Digital practices for academic success are subject specific: a repertoire that makes sense in a subject setting and that can be extended as new tools become available. / Bath
Exeter
Plymouth
Cardiff
UAL
Digital capabilities are better assimilated if they are practiced in a disciplinary context (topic/practice) / Final programme meeting
Bath
Exeter
Developing subject-specific profiles/attributes/outcomes is a process which needs to be owned by departments and course teams. / Bath
Cardiff
Embedding within programmes can be motivated by incorporating DL into quality mechanisms or graduate attributes but requires detailed work at the module level to be enacted / InSTEPP
Plymouth
Curriculum development = high level view of objectives and outcomes, suitable for a future graduate + capacity to embed digital activities and resources locally / Final programme meeting
Staff modelling digital practice is powerful but not critical if there is (a) clarity about the educational goals (b) support from others e.g. peers / Final programme meeting
Specialist technologies of the subject (e.g. data and design systems) or of academic practice (e.g. reference management, VLE, library catalogue) require structured induction, progressive practice / Exeter
Generic technologies in the curriculum (e.g. blogging, use of productivity and presentation tools) require awareness of alternatives, practice in a variety of contexts, informal support (e.g. peers, online resources, guidance).
Digital learning activities should be creative/productive as well as critical/assimilative e.g. problem solving, app building, online authoring/contributing, media editing, data visualisation / Final programme meeting
Assess such activities via the production of authentic digital artefacts, ensuring students have relevant examples and clear assessment criteria. / Final programme meeting
Reading
Students need specific practice for learning in online/blended environments / Worcester
Staff-student partnerships can be effective at developing relevant, engaging learning resources or apps / Greenwich
InSTEPP
UAL
Exeter
Profound curriculum change can happen around one simple but powerful idea e.g. flipped classroom, open and public pedagogies, student as producer. But such ideas are by definition challenging for everyone! / Reading
Students need to know when they are crossing key boundaries e.g. firewalls, public/private communication, personal/academic identity, free/paid-for content.
Lessons on developing individuals (staff) / Evidence
Academic staff skills and confidence have a profound impact on students, particularly when they first arrive at university/college / Reading
Greenwich
Developing a professional/academic digital identity is a powerful motivator for academic staff to engage with digital issues / Final programme meeting
Other areas in which academic staff are motivated to develop digital practices: data capture and communication, virtual collaboration, open scholarship, development of OERs / Exeter
Reading?
Engaging with digital scholarship can be an effective route for developing academic staff: this conversation is best rooted in cognate disciplines e.g. at College/Faculty/School level / Bath
Cardiff
Exeter
Digital practices should be modelled and even required in staff development settings, to build staff confidence and capability. e.g. video or blogging can be used for reflection. / Reading
Examples of good practice, relevant to their discipline area, are most highly valued by teaching staff: generic approaches can work if staff are allowed to identify their own needs and make sense of what's offered in their own teaching/learning context. / Bath
Final programme meeting
Digital choices are aspects of personal identity: staff need time, space and support to assess their individual capabilities, anxieties and needs, and decide which tools are right for them / UAL
Staff in some settings benefit from discussing theoretical aspects of and models/definitions of digital literacy
but
Don't get too hung up on theory/definitions – staff want tools that can support specific, contextualised practices / Greenwich
Cardiff/Exeter(to some extent)
Plymouth
Reading
Authentic development projects with an e-portfolio or blog for reflection/sharing are a good way of engaging staff and developing their expertise, but require personalised support / UCL
IoE
Reading
Staff are time-poor and need access to on-demand, highly accessible, bite-sized ICT guidance e.g. online videos, drop-in sessions (may be mixed with students), guidance notes / Cardiff
Plymouth
A cohort-based approach allows for sharing of ideas and can develop over time into a community of practice or interest group / PADDLE
Worcester
UCL
Allow staff – individually or in groups – to define their own development goals and establish their own training needs. Diagnostic tests, check lists and workflows can play a role. / UCL
Cardiff
Lessons on developing individuals (students) / Evidence
Generally, students' confidence is ahead of their capability, particularly when it comes to judging academic information online and using digital tools for academic tasks / Final programme meeting
Plymouth
Worcester
Reading
Even students who are proficient users of social and digital media need help using digital technologies effectively for learning, scholarship and in employment-related contexts / Final programme meeting
Reading
Worcester
Plymouth
There is a need for a useable, reliable, diagnostic/audit tool to help students identify individual strengths, weaknesses, preferences, and develop an action plan... / Worcester
Plymouth
Exeter
Bath
Greenwich
… but we also need to give students opportunities to assess and progress their capabilities in different contexts. Digital capability is highly context-specific. / Final programme meeting
Reading
IoE
Students have vastly different ICT skills and expectations. Ensure the digitally confident do not have to sit through basic training, and that all students can access guidance (e.g. online videos, drop-in workshops, briefings) at different levels / Final programme meeting
Students’ digital practices are contextualised in programmes of study: tutor practices and course requirements are critical; teaching digital skills in isolation is not always productive unless students practice them soon afterwards in a subject context. / Final programme meeting
Many final reports
Students benefit from opportunities to learn from more digitally confident peers e.g. via groupwork, collaborative knowledge-building, mentoring, help desks, student-authored resources / Final programme meeting
