Implementation and Experimental Verification of the Formation of Information and Digital Competence of Future Master's Students in Education Management

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to present the programme, implementation and results of a pedagogical experiment aimed at verifying the effectiveness of didactic conditions for forming information and digital competence of future Master's students in education management during professional training. The study focuses not on general digital literacy but on the ability of a future education manager to make data-informed decisions, organise digital communication, design electronic educational services, ensure academic integrity, information security and ethical use of digital resources. The research methods included analysis of regulatory and scholarly sources, questionnaires, a digital test, pedagogical observation, expert assessment of managerial cases, analysis of electronic portfolios, interviews and statistical verification of distributions using Pearson's chi-square test. The experiment was carried out in 2023-2025 at H. S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University, Kyiv University of Culture and Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts. It involved 704 Master's students: 348 participants in the experimental group and 356 participants in the control group. The results showed that the groups were statistically comparable at the ascertaining stage, whereas after the introduction of a didactically rich digital educational environment, adaptive cloud-based updating of learning content and active interactive methods, the experimental group demonstrated a substantial increase in high and sufficient levels of competence. The conclusions confirm the pedagogical feasibility of combining digital infrastructure, managerial simulations, cloud collaboration, electronic portfolios and reflective analytics as an integrated system for forming information and digital competence of future Master's students in education management.