JISC

Evaluation of a pilot blended learning approach in the present year has shown that teachers and learners at Worcester College of Technology have a varied range of skills in their digital literacy. This is very much in line with research findings by JISC and other projects. Blended learning courses developed by teachers with strong digital literacy skills tended to be more effective than those who had weaker skills and more digitally literate students were more successful at learning through PAL packs than their colleagues with lower level skills and confidence.

We see the present JISC call as very much meeting our own organisational challenges and priorities as a way to help us address these issues, develop strategies and resources to improve digital literacies across our learners and teachers and to both improve teaching and learning. It will also equip our teachers and students with essential “life skills” that will benefit them in their future vocational and personal development as well as the educational gains that can be improved through stronger digital literacy skills.

The vision for digital literacy that we would wish to develop through this project would focus on skills and attributes that learner’s need for becoming effective 21 century lifelong learners, and teachers making best use of technology to deliver and support learning. This would embrace developing e-confidence in use and practice of online technologies such as learning platforms, e-portfolios, effective searching and research skills, mobile learning, educational apps, web 2 technologies and social media. The focus would not be on specific technologies or applications but more on identifying and developing skills that would enable confidence both in using present technologies and evaluating and engaging with emerging technologies or being able to find and synthesise information that they would encounter in their future learning, teaching, vocational and personal lives.  

Objectives

• Research progression and measurement of change over time of digital literacy skills (prior to training and then after intervention) from school leavers through to graduates at WCT
• Identifying and Mapping digital literacy skills for learners and teachers at various levels of education from school leavers through to graduates – develop a digital literacy framework
• Work with OCN to develop a range of short qualifications for both lecturers and students in digital literacy and roll out at WCT and for wider availability
• Report and dissemination of outputs from project through many dissemination channels for JISC community and beyond
• Dissemination of all reports and outputs

Anticipated Outputs and Outcomes

• Paper – Understanding the term digital literacy
• Paper – Understanding third party expectations of FE for developing digital literacy
• Paper – Audit and synthesise the measurement of student and staff digital literacy skills to identify areas of strength and weakness at WCT
• OCN Qualifications - develop a range of short qualifications for both lecturers and students in digital literacy and roll out at WCT and for wider availability
• Paper – Audit and review the measurement of student and staff digital literacy skills to identify key areas of progress or change over time with the intervention of OCN training and qualifications at WCT
• Development of PAL blended learning approach at WCT to embed digital literacy skills development and practice.
• Dissemination of all reports and outputs