# How to Improve the Digital Competence for E-Learning?
## 2 Theoretical Foundations  
When talking about digital competence, the Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (DigComp; for the initial version see [2]; for the updated version 2.0 see [18]; for version 2.1 see [19] and for version 2.2 see [20]) has been treated as a guideline for a common understanding of what digital competence is. The framework outlines five competence areas: information and data literacy, communication and collaboration, digital content creation, safety and problem solving. In each of these areas, knowledge and skills are expected, but no distinction has been made between these two. This seems reasonable because in assessing skills, we also assess knowledge that is needed to apply particular skills. Thus, it appears that in practical situations there might be no need to distinguish between knowledge and skills. The DigComp framework describes the competence of citizens; however, schools have a crucial role to help a specific subgroup, children, to become digitally competent adults. Moreover, as the technology is being widely used in teaching and learning, children should obtain the required digital skills and knowledge mostly while reaching the school curriculum's general leaning outcomes. This is necessary in order for them to apply the competence in the life-long learning process in e-learning settings. However, there is still a question of how to enhance students' digital competence in the best way. Although the DigComp framework describes the dimensions of digital competence theoretically, these areas of digital competence have not been distinguished in empirical studies. In order to find a reliable way for improving students' digital competence for learning, we first need to understand which attitudes, knowledge and skills students already have and how these are influencing each other. There have been many studies with the objective of assessing students' digital competence (e.g., see [21] for the review). In this study, we use the assessment instrument created and validated by [PERSON] and [PERSON] [22], which allows us to assess primary and lower secondary school students' digital competence for learning in ten dimensions: social aspects, perceived control, behavioural attitudes, behavioural intention,creation of digital materials/content, programming digital content, communicating in the digital world, performing operations with digital tools, protecting themselves and others in the digital world and legal behaviour in the digital world (for descriptions see Table 1). These dimensions are defined based on the work of [PERSON], [PERSON] and [PERSON] [23], who identified the areas of digital competence by analysing the Estonian data from the EU Kids Online study and Estonian Digital Competence test results. These dimensions are also in line with the ones described in the DigComp framework and add the attitudes dimensions, as by definition, competence also includes attitudes in addition to knowledge and skills [15; 16; 17]. The reason for opting for a test assessing primary and lower secondary school students' abilities is that according to previous research, assessing students' digital abilities at a younger age leaves more room for competence improvement interventions during their following studies [21]. As digital competence is multifaceted, it is expected that its dimensions are connected and that students' better knowledge and skills in one area also benefit other areas. In more general terms, the dimensions of digital competence may be divided into three subcategories: attitudes towards digital device usage (social aspects, perceived control, behavioural attitudes, behavioural intention), knowledge and skills of using digital devices, materials and content and those of creating digital content (creation of digital materials/content, programming digital content, communicating in the digital world) and behaviour in the digital world (protecting oneself and others in the digital world and legal behaviour in the digital world; [22]).