Many project reports
When developing students' digital literacies it is useful to start with reasonably familiar practices and build out e.g. start with social bookmarking and move on to formal referencing / Final programme meeting
Bath
Exeter
Digital study practices are largely established in the first year, but critical learning incidents are dispersed throughout the remaining years of study and are different for different students. / Greenwich
Developing an online (professional) identity is highly motivating for students / UAL
Reading
Plymouth
Students are more likely to access well designed online courses, and higher achieving students are more likely to engage in self-directed learning. / Worcester
Generic (non-specialised) apps, services etc are readily adopted by most students but all need clear guidance on what is institutionally available, supported, recommended, allowed. / Plymouth
Exeter
Digital choices are aspects of personal identity: students need time, space and support to assess their individual capabilities, anxieties and needs / UAL
IoE
Students require a critical approach to technologies in use, the resilience and flexibility to adopt new approaches, and the capacity to set technology aside when it is not useful. / Final programme meeting
Use of different digital technologies in a wide range of contexts by students supports a more flexible, critical attitude and better judgement of the value of digital practices / Exeter
Reading
UAL
Students spend considerable time 'curating' (sourcing and marshalling texts, including digital texts, and producing new texts to satisfy the requirements of their courses). / IoE
Students learn to manage boundaries between personal/ professional/study life, by deliberately integrating identities within a favoured platform or by keeping them separate. / IoE
Students who – individually or in groups – produce public digital artefacts are developing skills for employment as well as building their professional profile /identity. / Reading
Students who engage in educational innovation around authentic challenges/issues see impressive gains in digital and personal capabilities / Oxford Brookes
Exeter
UAL
Interventions that support student learning include capturing/recording of tutor content (e.g. screencasts, podcasts, lecture capture) and 'flipped classroom' approaches / Reading
UAL
Students have capabilities and aspirations beyond their subject of study: development happens in the co-curriculum and this must be included in any holistic approach / Greenwich
Reading
UAL
Oxford Brooks
Open practice and online reflection are powerful where students adopt them, but are challenging for many / UAL
Exeter
Findings on students' digital practices from the IoE project (detailed qualitative research)
"Digital literacy" cannot be understood just in terms of individuals and skills; it needs to take into account who is doing what and where.
There is a need to understand digital literacies holistically: a project that ignores issues of access is as unlikely to be effective as one that ignores practices or identities.
Digital literacy changes over time. People both learn and forget; their literacy can either be developed or lost; also, technologies develop and settings are adapted. For this reason digital literacy should not be seen as a one-off achievement, but as something that is constantly enacted.
Our students use a wide array of technologies for their studies, including many that are not institutionally supported.
Students had a sense that some technologies were for a specific part of their life only (study, work, entertainment) while others crossed these areas. Students different in the extent to which they saw specific examples of this 'convergence' as desirable.
Many students found that the vast array of resources on and around the VLE and online library resulted in ‘information overload’. They developed different strategies in response.
Technology is seen as 'doing things' to students, not all of which are positive. In the best cases students adopt technologies in order to act more effectively or efficiently. However, technologies can also make students feel powerless or alienated, or even controlled.
Students sometimes opt out of technologies that they feel are controlled by the institution in order to use ones that they feel in control of instead. This included using personal email instead of the institutionally provided accounts, and Skype rather than the VLE for communication.
Findings (mainly from Reading and Greenwich) on developing students' digital literacies for employability
Employers find that students have digital skills but are not always able to transfer these skills easily to the working environment
Employers find it hard to articulate clearly what they want from digitally literate graduates: however, other research suggests that their main requirements are for 'soft' digital skills e.g. communication, collaboration, identity (brand) management, and the ability to acquire new 'hard' (system-related) skills quickly
Academic staff do not often have a clear idea what digital literacies will be required by students in the workplace or how to support them
Careers staff are helping students to look for jobs online, build an effective online identity, and focus on the digital skills that will make them more attractive to employers, but there needs to be better dialogue with curriculum staff on these issues
Students need support (e.g. a checklist, mapping to specific employment sectors) to articulate the digital skills they have, and identify those they want or need to develop. Student confident outreaches their capabilities.
Digital literacies and employability awareness both need to be embedded into student activities (curriculum and co-curriculum) throughout their studies
Tangible digital outputs from learning allow students to develop and showcase skills relevant to employment e.g. blogs, e-portfolios, wikis, presentations, animations, apps
Students are keen to create online profiles, blogs and portfolios but need clear guidance to ensure these are appropriate and kept distinct from more personal online spaces
Students who actively develop their digital literacies for employability are more likely to be successful in finding employment (?? need to check this with Reading)
Students who work as change agents on digital (learning and teaching) projects develop a range of skills relevant to employment