Digital Literacy Skills and Their Influence on Students’ Academic Engagement in The Information Age in Rivers State, Nigeria

This study explored the influence of digital literacy skills on the academic engagement of secondary school students in Rivers State, Nigeria. In the Information Age, where digital technologies permeate everyday life, the ability to effectively use these tools is essential for meaningful learning. While students frequently engage with digital devices for communication and entertainment, their capacity to leverage these tools for academic purposes remains a concern. Descriptive survey design was adopted. The population of the study was all public senior secondary school students in Rivers State consisting of 193,436 admitted in 2024/2025 academic session. Sample was 560 public senior secondary students selected using multi-stage sampling. Instruments were Digital Literacy Skills Scale (DLSS) and Academic Engagement Questionnaire (AEQ). Both instruments were validated and showed reliability coefficients of 0.82 and 0.85. Questionnaires were administered with the help of trained assistants and data were collected. Research questions were analyzed using mean, standard deviation while the null hypotheses were tested using simple linear regression and t-tests at 0.05 significance level No significant gender differences were observed in digital literacy, whereas urban students demonstrated significantly higher academic engagement than their rural peers. Regression analysis further showed that digital literacy accounted for 38% of the variance in academic engagement. The findings highlight digital literacy as a key driver of student involvement, motivation, and participation in learning. The study recommends enhanced digital literacy training, improved ICT infrastructure, strategic integration of digital tools into teaching, and targeted support for rural schools to address engagement disparities.