Interactive digital tools for developing university students' professional competence

Abstract

The article examines the effectiveness of interactive digital tools in developing the professional competence of university students. The study analyzes the potential and limitations of digital platforms integrated into the university's educational digital environment and substantiates pedagogical conditions for their systematic use in professional training. A quasi-experimental study was conducted with 188 first-year university students, including an experimental group (EG; n = 93) and a control group (CG; n = 95). At the ascertaining stage, the majority of students in both groups demonstrated a low level of professional competence, confirming the need for targeted pedagogical intervention. During the formative stage, the experimental group participated in an author's special course and a system of pedagogical conditions involving the systematic integration of interactive digital tools, collaborative learning, digital communication, independent activities, and interactive assessment, whereas the control group continued studying according to the traditional educational approach. At the control stage, the experimental group demonstrated substantially higher proportions of students with a high level of professional competence across all assessed criteria. According to the cognitive criterion, 60.22% of EG students achieved a high level compared with 13.68% in CG; according to the activity-operational criterion, the corresponding proportions were 59.14% and 18.95%; and according to the personal criterion, 53.76% and 17.89%, respectively. Figure 1 also demonstrated greater increases in the proportion of students with a high level in EG across all criteria. These findings indicate that the systematic pedagogical integration of interactive digital tools was associated with substantially greater improvements in professional competence in the experimental group than in the control group.