The most extensive digital literacy test, Digital Dictation, organized by ROCIT, RAEC and Microsoft with the support of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ, took place in Russia. It involved almost 40,000 people: about 30,000 adults and about 10,000 teenagers aged 14−17. The average level of participant’s digital literacy was 7.15 out of 10.
The most difficult questions were those related to cybersecurity (average score 6.7): only 37% of the users showed a high level of knowledge in this field. Questions related to digital devices, programs and internet services included in the Digital Consumption block turned out to be the simplest (average score 7.81).
The dictation was developed taking into account two age categories: adults (18+) and teenagers (14−17) the latter scored 1.12 points less than the older generation. At the same time, the gap widens when questions concern digital security: personal data protection and the culture of interaction via social networks were the most difficult topics for teenagers. Participants aged 18+ scored 1.29 points more than the teenagers in this block. "Excellent students" are found in both age categories: the maximum points were scored by 304 people, most of them aged 18−24 (44%) and 25−34 years (30%). The total score of each second participant varies from 5 to 7.
“The results of Digital Dictation show the real picture of the situation concerning digital literacy in the country. The results give us an opportunity to adjust our ways to improve digital literacy and to develop new fields of educational activities of the Coordination Center. We are concerned about the rather low level of knowledge regarding cyber security and we will certainly strengthen this area of work. On the whole, the conduct of the Digital Dictation gave an objective picture of the level of digital competence of Russians, and we will continue to track any changes at this level,” said Andrey Vorobyev, Director of the Coordination Center.
“For the past four years, ROCIT has measured the digital consumption level of citizens, their digital competencies and skills in the field of digital security as part of the Digital Literacy Index study. At the same time, the study allowed for obtaining self-estimated judgments of the participants about their digital literacy. The Digital Dictation allowed us to make a breakthrough and get closer to the users from absolutely all regions of Russia. Of course, this is only the first step, and we faced some barriers, but we are confident that in the future this event will be held annually, and every citizen of our country will not only become aware of his or her digital literacy level but also be able to track his or her dynamics, achievements or development on a regular basis,” says Sergei Grebennikov, Director of ROCIT.
“One of the important criteria for the growth of digital development, to which the state should first of all pay attention today, is the level of digital literacy of the population. For internet companies, it is important to have not only qualified personnel, but also literate (digitally literate) users in the market,” said RAEC Director Sergei Plugotarenko.
The Digital Dictation covered all regions of Russia, as well as Belarus and Kazakhstan. The most active participants of the event were residents of Moscow and the Moscow Region (10,408 people), St. Petersburg (3,265 people), the Belgorod (1,163 people), Novosibirsk (1,129 people) and Sverdlovsk (1,004 people) regions. The most literate were residents of St. Petersburg, who scored 7.55 points, the Altai Republic ranked second (7.50 points), and the Kostroma Region ranked third (7.49 points). Moscow ranked 21st with an average digital literacy rate of 7.29 points.
