A Digital Competency Framework for University Teachers: Towards Agile and Sustainable Curriculum

The rapidly changing tertiary education landscape necessitates a curriculum that is both adaptive and resilient, particularly in the wake of disruptions like COVID-19 and breakthroughs in open AI. Recognising these challenges as opportunities, the higher education sector is reimagining its approach to course design and delivery. In response, universities worldwide are diversifying their offerings with blended, hyflex, and fully online courses to enhance flexibility and ensure readiness for any future interruptions. A pivotal element of this transformation is the professional development of university teachers, equipping them with digital competencies to effectively design and deliver courses and programs in various modalities. This paper discusses the development of a targeted digital competency framework tailored to evaluate and address the professional development needs of university faculty involved in the design and delivery of more digitally enriched, blended, and online programs and courses. The framework also aims to facilitate communication and collaboration between key stakeholders, namely teachers, instructional designers, faculty developers, and academic managers. This paper outlines the current development stage of this framework, highlighting its rationale, intended functions, structure, and preliminary insights gained from its first validation phase.