JISC

Summary

InStePP seeks to create and institutionally embed a variety of active partnerships with students and, in so doing, develop, implement and exemplify:

i) institutional approaches to partnerships as an integral part of digital literacy development in the curriculum and in employability policy and practice;
ii) digital literacies contextualized for disciplines and for career development; and
iii) student roles and activities which support the development of staff digital literacies.

The project takes a strategic approach to developing digital capabilities. It will integrate  provision for digital literacies for staff and students across the institution by establishing, supporting and building recognition for the role of student ‘e-pioneers’ within existing core academic and e-learning development activities. It will evaluate how partnerships enhance the student experience and benefit the development of both student and staff digital literacies.

InStePP will help Brookes meet existing commitments in its Strategy for Enhancing the Student Experience (SESE) to both digital literacies and student engagement. Building on previous innovations in e-learning, assessment, undergraduate research and internationalisation, SESE sets out a distinctive vision of the Brookes student experience, articulated in the form of a set of core graduate attributes, including Digital and Information Literacy. Work has already begun on mapping these across programme outcomes in a range of disciplines.

There is also a strategic commitment to engaging with students as agents of change in learning and teaching activities to develop and enhance personal and leadership attributes for employability. Although several such initiatives are in place, they currently run independently and ways in which students may be engaged at an institutional level require further exploration. InStePP will draw together expertise to create a new role of ‘e-pioneer’ which will influence a range of organisational activities. Existing strong relationships between careers services and professional associations will be extended to explore new forms of recognition of student leadership activities.

A task force of senior academic managers has been set up to implement SESE and will ensure that succcessful partnerships are cascaded into all Faculties. Educational developers experienced in learner experience research will explore, evaluate and illustrate how partnerships develop digital literacies.

Objectives

The project will establish the role of 'e-pioneer': partnerships at institutional and curriculum levels, in which students share their digital skills, practices, ideas and expectations with staff at the crucial points at which decisions are made which influence the learning experience. e-Pioneers wlll be supported in working towards professional recognition and/or academic credit for their work. Student staff partnerships will help to contextualise digital literacies for the disciplines and to turn these into developmental tasks within course designs, thereby enhancing the digital literacies of both groups. Contextualised e-pioneer partnership pathways will be documented, evaluated and disseminated to the sector.

Anticipated Outputs and Outcomes

• Exemplar organisational strategies and change management approaches for development of digital literacies.
• A model for a sustainable culture of institutional staff-student partnerships.
• Reusable, student-facing tools and resources for practitioners, co-created with students, including examples of digital literacies contextualised for disciplines and of activities that support their development. 
• Examples of mapping digital literacies to professional development recognition/accreditation schemes.
• Dissemination through JISC events and relevant professional body conferences, engagement in online communities and release of open, web-based resources.
• Descriptions of e-pioneer roles and their outcomes.
• Evaluation report evidencing the benefits of e-pioneer partnerships.