Building digital capability

We're working to ensure staff in universities and colleges are equipped for a changing digital environment.

Effective and appropriate use of technology by university and college staff is vital in providing an enhanced student experience and in realising a good return on investment in the digital environment.

What we’re doing

We’re working with stakeholders and sector bodies to:

Provide clear guidance on the digital skills and capabilities that are required for a range of staff roles
Equip leaders and staff with the tools and resources they need to improve digital capability at a local or institutional level

Building on our previous work on developing digital literacies for staff and students and through a consultation with a range of stakeholders using our co-design approach, we identified the current challenges institutions face when developing the digital capabilities of their staff and students.

Digital capability framework

Our digital capability framework (pdf) describes the skills needed by staff from a wide range of academic, administrative and professional roles to thrive in a digital environment.

Supporting resources

Our model is supported by the following tools and resources:

Discovery tool (beta)

Our discovery tool (beta) has been designed to support individuals and managers in a range of roles by helping them to identify and reflect on their current digital capability and make plans to improve their capability using a customised play list of resources. We've also produced some guidance on how to use the discovery tool (pdf) which you may find helpful.

We are currently piloting the discovery tool with fourteen universities and colleges to gather their feedback and inform its future development. Follow pilot developments by visiting our project blog.

Role profiles

We’ve designed a series of role profiles, which align to the framework and highlight the digital capabilities associated with particular roles. The profiles have been developed collaboratively and mapped to relevant professional frameworks. They are designed to support team leaders in identifying the digital capabilities their teams need.

In collaboration with the Higher Education Academy (HEA), we have also deveoped a digital lens on the UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF).

Resources to support organisational approaches

Guide

Our guide to developing organisational approaches to digital capability has been created to support organisations with developing their culture, infrastructure and practices to grow organisational digital capability and enable individual digital capabilities to flourish.

Briefing

Our briefing, developing organisational approaches to digital capability (pdf) is designed to help you, as an organisational lead, consider how our resources can help build digital capability in your organisation.

It includes a model describing the digitally-capable organisation (pdf) as well as a step-by-step guide (pdf) with practical actions and activities for you to consider when building digital capability in your organisation (pdf).

Audit tools and checklists

Our editable audit tool (Word doc) and checklist (Word doc) give you a place to start on your journey, offering prompts for identifying priorities for development.

We've also developed a checklist for curriculum developers (Word doc) to help course teams assess how well a course of study is preparing learners with the right kinds of digital capabilities.

Case studies

Our case studies highlight the journeys taken towards digital capability to date by universities and colleges:

Further resources

Our report deepening digital know-how: building digital talent (pdf) identifies key issues and future requirements for the digital capabilities of staff in UK HE and FE.

To share your experiences, hear from others and continue discussions around staff and student digital capabilities, join our community of practice via the digital capabilities JiscMail list.