Digital Literacies: a case study in two parts

1. Digital Literacies: a case study in two parts Rachel Challen Blended Learning Advisor University of Wolverhampton

2. The plan for today… • Learner Attributes case study • What do the attributes of a University of Wolverhampton learner look like? • Local case study: University of Wolverhampton • Why and how the attributes were chosen • How we disseminate the work internally (Rich Exchanges) • How the attributes are integrated with our partner colleges (Instep project)

3. Learner Attributes:University of Wolverhampton • What does a digitally literate learner at the University of Wolverhampton • look like?

4. Graduate attribute statement “We aim to produce Wolverhampton Graduates who are digitally literate, knowledgeable and enterprising, and are global citizens”. Digital Literacy Our graduates will be confident users of advanced technologies; they will lead others, challenging convention by exploiting the rich sources of connectivity digital working allows.

5. Towards Digital Literacy

6. How do UoW develop digital literacy? • Technology and its applications change at an ever increasing rate, and fluency in our digital world is vital in the workplace. Wolverhampton develops such digital literacy through our courses. • This involves: • Learning using effective ‘e’ environment • understanding the latest professional hardware and software • being able to appraise and creatively • use digital information.

7. How we start: mapping skills Used with permission of Robert O’Toole, HEA History Subject Centre – r.b.o-toole@warwick.ac.uk

8. A Question for the second part! How do you translate this, “Learning using effective ‘e’ environment, understanding the latest professional hardware and soft ware, being able to appraise and creatively use digital information”. to this, “What we want graduates to be able to do is to reflect on, to apply, to articulate and to evidence their graduate skills that they developed at university”.

9. Local Case Study: University of Wolverhampton • Why and how the attributes were chosen • How we disseminate the work internally (Rich Exchanges) • How the attributes are integrated with our partner colleges (Instep project)

10. Why Graduate Attributes? • Promotes a distinctive University of Wolverhampton undergraduate education: • Overarching vision about what the University can offer our students alongside professional and subject expertise. • External driver from the Government , Universities must, “Set out how and what students will learn; their own study responsibilities; what that knowledge will qualify them to do…. Students should know about the opportunities for international experience, and how new technologies are integrated into their programmes. All universities should also be expected to demonstrate how their institution prepares its students for employment”. (Lord Mandelson, 2009)

11. The opportunities and catalysts • International developments • Australia – The National GAP project 2007-08 • University of Sydney • Learning Works - from 8 x 15 to 6 x 20 credit modules • Pedagogic principles • Blended learning strategy (since 2008) as an amendment to the Learning & Teaching Strategy • Concept of student entitlements • Our supported learning and teaching environment (e:Vision, WOLF – VLE, Qmark – CAA, and Pebble Pad)

12. What works for students? 52 face-to-face semi-structured interviews What does a Degree give you? What do you think Graduate Attributes means? What skills do you think you have developed by studying at Wolverhampton? If an alien landed today and they asked you what’s special about studying at Wolverhampton – What would you say? What works for students?

13. The national HE student voice… • Students prefer a choice in how they learn • Students are concerned about the ICT competency of lecturers and academic staff • Opinions are fundamentally divided over elearning • Appropriateness of technology varies significantly from course to course Student perspectives on technology – demand, perceptions and training needs. Report to HEFCE by NUS October 2010. Page 3

14. Visitor and Resident Increasingly we a seeing a digital mismatch between students’ social use of technology and our assumptions about their Digital Literacy. http://tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk/index.php/2009/10/14/visitors-residents-the-video/ <accessed 4th December 2011> 00:00 – 07:55

15. “Both ‘place’ and ‘tool’ have the capacity to incorporate motivation. Questions such as: ‘What am I going there for?’, ‘What am I hoping to achieve?’, ‘Which place best serves my purpose?’, ‘How long do I intend to stay?’, ‘Have I got the skills that I need?’ ‘Am I happy to be on my own, or would I prefer to be in company?’ …all fit within the Visitors and Residents paradigm and transcend issues such as age, technological ‘geekishness’, and the development of the brain….” Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement by David S. White and Alison Le Cornu.First Monday, Volume 16, Number 9 - 5 September 2011 http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/3171/3049

16. Rich Exchanges Practice-based case studies, including: • Work Based Learning • Peer Supported Study • Developing the relationship between Home and International Students • Community Projects that utilise ‘real life’ environments • Student-centred approaches The conference website is here

17. A Question for the second part ….. revisited! How do you translate this, “Learning using effective ‘e’ environment, understanding the latest professional hardware and soft ware, being able to appraise and creatively use digital information”. to this, “What we want graduates to be able to do is to reflect on, to apply, to articulate and to evidence their graduate skills that they developed at university”.

18. An answer? JISC Transformations project University of Wolverhampton - In-STEP In-STEP International Student and Education Partnerships.

19. In-STEP Focusing on international students and partners’ (UK and TNE) engagement with University learning systems.

20. Four year integrated ‘package’ International Foundation Year (IFY) – 6 modules • Launched October 2011 to June 2012 • First semester • Getting ahead as an international students (generic) • Successful study (generic) • Subject study (specific) • Second semester • Learning in a digital environment (generic) • 1 subject study level 3 (specific) • 1 subject study level 4 (specific studied at the University with level 4 students) Followed by an undergraduate degree course (3 years)

21. Learning in a digital environment Aims • 1. Learning skills and life planning • 2. ICT/computer literacy • 3. Information literacy • 4. Communication and collaboration Task based IFY Validation Certificate

22. Contextualised by subject/course Stitched together by students

23. What is important, however, is that a patchwork is not just a ‘collection’ but a ‘pattern’: in the end it does have a unity, albeit made up of separate components. To begin with it is defined by academic staff, as they carefully derive a sequence of tasks from the course material. And finally it is, … re-defined by individual students, … to write their final section as an interpretation of what this course material ‘means’, to them, Winter (2003: 119)

24. Thank you for listening and any questions? Contacts: Rachel Challen – r.k.challen2@wlv.ac.uk Dr Megan Lawton M.J.Lawton@wlv.ac.uk