Digital Teaching Skills in Distance Education Scale: A Validity and Reliability Study*

The present study attempts to design a valid and reliable instrument for measuring the digital teaching skills of secondary school teachers in distance education. For this descriptive validity and reliability study, Istanbul-based secondary school teachers were recruited through cluster sampling in the 2022–2023 academic year. Before item polling, the relevant literature was meticulously reviewed, and secondary school teachers’ opinions concerning their distance education experiences were elicited. The Lawshe technique was applied using the opinions of 11 field experts to ensure content validity of the scale based on the European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators. Next, the 5-point Likert-type draft form was administered to 12 teachers prior to the pilot study. Construct validity of the scale was then tested through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis with two different samples of 476 and 246 participants, respectively. The internal consistency coefficient was calculated as 0.919 for the total score, 0.898 for the professional engagement subscale, 0.744 for the student support/empowerment subscale, and 0.857 for the measurement-evaluation subscale. In a nutshell, the 23-item Digital Teaching Skills in Distance Education Scale was found to be a valid and reliable instrument to be employed in the Turkish distance education context. In this regard, it is anticipated that prospective researchers and practitioners will benefit from the Digital Teaching Skills in Distance Education Scale and contribute to the distance education literature.

Cite this article as: Gürültü, E., Kenan, S., & Küçüktepe, S. E. (2026). Deciphering digital 2020; Creed & Morpeth, 2014). skills of teachers: A novel instrument for distance education*. HAYEF: Journal of Education, 23, 0016, doi: 10.5152/hayef.2026.25016.