‘A survey for digital media use’. The study group consisted of 508 higher education students from
41 Turkish universities. Data were collected through an online-form where participation was on a volunteer basis. The
findings of the research show that students have a high level of digital footprint awareness ( x = 4.251) and a low level of
digital footprint experience ( x = 1.907).
Keywords: Digital footprint, digital footprint awareness, digital footprint experiences, higher education students.