Evaluating the impact of digital dance competitions on university students’ digital competence amidst COVID-19

Digital competences develop professional profiles that are more and more attainable for labor communities in constant transformation. The aim is to verify the impact of dances performed in virtual environments on the digital skills of university students affected by coronavirus. An experimental design of two groups of subjects with sequel due to COVID-19 was developed. The total number of participants was 106 students of the Professional Career of Primary Education of a university in Lima. A rubric to measure skills and a self-report questionnaire were used. The experiment was carried out through the execution of a dance competition in the professional practice, which was part of the curricular program. The results showed that the gamified dances in their virtual format developed better digital competencies than the dancers in the face-to-face format. Digital dances had a positive impact on digital competences in their procedural component, and evidence on perceived self-efficacy received insufficient impact. The study contributes has reported digital competence with variable characteristics in subjects with severe and mild sequel, considering that their perceived self-efficacy develops to a lesser extent than their skills.