Development and validation of the Internet of Things Skills Scale (IoTSS)

ABSTRACT

The Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to have a massive impact on people’s lives. However, the system’s complexity is also likely to make it an important topic of investigation in digital inequality research. Those who have the skills to use the IoT to its full potential and gain maximal benefits have a technology at hand that will have the power to increase their (already privileged) positions. Prerequisites for and impacts of user (consumer) engagement with the Internet of Things are becoming increasingly recognized as an important study area. To support related research and policy development, there is a need for more theoretically informed, reliable, and valid instruments that are able to measure what people do and gain from the IoT. In the current contribution, we focus on a key component in digital inclusion debates: digital skills. The development of the IoT Skills Scale (IoTSS) started with examining existing digital skills theory which led to a first instrument. We used a threefold approach to test the validity and reliability of the latent skill constructs and the corresponding items: cognitive interviews, followed by a first survey of IoT skills. During the final step, we examined the consistency of the IoT skills scales and their characteristics when measured in second survey among a representative sample survey of Dutch Internet users. The result is a theoretical and empirical consistent framework consisting of two types of IoT skills: operational and data IoT skills and strategic IoT skills.

KEYWORDS:

• Internet of things
• digital skills
• digital inequality
• survey instrument

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek [grant number 452-17-001].

Notes on contributors

Alexander J. A. M. van Deursen

Alexander J. A. M. van Deursen is Professor and chair of the Department of Communication Science at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. Most of his research focuses on three lines of research with the overarching theme of digital inequality. He maps barriers of online engagement and explains differences in outcomes from Internet (of Things) use. Research projects Alexander leads are Digital Inequality in the Netherlands, twenty-first century digital skills in the creative industry, inequality in Internet of Things skills and studying digital inequality in the social context of the home. Alexander holds Visiting Scholar positions at the London School of Economic and Political Science and Arizona State University.

Alex van der Zeeuw

Alex van der Zeeuw is a PhD candidate at the University of Twente at the department of Communication Science. He is currently involved in a project on social contextual analyses of Internet (of Things) use and outcomes. He addresses the transmission and development of skills for using the Internet of Things in human–machine figurations in the domestic sphere.

Pia de Boer

Pia de Boer is a PhD candidate at the University of Twente at the department of Communication Science. She is currently involved in a project on Internet of Things skills. She measures these skills in performance tests in which people actually use IoT devices.

Giedo Jansen

Giedo Jansen is an assistant professor at the University of Twente, Institute for Innovation and Governance Studies. His research is on the intersection of political science, sociology, and labor relations. He has recently published in these areas in journals such as the American Journal of Sociology, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Electoral Studies, Social Science Research, and West European Politics. Currently, he works on a research project on self-employment and political alignments, based on a VENI grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).

Thomas van Rompay

Thomas van Rompay is an associate professor at the Department of Communication Science of the University of Twente and a fellow at the UT’s DesignLab. He has a background in cognitive psychology. He studies design experience from an embodied cognition perspective, investigating how design communicates meaning and affect. His current research projects take place on the threshold of design and psychology where he studies influences of environmental design and technology on health and wellbeing.