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:

Digital discovery tool (beta)

Our ‘digital discovery’ tool (beta) has been designed to support individual staff (and soon students) working in universities, colleges and training providers to reflect on their digital capabilities.

The tool presents a series of reflective questions that relate to the different elements of digital capability as defined in our digital capability framework (pdf). These are followed by a visual profile of their capabilities, feedback and suggested actions and resources that might help staff and students progress.

Pilots

Our first beta version of the tool was piloted with 14 institutions from February 2017 – June 2017. You can read more about the journeys of six of the institutions involved, and what we learned from this pilot on our project blog.

Following feedback gained from this pilot, the tool has been redesigned and developed in a new platform. The new beta tool is being piloted by 100 organisations across FE, HE and skills from January to May 2018. The evaluation of the pilot will be used to inform the future of the service.

Stay up to date

To find out more and keep in touch with the work visit our project blog.

The next opportunity to get involved with the tool (outside of the pilot) will be September 2018. Please contact the team (digitalcapability@jisc.ac.uk) if you’d like to find out more.

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.

Senior leaders briefing paper

Download our briefing paper: delivering digital change: strategy, practice and process (pdf).

Case studies

Watch our playlist of case study films from Lancaster University, Coleg y Cymoedd, Harlow College and the University of Derby:

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.

Join our community mailing list

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.

Stay up to date

As of September 2018, this project will transition to a full service. If you would like to enquire about how to purchase this optional service, or to be kept up to date on progress, please register your interest by filling out our form.