Introducing a digital skills certificate to improve student engagement Speaker: Ben Gill, IT trainer and adviser, University of Lancaster. This session will introduce you to the “Lancaster Digital Skills Certificate”. Initially aimed at Lancaster University students, the certificate was designed in-house and aims to enhance digital skills for both study and for employability. We’ll explore how digital badges are used to engage students, how the certificate has been integrated with the existing Lancaster award, how the use of free apps such as Moodle and Xerte was maximised during design, and what the end product actually looks like. The session will finish with an overview of challenges faced and key takeaways which will be useful for anyone looking to develop programmes for online digital skills development. The support of digital capabilities by different stakeholders in a health faculty: a qualitative case study Speaker: Manfred Gschwandtner, learning and research librarian, Canterbury Christ Church University. This talks presents findings of a study investigating how different stakeholders in the health faculty of a HE institution support students/staff in developing digital capabilities. Quality of support depends particularly on academics’ knowledge and enthusiasm and should be complemented by improved integration of professional services and by students as “digital champions”. digITal Matters - a student-focused digital literacy module at the University of Birmingham Speakers: Mike Stanford, head of learning enhancement, University of Birmingham Paul Foxall, digital literacy adviser, University of Birmingham The digITal Matters will equip students with the necessary digital skills and behaviours to confidently use any suite of technologies they may encounter during their graduate careers.Students use digital tools as solutions to handle, organise and store information and to ensure that the information is both relevant and trustworthy.

1. Afternoon talks:
the student digital
experience
6 March 2018 | ICC, Birmingham

2. The student
digital experience
Introducing a Digital Skills Certificate
to improve student engagement
Ben Gill, Lancaster University
7 March 2018 | ICC, Birmingham

3. How do employers know our
graduates have the digital skills
they need to do the job?

4. Aim:
Ensuring our
students have the
capabilities and
experience needed
to live, work, learn
and succeed in an
increasingly digital
world

6. Full-bleed image slide

9. How did we do it?

13. Certificate
Communication
Organising Email
and Calendars
File Storage and
Sharing
Real-time
collaboration, video
conferencing and
online meetings
Online Surveys
Blogging with
WordPress
Creation
Video Production &
Editing
Computational
Mathematics
Creating Accessible
Resources
Image Editing
Presenting
Information with
Visual Impact
Working with web
pages
Identity
Developing your
online profile in
LinkedIn
Professional use of
Social Media
Digital Wellbeing
Intercultural
Competencies
Information
Statistical Data
Analysis
Information Security
Searching for
resources
Organising &
Analysing Data
Working with PDFs
Learning
Formatting
Documents
Mind Mapping
Moodle Essentials

16. What does it look like?

23. Challenges and obstacles

24. Full-bleed image slide

26. Full-bleed image slide

27. Lancaster Digital Skills Certificate
Key Takeaways

28. Last Friday, we had
3606enrolled students

29. Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND.
Ben Gill
IT Trainer and Support Advisor
ben.gill@lancaster.ac.uk
I have been…
Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4WA
To read more about what you have seen today…
lancaster.ac.uk/iss/training
Download this presentation: https://lancaster.box.com/v/digifest18
Skype: gillbd1@lancaster.ac.uk

30. Thank you!
Any questions?

31. The student
digital experience
The support of digital capabilities by
different stakeholders in a Health Faculty:
A qualitative case study
Manfred Gschwandtner, Learning and Research Librarian
(Health and Wellbeing)
7 March 2018 | ICC, Birmingham

32. Aim
The aim of this study was to understand
how a Health Faculty supports students
and staff in developing their digital
capabilities.

33. Objectives
The objectives where to
1. identify the stakeholders involved in the provision of digital capabilities in
the Faculty
2. conduct a series of interviews with these stakeholders to investigate
a) their general conception of digital literacy
b) which digital capabilities they support and how
c) the role of librarian’s in the provision of digital capabilities
3. make recommendations on how to improve the support of digital
capabilities in the Faculty

34. Objectives
The objectives where to
1. identify the stakeholders involved in the provision of digital capabilities in
the Faculty
2. conduct a series of interviews with these stakeholders to investigate
a) their general conception of digital literacy
b) which digital capabilities they support and how
c) the role of librarian’s in the provision of digital capabilities
3. make recommendations on how to improve the support of digital
capabilities in the Faculty

