DIGITAL LITERACY AMONG RESEARCH SCHOLARS OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND ARTS FACULTIES IN UNIVERSITY OF KERALA : A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Abstract

The present study deals with assessing the digital literacy among the research scholars of social science and arts faculties in University of Kerala.For the purpose of data collection, 84 questionnaires received from the research scholars from Social science and Arts faculty were analysed. The findings revealed that more social science scholars are digitally literate than arts. Nearly all respondents are familiar with open access e-books/e-journals. Only a least number of respondents used audio and video sharing websites for professional activities.Email and internet browsing were the most preferred services used ever y day by lion’s share of respondents in social science and arts faculty (95.12%). Majority of the social science research scholars used laptop for internet access, but smartphone by research scholars in arts. The constraints faced by research scholars in both the faculties, while using digital information resources were identified. Regular evaluation and assessment have to be conducted to determine whether the digital resources are effectively used by the research scholars and also to monitor their changing needs.