An ICT-integrated Modular Training Program Enhancing the Digital Research Skills of Research Scholars

The teaching profession in higher education demands strong research skills, and with rapid technological advancements, university teaching professionals must familiarize themselves with digital research skills. Thus, university teachers and PhD research scholars across the globe are eager to develop their digital research skills to enhance their work efficiency. Acquiring digital research skills on the job or during the PhD program has proven to be challenging. These skills assist higher education professionals in various ways, such as supervising doctoral students, conducting research, working on research projects, and publishing research articles. Thus, the present study attempted to provide ICT-integrated modular training (MT) to facilitate the higher education teaching faculty and PhD scholars with digital research skills. The study employed a repeated cross-sectional research design and measured the effectiveness of the MT through a single group pre and post-test design. Researchers conducted three modular training sessions annually on digital research skills over five consecutive years. In total, 300 scholars attended the training and participated in the pre-test, post-test, and satisfaction survey. Findings from paired sample t-tests (t-value varied between 4.117 to 7.525, p < 0.05) revealed that modular training has been significantly effective with a large effect size (d > 0.8). Furthermore, the satisfaction survey revealed a high degree of satisfaction among participants. Future research may explore ways to strengthen the technological and pedagogical content knowledge of modular training programs in developing digital research skills.