Digital competencies: What business educators need

Does a two-hour workshop on technology make a business educator effective? Probably not. We often concentrate on technical proficiency; that's merely the foundation. What actually distinguishes a great educator is the ability to apply deep teaching intelligence through digital tools. It’s not about mastering the platform; it’s about mastering the human connection within it.

The misdirection of generic digital literacy

Most institutional approaches to developing digital competencies for educators begin incorrectly. They focus on tools rather than teaching challenges. They assume that if academics can use technology, they’ll automatically use it well. Such thinking is like assuming that because someone can hold a pen, they can write engaging lectures. The skill and the application are different things. I’ve seen tech-savvy academics create deeply ineffective learning experiences. Conversely, I’ve seen educators with modest technical skills create transformative digital pedagogy because they understand what their learners need and how technology could meet those needs. The competencies that matter aren’t about mastering technology; they are about understanding how digital environments change learning dynamics and adapting teaching accordingly.

Four important competencies

Based on delivering business education across multiple platforms, here are the competencies that can enhance teaching quality: 

1.    Asynchronous dialogue design

Most academics are excellent at facilitating face-to-face discussion. We know how to read a room, build on comments, draw out quieter voices, and manage dominant contributors. Digital environments, particularly asynchronous ones like discussion forums, require different facilitation competencies. The skill isn’t technical; it’s about understanding how to:

• Structure prompts that generate genuine analysis rather than superficial posts

• Implement sequential activities so early contributions scaffold later thinking

• Create accountability without making participation feel performative

• Use the permanence of written contributions to deepen reflection

• Recognise when asynchronous discussion enriches learners and when it just creates busy work.  

2.    Multimodal assessment literacy

Digital environments enable alternative assessment types to traditional approaches. Learners can submit video presentations, build interactive dashboards or create multimedia case studies. However, here’s what matters: not whether providers can facilitate this, but whether it can be assessed rigorously and fairly.

Multimodal assessment literacy questions:

• Which learning outcomes do non-traditional formats best demonstrate?

• How can we develop marking matrices that evaluate quality rather than production value?

• When do alternative formats enhance learning, rather than merely serving as novelties?

• How can we ensure academic standards are upheld?

3.    Data-informed teaching adaptation

Digital platforms provide a window into how learners actually learn, showing where they thrive and where they struggle. While the data is useful, it shouldn't replace our insight. It’s not about having the tech to track their work, but whether we can use that data to fairly assess them and support their needs. This shouldn’t be about analysing data. Learning analytics teams can provide that. It looks at what data matters for teaching decisions and how to respond.

Effective business educators can:

• Identify early warning signs of disengagement without becoming surveillance focused.

• Recognise patterns that suggest unclear instructions or materials.

• Distinguish between learners who need intervention and those working in different ways.

• Use engagement data to refine delivery.

Regular rewatching of a recording may signal that a topic is challenging. It helps identify exactly when to slow down and explain things better. High rewatch rates on specific topics say something about the teaching, not the learner's capability. This analysis can transform data from being a compliance activity into pedagogical improvement.

4.    Digital presence and accessibility

Today's business schools require a dynamic approach.  You don't need fancy tech to be a successful educator; you just need to be worth listening to. In practice:

• 'Corporate-speak' should be traded for working that sounds like a person, not a manual.

• Establishing a consistent rhythm ensures that learners never have to guess when they will hear from you.

• Building for real life involves ensuring that materials are equally effective for learners on a bus as they are for those at a desk.

• It's important to value learners’ time by understanding when a live meeting is crucial and when a recorded update is more respectful.

Accessibility is key. This issue is not just about compliance; it pertains to enhancing pedagogical quality. Clear structure can help all learners navigate content effectively. Multiple formats accommodate different learning styles. A well-structured textual explanation often reaches learners more effectively than a beautifully produced video, which they watch once but can’t easily contextualise. That’s pedagogical judgement about digital presence, not technical skill.

What does this mean for professional development?

If these competencies matter, institutional professional development needs refocusing. Instead of focusing solely on technological training, we should consider the following:

• Workshops on designing effective asynchronous activities with discipline-specific examples

• Sessions where business educators share successful and unsuccessful multimodal assessments

• Training on interpreting engagement data and translating those insights into teaching improvements is crucial.

• Collaborative development of accessibility and engaging digital materials. 

This approach requires business schools to invest differently in academic development. Less focus on technological rollouts, more on pedagogical experimentation and peer learning. It means acknowledging that these competencies take time. You can learn to use Zoom in an afternoon. You cannot learn effective asynchronous dialogue design quickly. It requires experimentation, reflection, and refinement over multiple teaching cycles. 

How to cultivate these digital competencies

Start small, experiment, and reflect on what works. Choose one assessment and explore a multimodal alternative. Design an engaging asynchronous activity, and look at your module’s engagement data and identify one actionable insight. Experiment with different ways of establishing digital presence. Share what you learn with colleagues. Academics face similar challenges. Collective problem-solving accelerates competency development more than generic training.

Digital competencies are about becoming better educators in environments where technology mediates learning. The focus must be pedagogical quality, with technology as the means, not the end. Learners don’t need you to be a digital expert. They need you to understand how to help them learn effectively in digital environments. That’s a teaching challenge, not a technical one.