This document summarizes the Developing Digital Literacies programme, which aimed to promote coherent and holistic strategies for developing digital literacies in UK further and higher education institutions. It discusses defining digital literacies, emerging themes, experiences needed to develop digital literacies, and strategies institutions can take to advance their digital literacy agendas through areas like policy, infrastructure, support services, practices, and culture. The programme involved universities and professional bodies and produced resources to help institutions assess and strengthen digital literacies.

1. Developing Digital Literacies programme
what have we done and what have we learned ?
Helen Beetham
Programme synthesis consultant

2. Developing Digital Literacies
#jiscdiglit
A two-year programme promoting the development of coherent,
inclusive and holistic institutional strategies and approaches for
developing digital literacies in UK further and higher education
University of Greenwich University of the Arts London
University of Exeter Coleg Llandrillo
University of Plymouth University of Reading
University of Bath University College London
Oxford Brookes University Cardiff University
Worcester College Institute of Education
Plus ten sector bodies: ALDinHE, ALT, AUA, HEDG, ODHE, SCAP,
SCONUL, SDF, SEDA, Vitae
www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning/
developingdigitalliteracies/

3. Defining digital literacies...
 What capabilities, aptitudes and attitudes do learners
need to thrive in a digital economy and society?
 What kind of experiences do learners need in formal
education to develop these?
 What does a 'digital literacies' agenda look like at the
level of the curriculum, institutional infrastructure,
policies, academic cultures, professional services?
33

4. What kind of capabilities?
academic and information socio-
learning and media technical
practices practices practices
slower changing rapidly changing
cultural and institutional inertia commercial and social drivers
formal learning informal learning
lifelong development rapid obsolescence
44

5. What kind of capabilities (SCONUL)?
 ICT/Computer Literacy the ability to adopt, adapt and use digital
devices, applications and services in pursuit of scholarly and educational goals.
 Information Literacy: the ability to find, interpret, evaluate,
manipulate, share and record information, especially scholarly and educational
information
 Media Literacy: the ability to critically read and creatively produce
academic and professional communications in a range of media.
 Communication and Collaboration: the ability to participate
in digital networks and working groups of scholarship, research and learning
 Digital scholarship: the ability to participate in emerging academic,
professional and research practices that depend on digital systems
 Learning Skills: the ability to study and learn effectively in technology-
rich environments, formal and informal 55

6. What kind of experiences?
extensive, complex, ill-defined
attributes
practices
skills
access
intensive, simplified, well-defined
66

7. What kind of experiences?
Exeter Cascade leadership
New dimensions to the
model
attributes
Cardiff Digidol
Using the model to
survey students and practices
staff across roles
Inst of Education skills
Using the model to
code student interviews
access
awareness
77

8. Emerging themes
Digital literacies for further and higher education are:
 Multiple and complex
 Hybrid – academic practice + digital know-how
 Based in subject areas: disciplines, vocations,
professions
 Both generic and role-specific
 Aspects of personal style – ownership, choice,
performance of identity
 Acquired and developed as needed – best practiced in
authentic contexts
 Often acquired from close peers, but
 likely to require formal support if specialised

9. Motives for engaging in the DL agenda
Employability New social practices
Graduate attributes Digital media
Digital reputation Ubiquitous ICT
Digital capital/digital divide Student expectations
Individual aspirations Personal digital practices
Organisational priorities Educational digital practices
Efficiency in core processes
Capacity building
Global markets Digital scholarship
Borderless institutions Open publishing/open data
New modes of participation Digital academic media
Perceived vfm Ubiquitous knowledge/data

10. Baselining digital literacies
1. Policy and strategy (public messages)
2. Infrastructure (networks, buildings, spaces,
hardware, software, data services, IT support)
3. Support (professional services)
4. Practices (e.g. curriculum design, teaching,
learning, research, KT, admin.)
5. Expertise (courses, frameworks, IAG, sharing,
development opps, recognition and reward)
6. Culture (expectations, understanding, values,
needs, attitudes, beliefs)

11. Baselining digital literacies

12. Baselining digital literacies
Look at the 'forward thinking Universities' posters
on your table
1.Choose one category
2.Consider: How many of these things is my
institution doing (a) with full commitment (b)
somewhat/in places (c) not at all?
3.Discuss: Are these useful indicators? How
would I know that the digital literacy agenda was
being taken forward at my institution (alternative
indicators)?