35. Methodology
• Qualitative case study based on 14 interviews with stakeholders using
“thematic analysis” (Braun & Clarke, 2006) to identify themes and
patterns in the data
• The semi structures interviews included 8 Questions
• JISC’s “6 Elements of Digital Capabilities” (JISC, 2016) as the basic
framework

36. JISC Digital Capabilities Framework
“6 Elements of digital capabilities”
(JISC, 2016)
“Digital capabilities are the
capabilities which fit someone
for living, learning and working
in a digital society.“

37. JISC Digital Capabilities Framework
Element 1:
ICT proficiency
(JISC, 2016)

38. JISC Digital Capabilities Framework
Element 6:
Digital Identity and wellbeing
(JISC, 2016)

39. Stakeholders interviewed
2 Academics
2 Students
2 Librarians
1 Academic learning and skills developer
1 IT services manager
1 Career development adviser
2 Learning technologists
1 Student engagement officer
1 Senior Academic Developer
1 Learning and Teaching Manager from the Faculty
(1 Student Disability Service Manager)

40. Results
Which elements of the JISC Framework do stakeholders support ?
• Stakeholders where asked how they support the different elements of the framework
• In order to visualize the results I created two tables which included
o the 14 digital capabilities of the JISC Framework,
o the stakeholders
• and which differentiated between
o 3 different levels of support
o Student and staff facing support

41. Results
What elements of the JISC Framework do stakeholders support ?
Levels of support:
Dark blue = Strong support: reported support is a key responsibility of the role
Light blue = Support: reported support is not at key responsibility of the role,
happens incidentally, occasionally or cursory
White = No support

42. Results
What elements of the JISC Framework do stakeholders support?
Student facing and staff facing support.
• Student facing means that a stakeholder directly works with
students with regard to digital capabilities
• Staff facing means that a stakeholder works with members of
staff (usually academics) to upskill them in digital literacy so
they can better teach it directly to the students.

43. Table 1: Student facing support

44. Table 2: Staff facing support

45. Results
• Student facing support is more fragmented and less robust than staff facing support
especially in element 3, 4 and 6
• The frequency of strong support (dark blue) is higher for staff facing than for
student facing 36 (student) : 58 (staff)
• Student facing support relies mainly on academic staff especially in element 3, 4
and 6 with some help in 1, 2 and 5 from student facing services such as Academic
Learning Development, Careers, IT or the Library.

46. Student support
Academics
Staff support (Academics)
Learning
technologists
Academic
Developer
IT
L&TManager

47. Discussion
• The quality of supporting digital capabilities relies to a great degree on the
academic’s knowledge and enthusiasm regarding digital technologies
• If a tutor is not enthusiastic about the use of blogs, wikis or social media
in her or his teaching than it is very unlikely that students acquire these
practices (Littlejohn et al., 2012).
• No equality across groups

48. Recommendations for the Faculty
1. Upskilling academics and encouraging them to embrace digital technolgy
2. Improving direct support for students by
a) building a multidisciplinary team
This team is a “pool of experts” mainly form professional services that is not “upskilling” staff but
proactively and collaboratively supports academics in teaching various digital capabilities by directly
working with students.
b) Developing peer mentoring schemes („digital champions“)
c) Better embedding online learning resources (e.g. Lynda.com, free content, content produced by the
University) into courses and modules.

49. Student support
Academics
Staff support (Academics)
Learning
technologists
Academic
Developer
IT
L&TManager
Multi-Discipl.Team
Digitalchampions
OnlineSupport

50. Conclusion
• Academics bear most of the responsibility to directly support students in developing
their digital capabilities
• This is a barrier to a successful implementation of a digital capabilities strategy.
• A staff focused “upskilling” strategy has its limits.
• Professional services, peer-mentoring and embedded online resources can help
academics to directly support students.

51. Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND.
Manfred Gschwandtner
Learning and research librarian (Health and Wellbeing)
manfred.gschwandtner@canterbury.ac.uk
I have been…
T 01227922414
@HealthLib_CCCU

52. References
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research
in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101.
JISC. (2016). Building digital capabilities: The six elements defined. Retrieved July 11, 2017,
from http://repository.jisc.ac.uk/6611/1/JFL0066F_DIGIGAP_MOD_IND_FRAME.PDF
Littlejohn, A., Beetham, H., & Mcgill, L. (2012). Learning at the digital frontier: A review of
digital literacies in theory and practice. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 28(6), 547–
556

53. Thank you!

54. The student
digital experience
digITal Matters - A student-focused digital
literacy module at the University of
Birmingham
Mike Stanford and Paul Foxall, University of Birmingham
7 March 2018 | ICC, Birmingham

55. digITal Matters - A student-
focused digital literacy module at
the University of Birmingham
Mike Stanford and Paul Foxall

56. digITal Matters
 Why does digITal Matter at the University of
Birmingham?
– Context
– Background
– Key drivers

57. Why digITal Matters at UoB
Context and background
 Library Services’ Digital Skills Team
 Digital Literacy Strategy and working group
 Digital (and Information) Literacy framework
 Student surveys
 Stakeholder endorsement

58. Why digITal Matters at UoB
The key drivers
“We will enable students to gain key skills for
employment and life through the curriculum,
such as digital literacy and citizenship.”
Taken from the current UoB Education Strategy

59. Why digITal Matters at UoB
The key drivers
“There is natural synergy in linking digital literacy initiatives with other
priorities such as developing graduate attributes, employability and
transferable skills. These connections ensure students experience a fully
integrated and holistic approach and mitigate against digital literacies
being regarded as ‘yet another thing’ that staff and students need to
accommodate”
Taken from the JISC Developing student’s digital literacy paper

60. Why digITal Matters at UoB
The key drivers
“It is becoming clear that however defined, digital
literacy is not a checklist of specific technical skills,
but rather the development of critical thinking and
reflection in various social and cultural contexts”
Taken from the NMC Horizon Report: 2016 Higher Education Edition

61. Why digITal Matters at UoB
The key outcomes
Provide students with the digital skills and behaviours
they need to quickly and confidently use any suite of
technologies they may encounter during their careers.
UoB Digital Skills Team mission statement

62. Why digITal Matters at UoB
The key drivers
“As the curriculum is the main focus of students’
attention it is naturally the best place for educators to
demonstrate and reinforce appropriate digital
practices”
Taken from the JISC Developing student’s digital literacy paper

63. digITal Matters Core Elements

64. digITal Champions
Planning meetings Evaluating session activities

65. What is digITal Matters?
 Six week Personal Skills Award (PSA)
module
– Week 1: 2 hours
– Week 2 to 5: 1 hour activity plus 1 hour
optional
– Week 6: Showcase of digital outputs

66. Learning Outcomes
 Demonstrate the ability to use digital tools as solutions
to handle, organise and store information and to ensure
that the information is both relevant and trustworthy.
 Demonstrate skills in time-management, leadership,
problem-solving and inclusive team-working, including
the ability to interact with students from different
academic disciplines and/or with different skills and
interests
 Demonstrate the ability to create, edit, upload and
share an effective digital object in collaboration with
others.
 Demonstrate the ability to use and critically analyse
technology to reflect on their learning.

67. Module structure
Semester 2Semester 1

68. VLE course

69. Online content

70. Weekly Session Activities
Evaluating digital content

71. App wire-framing Digital communication

72. digITal Matters assessment:
 Create and share an effective digital output
 An individual e-Portfolio
 Peer assessment of individuals' participation
to the challenge group

73. Personal Learning Journey
 Each student was required to create an ePortfolio

74. Personal Reflections

75. The Showcase
 [images]

76. The Winning Team

77. Evaluate and improve
“DigITal Matters has been a great experience to get to know new people from
loads of different courses and work together to create a unique product.”
“I really thought the digITal Matters module helped shape my perspective regarding
the digital world and provided a friendly environment that encouraged me to work
towards improving my own abilities.”
“I found the Digital Matters course really interesting, I had never done anything like
it before and it was such a great experience challenging myself to try something
new. The staff team were really supportive and I'd love to be in a position to help
out next year so this fantastic module can run again.”

78. Any questions
 Mike Stanford
– m.j.stanford@bham.ac.uk
 Paul Foxall
– p.a.foxall@bham.ac.uk

79. Thank you!
Any questions?