Designing Integrated Digital Tasks in Science-Specific Education: A Quasi-Experimental Study

The rapid digitalization of higher education has increased the need to develop students' digital competence in ways that are closely aligned with disciplinary learning. In natural science education, particularly in ecophysiology, digital tools should support inquiry, data interpretation, and systems thinking rather than serve as isolated technological additions. This study aims to examine how integrated, collaborative digital tasks influence undergraduate students' digital competence in a subject-specific context. A quasi-experimental design was employed in an ecophysiology course. Students were divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group completed inquiry-based integrated tasks using collaborative visual platforms, while the control group engaged in comparable tasks through conventional instructional approaches. Digital competence was assessed via pre- and post-tests and qualitative analysis of students' task artefacts. Results showed that students using integrated digital tasks developed greater overall digital competence than the control group, with notable improvements in motivational, content-related, and operational components. The strongest effects were observed in students' ability to independently and purposefully use digital tools within collaborative scientific inquiry. Qualitative analysis revealed that collaborative platforms promoted deeper engagement, clearer conceptual representations, and more coherent reasoning processes. These findings demonstrate that digital competence develops most effectively when digital tools are embedded in discipline-specific, inquiry-oriented tasks. The study's novelty lies in its focus on ecophysiology and evidence that collaborative visual platforms can act as epistemic tools, supporting both digital and scientific competence. This contributes to a more situated understanding of digital skill development in higher science education.