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Purpose: In the so-called digital age, there is a basic assumption that digitalization entails rapid and dramatic change in schools, education and society. However, a challenge for educational research is to clarify what digitalization precisely means. This paper aims to develop, test, and validate a digital transformation scale (DTS). More specifically, the aim is to validate digitization, digitalization and digital transformation as hierarchical levels of sociocultural learning in school and education by using cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) as a framework.

Design/methodology/approach: An exploratory factor analysis (EFA), with principal-axis factoring as an extraction method, was used to examine the number of factors underlying the data.

Findings: Results show that the three dimensions in the DTS questionnaire explain 68% of the variance and that all dimensions show high internal consistency (a >0.87). This means that the internal structure of the DTS corresponded to the internal structure of the theory.

Research limitations/implications: The results show that the internal structure of the DTS corresponded to the internal structure of the theory and may be used quantitatively to analyze digital transformation in school organizations. However, further research is needed in other contexts and larger samples with the use of confirmatory factor analysis to develop knowledge in this area and the use of DTS.

Practical implications: This tool and theoretical construction could be used to discuss digital transformation in school and education, both local and in general. Seeing digitalization from a sociocultural perspective makes possible to conceptualize and discuss this as a process ranging from small technology investments on an individual level to digitalization as strategic and organizational development.

Originality/value: This DTS can be used quantitatively to study and analyze digital transformation in educational contexts and provides educational researchers with additional tools to articulate what they mean by digitalization.

This study examined student police officers’ job values and differences in job values with respect to gender and educational background. Three hundred fifty-two Swedish first-year police students responded to a job value questionnaire. Psychometric analyses indicated that there are three dimensions of job values: intrinsic, altruistic, and extrinsic. In general, students rated altruistic values as more important than intrinsic/ leisure and extrinsic values. Females valued intrinsic and altruistic aspects of a job as more important than males did. In conclusion, the three dimensions of job values, as well as the differences found between males and females are supported by previous research on job values. Future studies should be directed on examining whether police students’ job values change during education and in the transition to work.

Due to societal changes there is a growing need for distant and adult learning. The reason to participate in education and the choices that students make may differ. In this study the factors age, gender, rate of studies and parenthood have been analysed in order to see how these relate to different motivational factors for choosing a web-based course. The data has been based on a questionnaire, covering 1270 beginner students in the spring semester of 2011 and contains their background characteristics and items focusing on their motives. These could be categorized into four different motives: (1) Format, (2) Content, (3) Economic, and (4) Curiosity. The results showed that Format was regarded as the most important factor for choosing an Internet-based course, followed by Content, Curiosity and the Economic factor. Furthermore, group differences were investigated with respect to age, gender, parenthood and rate of study. The findings show that distant education fulfils an important function for mature students, women and students with children. These groups presumably consider the flexibility that web-based courses provide advantageous. Family situations or working-life obligations may contribute to this. Changes in people’s working lives are likely to continue, which presumably increases the demand for flexible learning situations.

Our globally connected world is characterized by growing social mobility and diversification of life trajectories. In the light of recent societal and economic developments people more often change careers. Individuals even have multiple career paths and they are expected to engage in lifelong learning. Universities are also called upon to make students more employable and to enhance their flexibility in the labour market, while Web-based learning also may open access and widen potential markets for the universities, motivating a larger and diverse group of students to participate in higher education. Due to these changes there is a growing need for flexible deliverance of education. Distant learning and adult learning take an important part in this. In a lifelong career perspective the need for people to participate in education may differ, as well as the educational choices that students make. This variety makes it necessary to study what factors are important for the educational choices of students. In this paper, different factors, such as age, gender, rate of studies and parenthood was analysed in order to see how these relate to different motivational factors for choosing a web-based course. The research focuses on the questions: Which students choose web-based courses and what are their motivations to do so?

The present study was based on a sample of 1 270 beginner students during the spring semester 2011 at web-based courses at the department of education, Umeå University. The data was based on a questionnaire covering the student´s background characteristics and a number of items focusing on the motives for choosing a distance learning course. The motives could be categorized into four different motives: (1) Format, (2) Content, (3) Economic, and (4) Curiosity. The results showed that Format was regarded as the most important factor for choosing an Internet-based course. The second most important motivational factor was Content, followed by Curiosity and Economic. Group differences were investigated with respect to age, gender, parenthood and rate of study. Mature students had higher ratings on the Format motivational sub-scale than younger students. However, for the Economic motivational sub-scale younger students had higher ratings than mature students. There were no age differences with respect to the Content and Curiosity motivational sub-scale. Females had higher ratings on Format motivational sub-scale than males. Similarly, females had also higher ratings on the Content motivational sub-scale than males. However, for the Economic motivational sub-scale males had higher ratings than females. There were no significant gender differences with respect to the Curiosity motivational sub-scale. Moreover, we examined whether there were differences in motivational ratings between students with and without children. Students with children had higher ratings on the Format motivational sub-scale than students without children. Similarly, students with children had also higher ratings on the Content motivational sub-scale than students without children. However, for the Economic motivational sub-scale, students without children had higher ratings than students without children. There were no differences between students with or without children on the Curiosity motivational sub-scale. Finally, we examined whether there were differences in motivational ratings between students admitted to half-time or full time studies. Students enrolled in full time studies had higher ratings on the Economic motivational sub-scale than students in half time studies. Similarly, full time students had also higher ratings on the Curiosity motivational sub-scale than half time students. There were no differences between full-time and half-time students with respect to the Format and Content motivational sub-scale.

The findings show that distant education fulfils an important function for mature students, women and students with children. These groups presumably consider the flexibility that web-based courses provide advantageous. Family situations or working-life obligations may contribute to this. Changes in people´s working lives are likely to continue, which presumably increases the demand for flexible learning situations. It would be of interest to collect and analyse more data that relates to the lifelong career development of students, covering the wide range of ages as suggested in the theme for this conference. Further studies may therefore also incorporate data that extensively shows what choices students make by adding more socio-economic factors for analysis.

Test takers’ perceptions of fairness in testing have rarely been studied. The aim of this study was to develop, apply and validate scores from an instrument measuring fairness perceptions in higher education. The theoretical rationale for examining test takers’ perceptions was the model of organizational justice, which consists of aspects of procedural- and distributive justice. A questionnaire measuring perceptions of procedural justice was administrated to 441 test takers of the Swedish Scholastic Assessment Test. Although the results indicated adequate validity evidence for the procedural justice scale, there is room for improvement of the overall structural validity on this measure. Finally, the test takers’ perception of principles of distributive justice is discussed in relation to higher education selection.