Self-Assessment of Digital Literacy Skills Using Internet Skills Scale (ISS): A Preliminary Report

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of the pilot study into digital skills of selected population of Croatia, which was part of the larger research into literacies important for the digital economy. For this purpose, the Internet Skills Scale self-assessment test has been used, comprised of distinct dimensions of Creative, Operational, Social and Mobile skills which represent separate constructs and as such are envisaged to be used individually. The preliminary analysis of the data showed statistically significant difference in self-assessed Creative and Social skills between men and women, younger generation in general was found to be more digitally skilled than older generation and higher educated parents led to significantly higher participants' score related to selfassessed Mobile skills. Limitations of this study stem from the cross-sectional design not allowing examination of changes with passage of time, and determination of causalities. This pilot is based on non-random convenience sampling that may not represent the broader Croatian population, limiting the generalizability of this study. Selfassessment instrument was applied, and Information Navigation skill was omitted, and this all can lead to the problems of respondents' undervaluation and overevaluation when assessing their skills level thus limiting and skewing the findings.