Digitally Ready

Imagine a university where all students and all staff are able to access all the digital resources they need now and for the future.

Digitally Ready aims to raise awareness and offer opportunities to staff and students at the University of Reading to develop their digital literacies to prepare them for working, learning and living in a digital society. Capabilities may include ICT/computer literacy, information literacy, media literacy, communication and collaboration, digital scholarship, learning skills, and life-planning.

Digitally Ready is a JISC-funded project under the Developing Digital Literacies programme. Project findings and outputs will be shared throughout the Higher Education sector.

Digitally Ready and the University of Reading
The University of Reading already has a strong commitment to digital literacy. We have a sound infrastructure, dedicated support services, and many students and staff are already using and sharing good practice. However, the University community has varying levels of skills and knowledge. We engaged with this project in July 2011 to focus on improving the digital literacy of staff and students here at Reading and to fully support the University’s employability agenda.

Digitally Ready aims to:

• Build on and communicate existing good practice
• Develop case studies to illustrate the benefits and efficiency gains of an enhanced teaching and learning experience
• Enhance skills by developing self-diagnosis tools to promote personal life-long learning around digital literacies
• Enable the University to respond to rapid and on-going changes in technology and thereby meet the expectations of students and staff

Progress to date

• We carried out a baseline research study which recognised examples of good practice that we can build upon and areas for further development.
• We identified opportunities to build digital literacies more firmly into University strategic documents and operational plans, the curriculum for students, and a co-ordinated programme
  of development activities.

Research

We plan to carry out a research study into:

• How work-related placement learning opportunities (in and extra-curricular) help our students develop their digital literacies
• The nature, breadth and depth of students’ digital skills;  levels of confidence in applying digital skills for employability; ability to reflect on and articulate digital skills developed (pre-/post-placement)
• How well students’ digital skills match employers’ expectations
• What staff can do to support students’ skills development and articulation

Outcomes

• Tools to help students log activities, reflect on skills gained and learn how to articulate and communicate these skills to become more employable
• A digital literacy development programme including training and resources to enhance Teaching and Learning, improve students’ employability, and raise our research profile and reputation.
• Self-diagnosis tools (based on e-skills Passport and National Occupational Standards for IT Users) which have potential for tie-in with Staff Development Reviews and Personal Tutorial System
• A university-wide Community of Practice for digital literacy