The influence of digital educational technology on improving digital skills: An exploratory study of teacher candidates in the context of Kazakhstan

Numerous issues with Kazakhstan's higher education system have been revealed by the digital advancement of the country. First, universities still have inadequate levels of digitization despite it being a significant component of the wider digitalization of education. The presence of organizational and legal barriers in the educational environment does not contribute to the digitalization of education. The issue of collaboration between teachers and students emerges in the context of educational digitalization. The study was conducted at Abai University and Almaty University of Humanities and Economics (Almaty, Kazakhstan). The experiment included 163 participants. The study revealed a lack of knowledge of digital literacy and motivation among learners for creating a digital environment and providing feedback. The use of cloud computing, video hosting and the coordination of offline and online activities on the internet were found to provide challenges for maintaining the security and privacy of personal information. This study demonstrates that significant advances in students' digital literacy have occurred following the introduction and testing of the author's academic program with EG participants to develop digital skills. Data from this study can serve as the foundation for creating strategies for digital skills development in universities and as a methodological basis for adapting educational programs for digital skills development.