With eight proficiency levels and examples of use
Competence area 1: Information and data literacy
1.1 Browsing, searching and filtering data, information and digital content: To articulate information needs, to search for data, information and content in digital environments, to access them and to navigate between them. To create and update personal search strategies.
1.2 Evaluating data, information and digital content: To analyse, compare and critically evaluate the credibility and reliability of sources of data, information and digital content. To analyse, interpret and critically evaluate the data, information and digital content.
1.3 Managing data, information and digital content: To organise, store and retrieve data, information and content in digital environments. To organise and process them in a structured environment.
Competence area 2: Communication and collaboration
2.1 Interacting through digital technologies: To interact through a variety of digital technologies and to understand appropriate digital communication means for a given context.
2.2 Sharing information and content through digital technologies: To share data, information and digital content with others through appropriate digital technologies. To act as an intermediary, to know about referencing and attribution practices.
2.3 Engaging in citizenship through digital technologies: To participate in society through the use of public and private digital services. To seek opportunities for self-empowerment and for participatory citizenship through appropriate digital technologies.
2.4 Collaborating through digital technologies: To use digital tools and technologies for collaborative processes, and for co-construction and co-creation of resources and knowledge.
2.5 Netiquette: To be aware of behavioural norms and knowhow while using digital technologies and interacting in digital environments. To adapt communication strategies to the specific audience and to be aware of cultural and generational diversity in digital environments.
2.6 Managing digital identity: To create and manage one or multiple digital identities, to be able to protect one’s reputation, to deal with the data that one produces through several digital tools, environments and services.
Competence area 3: Digital content creation
3.1 Developing digital content: To create content in different formats (e.g. data, text, multimedia), to edit and improve existing content, to express oneself through digital means.
3.2 Integrating and re-elaborating digital content: To modify, refine and integrate new information and content into an existing body of knowledge and resources to create new, original and relevant content and knowledge.
3.3 Copyright and licences: To understand how copyright and licences apply to digital information and content.
3.4 Programming: To plan and develop a sequence of understandable instructions for a computing system to solve a given problem or to perform a specific task
Competence area 4: Safety
4.1 Protecting devices: To protect devices and data, to understand risks and threats in digital environments, to know about safety and security measures and to have due regard to reliability and privacy.
4.2 Protecting personal data and privacy: To protect personal data and privacy in digital environments. To understand how to share personally identifiable information while protecting self and others from dangers (e.g. fraud). To understand that digital services use a “Privacy policy” to declare how personal data is used.
4.3 Protecting health and well-being: To avoid health-risks related with the use of digital technologies in terms of threats to physical and psychological well-being. To be able to protect self and others from possible dangers in digital environments (e.g. cyber bullying). To be aware of digital technologies for social well-being and inclusion.
4.4 Protecting the environment: To be aware of the environmental impact of digital technologies and their use
Competence area 5: Problem solving
5.1 Solving technical problems: To identify technical problems when operating devices and using digital environments, and to solve them (from trouble-shooting to solving more complex problems).
5.2 Identifying needs and technological responses: To assess needs and to identify, evaluate, select and use digital tools and possible technological responses to solve them. To adjust and customise digital environments to personal needs (e.g. accessibility).
5.3 Creatively using digital technologies: To use digital tools and technologies to create knowledge and to innovate processes and products. To engage individually and collectively in cognitive processing to understand and resolve conceptual problems and problem situations in digital environments.
5.4 Identifying digital competence gaps: To understand where one’s own digital competence needs to be improved or updated. To be able to support others with their digital competence development. To seek opportunities for self-development and to keep upto-date with the digital evolution.
DigComp maps out 4 broad proficiency levels (foundation, intermediate, advanced, highlyspecialised).
These 4 levels can also be further elaborated across 8 levels offering a more detailed description of progression criteria. The 8 levels provide the granularity needed to develop learning materials, assess and recognise learning progression, and to describe tasks and competences in detail. Each of the 8 level descriptions represents a further step by the citizens in three domains: ` The acquisition of knowledge of the competence ` The complexity of the tasks they can handle ` Their autonomy in completing the task