Representation Degree of Female University Students of Humanities at Princess Nora Bit Abdulrahman University of Values of Digital Citizenship in Light of the University Reinforcing its Values

Abstract

This study aimed to achieve several objectives. The most important of these objectives was identifying the degree of spread of the digital citizenship concept among female university students. It also aimed at determining  the degree of their representation to the digital citizenship values during their learning and communication through social networks as one of the e-learning environments, which is the most widely used in the educational process nowadays. Moreover, this study aimed to achieve many sub-objectives related to the extent of the impact of the degree of representation on achieving intellectual security among female university students, which generally led to the consolidation of national loyalty, in addition to other issues related to the variables of the current research, such as the nature of specialization and academic level. 

The study used the descriptive analytical approach, the most appropriate approach for fulfilling its objectives. It was applied to a sample of (89) female students of humanities at Princess Nora bint Abdulrahman University in Riyadh. A  comprehensive questionnaire was utilized as an instrument to investigate the nine topics of digital citizenship with their values and effects. The most significant results of the study were as follows: (i) the extent of spread of the digital citizenship concept among female university students was very low. It does not exceed (13.5%) among the participants. Whereas, (86.5%) of the study sample did not know what this concept meant. (ii) The extent to which they represent the digital citizenship values, in terms of their application of what was contained in the nine digital citizenship topics, was significantly high for each of the following topics: digital communications, digital laws, and digital security "self-protection". Meanwhile, the arithmetic means of these topics were: (3.27), (4.00), (3.29) out of (4.00) respectively. (iii) The extent of students’ representation to the digital citizenship values, in terms of the degree of their application of what was contained in each one of the nine topics was moderate for each of the remaining six topics: digital access, digital commerce, digital literacy, digital fitness, digital rights and responsibilities, as well as digital health and safety. Whereas, the arithmetic means of those axes were: 3.06/4.00, 3.22/4.00, 3.17/4.00 and 3.21/4.00 as well as 3.23/4.00 and 3.16/4.00 respectively. The study inferred from the representation degree of the whole nine topics the extent of achieving intellectual security of female university students in terms of a set of implicit statements that were related to this subject in each of the nine topics. Based on these results, the study suggests a proposed vision of what should been done by the university to promote the digital citizenship concepts among female university students. Also, the study provides a set of recommendations and suggestions related to the concept of digital citizenship and its values, as well as ways of reinforcing them.