Assessing Staff i-Skills Needs
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This document discusses i-Skills, which refer to the ability to effectively identify, evaluate, and communicate information. It outlines previous projects that have assessed i-Skills among students and staff. A key issue is identifying skills gaps and how to meet staff development needs. The document describes workshops held to discuss these topics and an online self-evaluation tool to help individuals assess their i-Skills. It concludes by discussing the need for practical strategies to incorporate i-Skills training into staff development frameworks.
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Assessing Staff i-Skills Needs
- 1. i-Skills in the Workplace: assessing and meeting staff development needs
- 2. What are i-Skills? "The ability to identify, assess, retrieve, evaluate, adapt, organise and communicate information within an iterative context of review and reflection"
- 3. Background - previous JISC projects Student & staff skills Big Blue, Big Blue connect 2005 i-Skills model & publications 2006 Netskills Research, workshops and self-evaluation tool Leeds and Loughborough Universities Exemplifying the i-Skills model in specific job roles Exploring implications for staff development 2007 Netskills funded to Prepare self-evaluation for online conversion Run a series of workshops for staff development
- 4. Key Issues for Staff Development Skills gaps Defining i-Skills i-Skills not adequately addressed Fragmented provision and poor take-up How to identify needs How to meet needs
- 5. But… High level of interest Skills reflection welcomed "I found the course very interesting and useful, at least in terms of opening my eyes to the need for more skills development in this area" Staff development must focus on individual needs Opportunities for partnership in meeting needs
- 6. 2007 Workshop Programme "i-Skills and Staff Development: are you doing enough?" 8 workshops around UK, 87 attendees from HE and FE Charge of £45 to attend Job role: Administration 6 Learning Support 5 Management 14 Library 18 Staff Development / Training 28 Teacher / Lecturer 5 Other 2
- 7. Identifying Development Needs The challenge i-Skills encompass a wide range of skills/abilities Staff use information in varied ways How to assess these varied needs? Identify different levels of need Needs across a team / for particular roles Audit information needs for job role? Generic needs for all staff Individual needs Integrate with existing staff development processes
- 8. The i-Skills Online Self-Evaluation Individualised, reflective and developmental Features: Defined i-Skills / behaviours Examples & brief tutorial content Self-ratings & job profile Guidance on opportunities for development Summary Institutional use Training needs analysis Appraisals / Professional Development Reviews
- 9. Meeting Development Needs Audit existing staff development provision i-Skills often embedded in other topics Provision may be fragmented across institution Identify related areas 'Gateways' to time management, networking and teamwork How will gaps in provision be met? Not just short courses… Who will meet these gaps? Opportunities for partnership
- 10. Strategies - an i-Skills Framework
- 11. Workshop Programme "A useful workshop helping to boost initiatives required at my college." "Useful additional information to preliminary i-skills workshop attended last year. Intend to take ideas forward with admin and clerical team this semester in prep for next academic year." "Very thought-provoking and inspiring. I hope there are further workshops/information regarding this area as it would be very interesting to see how it grows and evolves." "A really useful workshop. I've got lots of ideas for going forward with this: just got to put them into practice!"
- 12. Issues Differences between HE and FE Need for practical examples and good practice Auditing i-Skills provision Drivers / marketing Terminology and 'visibility' of i-Skills Self-evaluation tool
- 13. What next? i-Skills are dead? Long live i-Skills!
- 14. References Netskills information skills projects http://www.netskills.ac.uk/infoskills JISC i-Skills publications http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/publications/pub_sissdocs.aspx AUA Perspectives article: H. Conroy, 2007, "Skills for the Information Age" Vol.11, No.1. e-Staff Development project case study http://e-staffdev.lboro.ac.uk/ (Select Project Outputs > Case Studies) Big Blue & Big Blue connect http://www.library.mmu.ac.uk/bigblue/
Editor's Notes
- <number> Previous projects such as the Big Blue (student skills), Big Blue connect (staff skills) and the 2005 JISC publications Investing in Staff i-Skills and Improving Staff i-Skills. JISC definition of i-Skills and i-Skills cycle produced in these publications. Not dwelling on terminology / models for now!
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- Skills gaps Few staff show the skills/confidence to use information to best advantage Defining i-Skills Confusion between IT and information skills Lack of recognition of importance i-Skills not adequately addressed in staff development Most current activity focuses on the academic needs of students i-Skills seen as a 'library thing' Lack of strategic framework for i-Skills development Fragmented provision & poor take-up
- <number> High level of interest - especially information overload and lack of knowledge sharing Successful courses were targeted by subject or role – must focus on individual needs Mark Hepworth, LILAC 2007 Workplace IL is different: Need to understand the workplace and the experiences and perceptions of people in it. Focus on interventions that enable people to become a part of and an effective player in their work context. Help people resolve their problems and deal with situations they recognise. … some of which will relate to LIS conceptions of IL and some will not Melissa Highton, LILAC 2007 Opportunities for partnership Staff developers should: work with librarians to examine existing provision and to identify and integrate i-skills into staff development programmes designed for specific groups encourage departments and units to actively review their structures and opportunities for internal communication and networking to identify positive approaches. actively support and facilitate cross campus networks around work themes. Librarians should: work with staff developers to target training towards specific departments as part of team development work with Human Resources departments to explore how the staff development and review process is managed within their institution and establish whether i-skills are explicitly identified in job descriptions and review procedures. make their expertise in creating e-learning objects available to staff developers where required. actively widen their understanding of i-skills to consider how issues such as time management, information overload, networking, teamwork and meetings, and the presentation of data (not just bibliographies) relating to the more traditional i-skills themes.
- The workshops booked up well. Some of the earlier workshops had lower bookings, perhaps due to a shorter lead-in time with publicity, but later workshops were fully booked or over-subscribed. A total of 90 bookings were taken, with only 3 people unable to attend. 96 places were offered. At the time of booking attendees are asked for information on their sector and job area. (Note that some attendees did not provide this information therefore the numbers do not add up to 100%.) In terms of sector, 29% stated they were from FE and 53% from HE. This compares to the 2006 i-Skills programme where FE made up only 3% of the attendees, with 87% coming from HE. Managers and staff development were the target audience and the figures above show that these two groups made up around half of the attendees. Library staff were the other major group. Unlike the previous projects, there was a charge to attend this workshop – testing the sustainability of this type of training.
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- <number> Initially to be used as part of the workshop Then made available to institutions Potential to be tailored by institutions Individualised, reflective and developmental To be used individually and strategically Trialling Initial piloting Trialling during workshop programme Volunteers Meeting individual needs Varied use of information in different roles Needs to be usable, practical and relevant Help decide priorities Whose priority? For job or for personal development? Everything is high priority! Self-rating Difficulty to rate a skill where little is known Institutional context
- <number> How will gaps in provision be met? Procedures / processes / people Workshops, online courses, guided reading, conferences, shadowing, job rotation, coaching, mentoring
- Feedback was submitted by 72 attendees. 78% rated the workshop as Very Good or Excellent (4 or 5 out of 5). 96% said they would recommend the course to others. Generally, attendees were happy with the content of the day, however the most common suggestion for improvement was to include more practical examples and case studies of how institutions are providing for i-Skills staff development. In terms of what attendees would have liked to hear less about on the course, some attendees found the emphasis on strategy less useful, echoing the many requests for practical examples mentioned above. Some attendees felt that the content was biased towards the HE sector.