Exploration of University Teachers’ Digital Literacy and Enhancement Pathways in the Context of Virtual Teaching and Research Communities: A Case Study of the Energy and Power Engineering Major

Abstract

In the context of the deep integration of intelligent digital technologies and higher education, virtual teaching and research communities serve as novel grassroots teaching organizations, providing a crucial platform for teacher development. Teachers’ digital literacy directly determines the quality of these communities, yet they currently face challenges such as weak digital awareness, gaps in the application of technologies like energy system simulation, and a disconnect between training and professional practice. Based on the five-dimensional framework of the Ministry of Education’s "Teacher Digital Literacy" standards, this study, taking the Energy and Power Engineering major as an example, proposes three enhancement pathways: strengthening digital awareness to promote teachers’ proactive adaptation to the “teacher–machine–student” tertiary educational ecosystem transformation; constructing a personalized training system that leverages national, regional, and school-level resources to conduct direction- and level-specific “clinical-style” practical training; and innovating incentive mechanisms by integrating institutional evaluation, tiered certification, and honor-based recognition to link digital course development with Energy and Power industry certification, forming a closed loop of “evaluation–incentive–development.” The study emphasizes that enhancing digital literacy should be guided by the objective of cultivating intelligent Energy and Power talents and realized through virtual teaching and research communities to achieve professional digital transformation.