Investigation of the attitude and competency toward the use of technology in a cohort of sport science students

The present research was based on a nonexperimental descriptive design with cross-sectional approach and conducted through a online survey specifically designed after a structured review of the literature. The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitude and competency toward the use of technology in a cohort of sport science students. Three different language versions of the survey were developed on the Google online survey platform (Google Form) and the links were sent by email to the sport science students of three universities in Italy, Austria, and Lithuania, respectively. The questionnaire was composed by three matrix tables questions, two single select multiple choice questions, a multiple selects multiple choice question and a choice matrix question, which items investigated which digital tools are used most and their usefulness, the users' awareness level of the impact of technology on their professional work and their perceived level of proficiency. Data were collected by 327 respondents. A cluster analysis was provided by means of the k-modes algorithm, while to understand the optimal number of clusters the Elbow method has been used. The main findings of this study draw a profile of the surveyed sport science students as having a positive attitude toward technology, with a daily use mainly through mobile phone and laptop, perceiving a personal good level of competence to understand and operationally use applications and a diversified use related to their different professional tasks.