A critical review of ICT skills for higher education learners

Abstract

Possessing appropriate ICT skills has become necessary to meet the demands of the knowledge driven economies. Therefore, the transfer of those skills to Higher Education learners must be accomplished effectively. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the literature on computer-based ICT skills and the categorisation of those skills. This paper outlines the findings from literature towards determining how computer-based ICT skills have been documented, identified and categorised. Despite numerous authors’ contributions, the consolidated categorisations of computer-based ICT skills have not been published. We outline the findings of a comprehensive literature analysis to chart the identified computer-based ICT skills and an initial categorisation into technical and non-technical skills, each with their own sub-categories. The results are further deconstructed to present relationships between the skills and the categorisation.