1 Normalising digital literacies across the university Professor Neil Witt Head of Academic Support, Technology & Innovation Plymouth University

The influence of digital technologies in creating a new context for Higher Education 2

Its not just digital 3 Optimal Educational Value

Its not just digital 4 Optimal Educational Value ?

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Impact of technology? Students willing to use, and expect their devices to be used to support their learning experience. An urgency in developing services that meets the students needs and expectations. Assume that academic staff can/will support their use of technology 9

Impact of technology? Expectation Management? How to meet these digital needs? How to engage and support ALL staff? How to embed into practice? 10

Change via a JISC project? Builds on 2011 BCUP project Audit of systems, policies, infrastructure and data Views from academic and support staff on use of, and practice with, existing software and hardware systems. Recommending Institutional change on DL issues around: Infrastructure Support Curriculum Design 11

12 Digital Skills In the 21 st century digital competence needed by – learners – teachers – professionals – everybody (>90% jobs require IT competence of some degree) Seven separate literacies contribute to 3 areas – Content Production – Content Consumption – Professional and Academic Practice

13 Digital Skills

14 Digital Literacies ICT / Computer Literacy Information Literacy e.g. working with documents, presentations and spreadsheets choosing and using cloud services e.g. understanding issues of authority, reliability, provenance knowledge of IPR, plagiarism, citation

15 And ….. Media Literacy Communication and Collaboration e.g. Selecting transmission means most suited to target audience Use of text, video and audio editing software e.g. , online forums, chat rooms, social networks, webinar Collaborating in online documents & interactive events

16 Not forgetting ….. Digital Scholarship Learning Skills e.g. An academics blog might have 1000s of followers Academic debates in an online community of practice Mandates for Open Access Publishing e.g. Think critically, academic writing, referencing, managing tasks Receive assessment and acting on feedback in digital formats

17 And finally …… Being a Professional e.g. Digital tools, services, social networks can be used, to aid reflection and build an ePortfolio. Online promotion through blogs, Twitter, Facebook, website Knowing what others can find out about you on the Internet Use digital tools to support PDP and CPD.

18 Digital Skills

19 The Digital Strategy Opportunity 1 – inputting into Strategy Key theme 1 - Digital People Key theme 2 - Digital teaching, learning and research Key theme 3 - Digital services Key theme 4 - Digital Infrastructure and Capability

20 Digital Strategy???? Professional Support Staff Develop the digital literacy skills and confidence of professional services staff to enable them to develop and deliver efficient services, communicate effectively and promote the reputation of the instituion Academic Staff Develop the digital literacy skills and confidence of academic staff to embed technology in their learning approach, to communicate effectively and support the delivery of their curriculum. Students Develop digitally literate students who are able to appropriately choose, use and personalise technologies and digital content to suit their own needs. They will be skilled users of digital information able to act ethically, responsibility and securely in a fast- moving digital environment Embed in the curriculum???

21 Performance Development Review Opportunity 2 – using new processes Embed in PDR

Embracing Change Opportunity 3 – use Restructuring 22 An opportunity to recommend Institutional change: Infrastructure Support

23 Being part of the solution Technology and Information Services – Strategy & Architecture – Solution Development – Service Management – Library and Digital Services – Academic Support, Technology & Innovation the annoying academic on the shoulder of the CIO

Being part of the solution Subject Librarians, IT Trainers and Learning Technologists working in 3 teams Digital Skills Development Engagement and Support TEL & Assessment Strong focus around Digital Literacy Faculty support via LTs in the Faculties Part of TIS, so embedding and sustainability of innovation easier Single point of entry for training & teaching and learning resources Focus on community development 24

25 What we said we would do We would make recommendations only. BUT JISC Curriculum Design Programme reported We have the opportunity to investigate embedding

26 Joining it all up Embed in the curriculum

27 Where to focus?

28 Where to focus? New Programme Design Annual Programme Monitoring Schools Action Plans New Partnerships

29 Big Picture Thinking

30 Where can we embed DL?

31 A caveat " This range of approaches has also had a significant impact on the kind of evidence presented at the end of the projects with research-based projects offering some compelling evidence, but with impact on much smaller numbers of students, whilst impact on the whole institution is harder to measure and present as evidence, but has much more significance in terms of sustainability and embedding. Funders should continue to value this softer evidence. " Lou McGill Curriculum Delivery Programme Synthesis

32 Benchmark and gather evidence Agree and use institutional definition of Digital Literacy / Digital Skills. Keep it simple. Take every available opportunity Influence then operationalise strategy Embed into Staff Development Embed into processes (e.g. Curriculum Design)

33 Neil Witt prof_witt