The SADL project at the London School of Economics aimed to improve undergraduate students' digital literacies. It worked with student ambassadors and four academic departments to develop workshops on topics like research skills, reading, and managing information. Evaluation found the workshops and ambassador role were valuable but needed more structure. The project also highlighted differences between disciplines and challenges of scaling support across the university. Ongoing work focuses on developing peer learning, sustaining student leadership, and gaining departmental buy-in.

1. ALISS July 2015
Developing digital literacies
in undergraduate students: SADL project
Maria Bell @bellmari & Andra Fry @andrafry
Library, London School of Economics and Political Science
@LSESADL

2. SADL: project aims
• To learn from students on existing skills.
• To support students to improve their skills and
provide peer support.
• To seek advice and opinions from student
ambassadors to ensure existing and new
resources are fit for purpose
• To share best practice on embedding digital and
information literacies into the curriculum with
the teaching learning community at LSE

3. Why digital literacy?
JISC definition:
“By digital literacy we mean those capabilities
which fit an individual for living, learning and
working in a digital society: for example, the
skills to use digital tools to undertake academic
research, writing and critical thinking; as part of
personal development planning; and as a way of
showcasing achievements.”

4. The SADL Project 2013-2015
Collaboration:
 Library
 Learning Technology and Innovation
(LTI)
 Teaching and Learning Centre
 Student Union
 IT Training
4 academic departments –
 20 from Social Policy & Statistics 2013/14
 40 students (many first years) from Social
Policy, Statistics, Law, International
Relations 2014/15
Four senior ambassadors 2014/15:
involved in designing, delivering and
evaluating

5. Role of Senior Ambassadors
• Gave feedback on
workshop content
• Guided and worked with
students in workshops
• Gave feedback on
sessions
• Led student projects
• Involved in external
conferences/events

6. Recruitment and rewards

7. Research practices findings
“I think I am good at research to the extent that I can
find lots of resources and get the relevant articles
instead of going aimless and overwhelmed by the
information. My weakness is that I am still lack of all
kinds of tools and knowledge of websites to do a
good job on very scholarly research.”
“I go on to Moodle to find if there are
any relevant links that Professors have
posted online. If there are
recommended articles that are in the
library, I will search for it. Otherwise, I
will google scholarly articles to see if
anything has been written about it.”
“Researching my first essays, I used google
scholar - it doesn't involve much learning,
the simplicity is what makes it a useful
first step.”
“I think it's comprehensive, but
sometimes it's hard to find to
narrow it down and to find the
most relevant information.”
“I scan the title and abstract to assess
which are the most relevant.”
“Mostly use one from
amongst the top 5 of the
Google hits. But mostly on
the relevance of the url and
the first few lines that can
be read on google hits
page.”

8. Two hour workshops on:
1. Finding information,
2. Reading and research,
3. Managing and sharing information
4. Managing your digital identity and the digital
future
Group project for final event
All resources on project website:
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsesadl/resources/
Workshop overview

9. How do you
approach an
assignment?
Workshop 2:
reading and writing
in your discipline?

10. Workshop 3: Managing
and sharing information
How do you keep up to
date, manage your
information?

11. Workshop 4: Managing
your digital identity
Digital Footprint: why
does it matter?

12. SADL: Key findings 2014
 Project collecting rich data about student practices
 Challenged assumptions and generalisations
 Low awareness of existing resources and support
 Contrasts between disciplines
- Statistics students don’t tend to use Library resources
- Social Policy students read extensively
 Sharing – valued being part of the network but unsure
about where and how to share information
 Student ambassador role needed more structure
 But students were enthusiastic, willing to support others
and wanted to improve their digital literacies

13. Evaluation and impact study 2015
• Currently undertaking an extensive review of
SADL examine:
– Key benefits and value to students and staff
• Impact of student learning
– Scalability and sustainability
– Relationship with other initiatives at LSE
• Data collection via survey and interviews
• Report due in July / August 2015

14. Evaluation
Data collected from:
• Student survey
• Interviews with:
–Students
–Academics from departments
–SU
–Teaching staff

15. “there should be more incentive to
write blogs”
“Enjoyed getting hands on and going out to speak to the
people. This is where I felt most like an ambassador”.
“Prior to this workshop I had little exposure
to using the Library catalogue or google
scholar. Very insightful and have since gone
on to use both resources”.
“Senior was really good, always at meetings,
answered questions, motivated us. Really got
the ball rolling and got us working”.
“The role is kinda blurry sometimes.
We go to workshops and we tell
people about it but no one really
listens”.
“I really enjoyed hearing what everyone
else had to say, that was where I learnt
the most”.
The atmosphere was “like a
community not like a classroom, all
learning together”.
the role of the student ambassador needs
more work “Many students didn't know what
it is, need more clarity on what it is, what
digital literacy involves”.
The course has taught me to be more
structured in the essay writing
process “I‘m now much more
focused and I know what I'm doing”
Findings from interviews to date

16. What are we learning?
 Developing relationships with students
takes time and need to build trust
 Workshops require:
 Clear aims & objectives but flexibility
 A lot of preparation time
 A suitable learning space
 Valuable staff development – new techniques,
activities, student/staff collaboration
 Clarity of expectations about ambassador role
 Need support/buy-in from academic
departments

17. What worked?
• Recruitment and
incentives
• Email and face to
face comms
• Most workshop
content & format
• Senior ambassadors
• Request for more
structure / clearer
role
• Blogging
• Peer support for
students
beyond SADL
• Group project
What went less
well?

18. Student partnerships
• Students can be empowered
e.g. presenting at
conferences with staff,
developing new skills
• Students benefit from
sharing their experience
beyond their institution
• Working with other students
• But consider how much
support, guidance and
structure they need
Student partnership toolkit
(from Jisc)
Key focus of Jisc Change
Agents Network
• Building student
engagement
• Students as partners
• Students as producers

19. Sustaining SADL…..
Our biggest challenges:
– Scaling up: Reaching all undergraduate students at
LSE
– Developing the peer learning aspects of SADL
– Keeping it student-led and student focused

20. Further reading
• Bell, Maria and Moon, Darren and Secker, Jane (2012)
Undergraduate support at LSE: the ANCIL report. The London School
of Economics and Political Science, London, UK. Available at:
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/48058/
• HEA (2014) Framework for partnership in learning and teaching.
York, Higher Education Academy. Available at:
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/students-as-partners
• LSE SADL Project website and resources (2014) Available at:
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsesadl/resources
• Secker, Jane, Karnad, Arun , Bell, Maria, Wilkinson, Ellen and
Provencher, Claudine (2014) Student ambassadors for digital
literacy (SADL): project final report. Learning Technology and
Innovation , London, UK. Available at:
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/59479/