Jisc Connect More Wales

On 5th July 2018 I attended the Jisc Connect More Wales event held at Cardiff Metropolitan University (full details available on Jisc website). I have summarised the talks I attended below as well as my recomendations for what could be actioned within the Medical School.

Keynote

The main takeaway from the keynote was the announcement that LA Cymru, a pan-Wales learning analytics system is due to launch soon. This will allow for the collection and analysis of massive amounts of data across Wales regarding learners to help institutions make timely interventions and spot trends earlier. This means instituitions can react to trends and ensure they are at the forefront of learning.

Planning the route to improved digital capability in your organisation with action mapping

An interesting session which provided guidance on “risk managing” digital capabilities training. The idea is to think about 4 key areas when developing a training event and ensure that you address them all with the training. These 4 areas are:

• Knowledge – the learner does not have the knoweldge to undertake a task and therefore needs the training to gain that knowledge
• Motivation – the learner does not have the motivation to attend the training
• Skills – the learner has the knoweldge and motivation to undertake a task and therefore needs the training to learn how to use that knowledge and motivation to carry out the task
• Environment – the learner has the knoweldge, motivation and skills however something in the environment means they cannot complete the task

To address the knowledge area when developing training, you should ensure that the knowledge required is delivered during the training and that the learner leaves with the knowledge they need.

To address the motivation area, you must clearly advertise the goal of the course and align it with their needs. A course that is not seen as benefitial to someone will lead to them either not attending or not engaging. You should find out why your learners need the training and market it and run it to motivate them to leave with the desire to act on it.

The skills area is similar to the knowledge area however it requires the training to provide the skills to utilise the knowledge e.g. the learner knows what they need to do however they do not know how to use the software available to complete the task. Ensure that the training provides them with the skills needed to succeed.

Finally the environment area. This is the hardest as it often involves things out of the control of the person delivering the training. For example, the learner may not have access to the tools required to complete a task due to budget or time. In this case you can attempt to provide a training course that highlights the benefits of being able to carry out a task which can then help justify the cost/time.

While a lot of this seems obvious, having a structure in place when developing a course ensures that your learner gets what they need from it and ensures that the person developing the course takes into account the different requirements of the potential learners.

How are students’ expectations and experiences of their digital environment changing?

This session was primarily a discussion of how the Jisc digital experience tracker has been used to gather detailed information on student experience with digital at an institution as well as their expectations and requirements. The tracker is essentially a survey which is completed by students and the results delivered to the institution by Jisc for analysis. It was piloted in 2017 and will become a fully supported (and paid for) service in September 2018.

The feedback from the presenters was that it was a good tool which gave them a much clearer understanding of what was going well and gave them clear evidience on what areas they needed to improve which could then be fed into wider strategies and developments.

I strongly believe that as a School, this tool should be used to gather data and act as a start point for the improvement of digital usage. It would highlight where students want digital and learning technology to be more widely used and the reasons why. Depending on cost and whether this could be a joint project with SALT, this is something that could be incredibly benefitial to the school and our students.

More information on the tracker can be found on the Jisc website: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/student-digital-experience-tracker

Building the digital capability of your staff and students

The final main session I attended was feedback from the pilot of the digital discovery tool and framework from Jisc (more info: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/building-digital-capability).

This tool will be made available for a fee from September and allows staff and students to identify their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to thier digital literacy and points them to guidance, further support and advice on improving their digital literacy. In my previous role I was part of the pilot for the discovery tool and so have direct experience with it. The report it provides at the end is incredibly detailed and accurate and provides you with a good understanding of your literacy. It is very supportive and aims to encourage you to improve your literacy.

At University of South Wales it has been incorporated into the induction process for new staff so that digital literacy is seen as a key part of staff development. The report is printed and worked through with the persons line manager who then helps develop a CPD pathway to improve areas that need it. While this may not currently be practical across the University, within the School it is important that we advocate the use of digtial and learning technology and help our staff become more digitally literate. As with the experience tracker, this may be something to pilot within Swansea in collaboration with SALT.

Lightning talks

The final part of the day was 3 lightning talks, including one on merging the digital discovery tool with a digital visitor/resident mapping exercise. This exercise is designed to start conversations about digital literacy and a persons use of technology in work. For example, the exercise may highlight that google tools like GoogleDocs or communication tools like Whatsapp are only used at home for personal tasks and therefore a conversation could be had to explore how these could be used as part of a course or within existing workflows to improve them.

The key to this working is that it’s combined with the discovery tool so that the discussion is not simply about specific technology but instead contextualises the discussion.

 

Digital literacy is a key issue that will need to be addressed in the near future, and so it is important to have a process in place. The first step is the discovery tool, the second is the mapping exercise. Based on what USW have done, it is clear that the steps after that need to be considered and CPD resources need to be in place to support staff. Without this support structure in place it is clear that the discovery tool and mapping exercises will only start conversations but will lead no where.

I would therefore argue that digital literacy needs to be school-wide project that has buy in and support from all levels of the school and is backed by SALT and the wider University if it is to be a success.