An Open Educational Resource to develop
Digital Literacy Skills for Employability in the
Life and Health Sciences through a
Staff-Student Partnership
Kay Hack, David Skerrett-Byrne and Shane Kilduff
An Open Educational Resource to develop
Digital Literacy Skills for Employability in the
Life and Health Sciences through a
Staff-Student Partnership
Kay Hack, David Skerret-Byrne and Shane Kilduff
Digital Literacies?
“those capabilities which fit an individual for living, learning and working in a digital society.”
HEA Digital Literacies in the Disciplines
A series of mini-projects that aim to encourage the development of digital literacies among staff and students in their disciplines.
The School of Biomedical Sciences at Ulster is one of nine mini-projects funded through this project
Other projects in Psychology, Modern Languages, History, the Arts and Teacher Training
Developing Open Educational Resources
Project Aims To develop a re-usable open educational
resource (OER) which will support students in preparing for careers in the health or life science sectors
Embed tasks within the OER that prompt evaluation and development of personal digital literacy.
Develop the OER in partnership with students
Xerte: provides a tool kit for
the production of interactive eLearning materials simple wizards used to compile content, create
quizzes, provide links….. repository for sharing, reusing, and adapting content
Students as Partners
Extra-curricular activity linked to Professional Practice module
Opportunity to evidence soft skills: • team work & communication skills • time & task management
“I got involved in this project is because as a recent graduate I understand the confusion and frustration of deciding what to do next and how to get there, and felt my experience could help direct this project.”
David Skerrett-Byrne, MSc Biotechnology
“I felt it was an important subject of study to aid students in their career progression. Furthermore, the project has helped to develop my own communication and teamwork skills which will benefit me in my future career”
Shane Kilduff, MSc Biotechnology
Students as Partners
Professional Practice Module:
Identifying & evidencing DL skills
Evaluating & developing Digital Identity
Developing job application & interview skills
Classroom Activity:
Identify key words used in job advertisements
Think about what they mean Rank them in terms of their
importance. Identify and articulate the
required evidence
Interactive/Online Based:
Assign what DL skills they think evidence the skills required for the position
Helps articulate skills & experience to future employers
Career Paths for Life & Health Science Graduates
Life & Health Science
Industry - QC / QAPostgraduate StudiesPost DocAcademia
Life & Health Science Related
Regulatory AffairsSales & MarketingScientific WritingEngineeringBioinformatics
Transferable Skills:
I.T.AccountingBanking & FinanceHuman Resources
Aims of exercises
“Taking this information, we were able to use the Xerte programme to create various exercises to enable other students to:Identify the different career paths available to themIdentify the essential requirements for the positionThink about the digital literacy skills that evidence these requirements”
Evaluation 2nd year students from Biomedical Sciences Students from Faculty of Life and Health Sciences
enrolled on extra-curricular Employability Award Repurpose for other disciplines
Feedback and EngagementeMail: [email protected]: http://catherinehack.wordpress.com/Website: http://teachingcommunity.ulster.ac.uk/Twitter: hack_kayHEA Annual Conference: Poster 135