Assessing and progressing Digital Literacies as a strategic concern

Helen Beetham | Julian Prior | Neil Witt

#jiscdiglit

What do we mean by digital literacy?

We’re working with colleges and universities to embed digital

literacies into the curriculum.

By digital literacies we mean those capabilities which fit

an individual for living, learning and working in a

digital society:

for example using digital tools to undertake academic research; for writing and critical thinking;

as part of personal development planning; and to showcase

achievements.

Developing Digital Literacies Programme

A sector-wide programme promoting the development of coherent, inclusive and holistic institutional strategies and organisational approaches for developing digital literacies for staff and students in UK further and higher education.

Assessing where we are today

Institutional projects started out with a baseline audit to assess current:

1.Policy and strategy

2.Infrastructure

3.Support and professional services

4.Practices in the curriculum

5.Developing capability and expertise

6.Cultures and attitudes

What was the experience like?

Exeter Cascade project – focus on digital scholarship and the experience of researchers and students in a research-intensive university

Bath Pride project – focus on disciplinary aspects of digital literacy and embedding digital capability into the curriculum

Plymouth SeedPod project – focus on students in transition to HE and institutional restructuring around a digital agenda

How is this like in your institution? How different?

Exeter Cascade projectBaseline report and beyond

Focus and purpose of baseline

Project aims to implement a range of innovative strategies which ensure that students and staff develop their digital capabilities in the context of their own disciplines

Focus is on digital scholarship, collaboration across the curriculum, and postgraduate researchers as change agents

Needed to find out how digital scholarship is perceived and understood, how it is practiced, and how it is supported by policy, infrastructure, and professional services

Methods

Closely followed JISC structure and audit tools Review of existing policies, strategies and

professional services, plus Online survey distributed to PGRs in five

colleges: 169 responses 3 focus groups totalling 13 PGRs Interviews with 18 individual PGRs Interviews with 16 academic and 11 professional

staff

Key messages Strategic focus on research excellence, global position Push for digital scholarship to support innovation in research,

teaching, and knowledge transfer Infrastructure issues: network being upgraded, move to bring your

own device/ service (BYOD/BYOS) Culture is collegial and devolved: limited control from centre Expertise: PGRs are using a wide range of technologies esp social,

third-party/cloud, mobile Particularly pioneering in their approaches to data capture, data

visualisation, virtual collaboration and digital networking PGRs develop expertise: thru exploration, self-reliance, peers, but

need more structured support for advanced uses Potential for PGRs to be 360-degree change agents (but...) Professional/support services also have key role to play

Professionalism in the Digital Environment (PriDE) University of Bath

Project manager: Kyriaki Anagnostopoulou K.Anagnostopoulou@bath.ac.uk Project officer: Julian Prior J.Prior2@bath.ac.uk Project officer (Dissemination): Sarah TurpinProject Adviser: Matt Benka

http://digilitpride.wordpress.com/

Digital environment

For

StaffStudentsOther stakeholders

WhenPre-entryWhilst at uniAlumniManifests

Online

In physical spaces

Need to develop

Skills, competencies and capabilities Infrastructure

and systems

Provides access

InfoResources

AdministrationLearning Experiences

Research

FunctionsCommunication

CollaborationAdministration

Learning

BASELINE METHODOLOGY

1. Semi-structured interviews

2. Scoping and Horizon Scanning

4. Faculty Learning Communities

3. Website and Document Audit

FLC

FLC

FLC

FLC

InstitutionalLearning

Community

UKOLN

VITAE

SCAP

SU

ETC

Student engagement

Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs)

Define and articulate ‘digital literacies’ in the disciplines

Audit and carry out needs analysis for students/staff

Lessons learned

o Strategic documentation refers explicitly to provision of access and implicitly to skills development – but not to developing practices

o Digital literacy skills/practices not routinely designed into curriculum

o Provision of hardware/software and support for non-standard users – including user expectations

o Barriers to supporting students in digital literacy – time and ‘not knowing what I need to know’

o Development of Digital Environment - DL part of the wider picture

13/06/12

Prof Neil WittHead of Technology Enhanced Learning

Digital Literacy - Baseline

13/06/12Domains of interest

• In relation to support for staff and students• In relation to teaching staff• In relation to curriculum design• In relation to student and staff skills• In relation to the Plymouth University offer • In relation to systems

13/06/12Building the evidence base

• Survey response from 2000+ students• Focus groups with students and staff• Review of policies and strategies• Stakeholder engagement across the institution• Embedding Digital Literacy into Personal

Development Review Process• Informs our new Digital Strategy• Baseline summary at

http://hdl.handle.net/10293/1580

13/06/12Ready to move ahead

• New department from August 2012 Academic Support, Technology and Innovation (ASTI)

– Digital Literacy Team– Engagement and Support Team– eAssessment Team– Projects/Innovation Team– Inputs into Curriculum Design• ASTI structure informed by SEEDPOD baseline– ensures the embedding of DL into Curriculum Design and

Staff Development & Support

Baselining your own institutional experience

If you are online it might help to look at the baseline framework for institutions: http://bit.ly/KCACYa

and/or at the audit tools: http://bit.ly/LB58Ek

Also look at the tools provided on your table

Activity (alone or in pairs/threes)

Choose an audit area:1.Policy and strategy2.Infrastructure3.Support and professional services4.Practices in the curriculum5.Developing capability and expertise6.Cultures and attitudes

Consider/discuss:

- What do we need to know?

- How could we find out?

- Who would need to be involved?

- What would be the benefits of an audit?

Feedback

- What do you need to know?

- How could you find out?

- Who would need to be involved?

- What would be the benefits of an audit?

Feedforward

What kind of outcomes/resources would you find most helpful from the programme?

- resources for direct access by students

- resources for embedding into the curriculum

- resources for curriculum teams

- resources for professional services

- resources for strategic managers

There are some early examples on your tables to explore

Further information on baselining

Summary of the project baseline reports: http://bit.ly/JiUV0m

Summary of the professional association baseline reports: http://bit.ly/KWFJUo

Institutional videos from the Developing Digital Literacies projects visit http://bit.ly/jiscdlprogvideos to hear about how they are implementing digital literacies at a strategic level

Baselining resources from the JISC Design Studio including institutional audit tools: http://bit.ly/Nz1g8t

Programme information and resources

Programme blog - http://elearningprogs.jiscinvolve.org

Digital Literacies Webinars - http://bit.ly/HKbYoy

Join JISC-DIGLIT-PUBLIC@jiscmail.ac.uk

Follow #jiscdiglit

Come and speak to us at the Blended Learning Conference, HEA Conference, Greenwich e-Learning Conference, ALT-C, SEDA...

JISC on Air online radio programmes: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/jisconair

Developing Digital Literacies webinar – Where are we now and what have we learnt? – Helen Beetham, date tbc early July

Developing Digital Literaciesbriefing paper

.

Developing Digital Literacies Briefing paper available in June 2012, from http://bit.ly/ddl-prog and available to order from publications@jisc.ac.uk

Provides a summary of the context and emerging outcomes of the programme together with links to relevant resources

“Digital literacy is the intersection between digital knowhow and academic practice. Or, if you want to frame it differently, the ability to learn, the ability to learn well.”

Helen Beetham, Synthesis consultant