digital literacy and employability: engaging distance learners and teachers katharine reedy, open...
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Digital literacy and employability:engaging distance learners and teachers
Katharine Reedy, Open University
ALDinHE conference, March 2015
Session outline• Evaluating the OU’s digital and information literacy (DIL)
framework• Students as co-designers• Bringing it together in teaching
Background and context• All OU students are part-time distance learners; course
materials are produced centrally• DIL framework built on and extended well-established
information literacy work• Covers skills and practices for employability as well as
for academic study
OU definitions• Employability: ‘A set of capabilities and achievements
that support students in developing their careers, raising their aspirations and enhancing their contribution to society’
• Digital literacy: ‘those capabilities which fit an individual for living, learning and working in a digital society’ (Jisc, 2011)
• Information literacy: ‘knowing when and why you need information, where to find it, and how to evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical manner’ (CILIP, 2004)
Evaluating the DIL Framework• Set out to create a small number of case studies based
on interviews with academic and library colleagues who had engaged with the framework
• Modules: Postgraduate Science foundation module, third-level Classics, second-level English
• Qualifications: Health & Social Care qualifications
Methodology• Semi-structured interviews with 4 academic colleagues
and 4 librarians we knew were using the framework• Two further interviews with Learning design and DIL
team leaders• Questions:
–How is the DIL framework being used in practice in your module or qualification?
–How far does the DIL framework meet your needs?–What more is needed?
Findings (1)Question 1: How is the Framework being used for your module or qualification?• To determine what skills should be developed• Conversation starter and thinking tool• Facilitate collaboration between faculty and library staff• Support more diverse information-finding practices
Findings (2) Question 2: How far does the framework meet your needs?• Stages for framework fit well with the curriculum in some
areas (Science, HSC), but less so in others (Arts)• Has enabled more consistent skills development through
some qualifications• Being linked with employability
Findings (3) Question 3: What more is needed?• Agreement about what is meant by digital literacy• Buy-in from academic colleagues • Contextualisation• Support for transferability of skills• Help to translate the terminology into student-friendly
language• Appropriate learning design
Employability and DIL
• Have developed guidance for qualification and module teams on how DIL supports generic employability skills, e.g. ICT, communication, problem-solving, team-working
• Showing how DIL is relevant to different professions• Working with Careers Advisory Service to ensure
guidance includes DIL where appropriate
What we are doing • Curriculum interventions
–mapping of digital and information literacy to generic employability skills
–Skills activities and self-assessment in modules• Digital Skills Passport – students as co-designers• Student-facing DIL framework – focus group• Live events, e.g.Workplace 2020
Curriculum development
• CBI generic employability skills• Digital career literacy – using the online environment
effectively to build a career
UKCES (2010) Employability: incentivising improvement, page 10, http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/1303/
Curriculum development
• Mapping of digital and information literacy to generic employability skills
• Being used in teaching materials to help students reflect on transferability of their digital skills, e.g.–The Maths, Computing & Technology faculty have
mapped DIL skills against employability for 4 major qualifications
–Social Sciences qualifications are embedding employability activities at level 1
and level 3
Developing employabilityWhat kinds of jobs?
• Animation programmer• Web designer• Advertising account executive• Graphic designer• Multimedia specialist• Museum / gallery curator /
conservator / education officer• Teacher / Lecturer• Arts administrator• TV and radio• Also within health-care,
engineering, and even Domino’s pizza!
What kinds of skills?
• Presenting oneself effectively online, connecting with others
• Drawing on information from a variety of sources
• Virtual teamworking• Researching efficiently and
keeping up-to-date• Selecting and using online
tools as appropriate • Dealing with information
overload• Using digital tools confidently
to create products
Ladder to success
Ladder to success:PR account executive
Each rung on the ladder identifies a skill they will need to master before applying for the job
Skills from job description have been matched to criteria from the DIL Framework
Which activities would help the employee learn the skills they need?
Digital Skills Passport: OpenTree
• Will use gamification to reward use of online Library resources and digital skills activities
Digital Skills Passport: OpenTree
• Students will be able to earn points and badges and meet other students in the OU community
• Draft design and redesigns tested with students
A student-facing framework for digital and information literacy
Manage Communicate
Find
CollaborateShare
Evaluate
Understand Engage
Know what sources are available, where to look online and how to search efficiently
Select, access and exploit online tools and networks for study and work purposes
Judge who and what to trust online and select appropriate digital tools for the task in hand.
Work with others online to create and share content
Communicate well online, avoid plagiarism, reference correctly and manage information
Digital skills framework for students• Online focus group with 5 students, exploring:
–Which technologies they use regularly–Their experience of life online–What skills they have had to learn–What digital and information literacy means to them–How useful would they find this [prototype] digital skills
framework for students?
Student comments: mobile technologies• “I use all of them for study, work and everyday life. My
whole life seems to be digital nowadays. Shopping, studying, working, communicating with people, especially my family”
• “It’s a big part of work now”
Student comments: digital skills• “You’re learning new things all the time”• “The older you are the more important it is that you keep
doing these types of things”• “Specific to being online one of the crucial things that
I’ve learnt has been the importance of privacy settings and … the way you talk to people – netiquette, using these new types of social media”
• “Nowadays if you don’t have the skills you are almost a bit isolated”
Student comments: what does digital and information literacy mean to you?• “DIL…is about the cognitive side, because there’s so many
ways to contact people and there’s so much information, I think digital literacy includes the ability to be critical”
• “It is about discriminating, using it and not just accepting it. Filtering and assessing, as we are not sure how true online material is”
• “In light of recent news about Samsung Televisions (voice recognition) picking up what you are saying, DIL is about information about you that you are putting out there.”
… but students don’t want everything online!
Workplace 2020
Scenario: design a module• Read the scenario• Working in groups, discuss:
–Possible learning outcomes / activities–Possible assessment of the digital skills identified–How different partners in the process could contribute
• Feed back to the whole group
Katharine ReedyLibrary ServicesThe Open UniversityWalton HallMilton KeynesMK7 [email protected]
https://twitter.com/KathR
www.open.ac.uk/library