13. Strategies
Average = 6-10 strategies
The diversity of documents covering... digital matters for
staff and students means there are few members of the
University aware of it all – and policies may be devised
and revised without much engagement across
departments...
With regard to the rapidly changing world of information
technology, it may be argued that the traditional
mechanisms for developing and agreeing strategies lack
sufficient agility.
Neither the programme specification, guidance notes or
checklist mention or give examples of digital literacies;
the same applies to the definitive documentation for
2010-2011

14. Strategies
 Fragmentation or diverse manifestations of a digital
agenda?
 As well as internal strategies, need to assess the public
mission/offer, especially to prospective students
 Need for digitally literate senior managers...
 … but also people with vision at all levels
Corporate Plan
Learning and Teaching | e-learning | IS/ICT
Library and Information Management
Research and Knowledge Transfer | Estates
Student Experience | Student Charter | HR

15. Infrastructure issues
 BYODevice/BYOService/BYOSkills – what are the
assumptions? Who is at a digital disadvantage?
 Data/information environment that is platform, device,
and application agnostic
 Providing an equivalent infrastructure across distributed
sites of learning – even in workplaces/other countries??
 Breaking down boundaries within institutions e.g.
library/study/social spaces
 Borderless institutions - what are the infrastructure
issues?

16. Professional services in support of DDL
 Enhancing digital capability of professional staff
 Building links across professional and support services
 Involving students as change agents, in supporting other
students' and reverse-mentoring staff
 Providing students with clear signposts to existing
support and guidance
Educational development/enhancement
Careers/employability | e-learning | IT support
Learner Development | Researcher Development
Library | Student Union

17. Support for DDL in FE
 Support more focused on the individual learner
 Personal tutors, subject-related 'study areas' integrate
provision
 More likely to explicitly assess and progress digital
capabilities
 Teaching staff undertake ILT training
 Much greater focus on e-safety
 Lower level of personal device use in college
What can HE learn from FE and vice versa?

18. Emerging practices
 Hybrid practices: informal/formal contexts,
institutional/personal/public technologies,
academic/digital know-how
work/home life
 Hidden practices: personal study habits, outsourced
curriculum, third party software/services, 'workarounds'
 Practice innovators may be ignored/undervalued e.g.
teaching administrators, PGRs

19. Developing expertise
 Self-reliance for adoption and basic use
 Structured development for complex systems that
support complex practices
– e.g. data analysis, reference management, business
systems, editing software, design systems
 Local peer or mentor support for advanced and
contextualised use
students’ digital literacy practices are predominantly
contextualised within their programmes of study
 Perceived lack of relevant, timely, local
training/support
 Academic 'generation gap' makes reverse mentoring
attractive

20. Attitudes and cultures
 Students' digital capability still regarded with more
fear than excitement by many staff
 Culture clash seems more evident at 'traditional'
universities and where the 'academic generation
gap' is widest
 Experience with technology leads to a more critical
and discriminating attitude
 We need a shift of focus from teaching staff using
technologies to use by students: 'feel the fear'

21. Feedforward
What kind of outcomes/resources would you find
most helpful from the programme?
- resources for direct access by students
- resources to repurpose/embed into the
curriculum
- guidance for curriculum teams
- guidance for professional services
- guidance for strategic managers
- other
There are some examples coming up!

22. Further information on baselining

Summary of the project baseline reports:
http://bit.ly/JiUV0m

Summary of the professional association baseline
reports: http://bit.ly/KWFJUo

Institutional videos from the Developing Digital
Literacies projects visit http://bit.ly/jiscdlprogvideos to
hear about how they are implementing digital literacies
at a strategic level

Baselining resources from the JISC Design Studio
including institutional audit tools: http://bit.ly/Nz1g8t

23. Discussion time
What are the key messages for your institution?

24. Digital capability is...
The claims of top departments to be pushing the
boundaries of research require a sustained
engagement with digital scholarship. The claims of
top teaching universities to offer a personal,
relevant and engaging learning experience
demand sustained innovation in methods. Neither
is possible unless universities rethink their offer...
in terms of the digital experiences students have
and the digital practices they encounter
(Beetham et al, 2009).

25. Further resources
JISC Developing Digital Literacies programme:
Developing Digital Literacies on the Design Studio
SEDA page on the Design Studio
Baselining Digital Literacies page
Learning Literacies in a Digital Age (original audit
study)

26. Beyond SLIDA?