Addressing the Digital Literacy Deficit Creating an online resource for students Intro: Welcome to our presentation. Who we are. Following on nicely with the theme of DL, we’ll talk about a resource which we’re developing which aims to help students develop their own digital literacies. Image: CCO-1.0: www.pixabay.com Jim Pettiward (CELT eLearning) & Chris O’Reilly (ISS)

Rationale JISC, 2012 ‘a recent review of what employers want from graduates is diverse and includes numerous attributes and skills of which a core part is digital literacy’ ‘there is a gap in our understanding around how transition and attainment of graduate attributes is linked to digital literacies’ (JISC, 2013) Why we decided to do the project – lack of explicit provision, lots of good stuff going on at other universities, LMU feels like it’s getting left behind. Also a chance to actively try to find out what’s going on elsewhere, talk to other departments. (Library, CELT study, various people across different faculties – little coherence in approach) Then I’ll talk briefly about the research we did and how we did it before showing the resource itself, which is in its infancy at the moment. Finally, I’ll outline our idea for how the resource can develop in the future

Digital Literacies 'Digital literacy includes the ability to find and use information (…) but goes beyond this to encompass communication, collaboration and teamwork, social awareness in the digital environment, understanding of e-safety and creation of new information. Both digital and information literacy are underpinned by critical thinking and evaluation'. With our resource we’re looking to go beyond Information Literacy, although this will be one aspect of it. Concepts such as social awareness, digital identity, communication and creativity will also be addressed in our resource. Image: CCO-1.0: www.pixabay.com Open University Digital Literacies Framework (2012)

Digital Literacy strands My Digital Self – all about online identity, improving your online profile (Linked in, About me etc.), managing your social media profiles sensibly, staying safe online Being a Digital Learner – more about Information Literacy, but also about creativity, communication Smarter Searching Building your learning network Smarter referencing Managing Information Curating your digital profile Staying safe online Your digital footprint

Research: designed a survey and got students in library – digital photos – and also at L&T conference. 70 responses – fairly informal research but got a lot of good information from it. View on Youtube

Some key findings – My Digital Self 64% of students reported that they had used Google or another service once or twice to search for themselves online. Two thirds of students either do not have a profile or have never heard of professional networking site Linked In. 89% of respondents considered that it is either ‘Very Important’ or ‘Quite Important’ for students to curate/manage their online presence. Just under half the students asked had searched for their tutors or lecturers online When asked where they would go for advice about creating a professional online presence, around 75% of students said they would look online Explain a few of the key findings and how they helped to reinforce the need for this type of resource. Most students also said they would search online for help first before going to friends/librarians/lecturers etc for advice on these issues.

Some key findings – Being an Online Learner Asked whether they’d had any guidance from the university, their lecturers or other staff on using technology for their studies, 52% said ‘No’. The majority of students qualified themselves as ‘Very Confident’ (23%) or ‘Quite Confident’ (55%) at using Google to search for reliable and relevant information online. Only 18% of those students surveyed said that they used an online reference manager to help manage their sources. Only 1 student reported using Twitter to follow academics/professionals in their subject area, despite the fact that just under half the respondents have a Twitter account. 18% of students were able to name a well-known academic or professional blogger in their subject area.

Key features of project Co-creation Open Educational Resource Digital literacies in the disciplines Staff involvement – joining the dots We were very keen to get input from the target audience for the resource, the students. We’d also like to involve them in our project at every stage (though this is more difficult in the summer) We want to make it Open so not just for London Met students. It will collect open resources from around the web and use these. Image: CCO-1.0: www.pixabay.com

The Resource Resources grouped into collections around specific themes Mostly using OERs with explanations / scaffolding Student videos to situate in London Met context Integrate social media to encourage discussion of issues / feedback

Future plans Launch at beginning of new academic year & encourage use at induction. ‘Digital Ambassadors’ – look at best way to integrate this and encourage student involvement/engagement. Continue to develop resource with help of students and work closely with other departments/staff interested in same area. Risks! Here is where we can mention funding…and the lack of..

Questions? Image: CCO-1.0: www.pixabay.com