Digital capabilities can be described as the skills that are required to learn, work, and live in a society which uses digital tools in everyday situations. Finding out information from reliable sources, communicating with others safely, creating digital content, and even shopping online all need some level of digital skills.
The University Of Northampton has collated some resources for our students to enable you to assess your current abilities and improve upon them. Please continue reading below to find out more about the available tools and how to interact with them.
The University Of Northampton has subscribed to a system provisioned by Jisc called the discovery tool.
Jisc are a not-for-profit organisation that believes technology improves education and research. As part of their mission, they created the discovery tool to help students self-assess their digital capabilities, identify their strengths, and offer opportunities to develop their skills further to enhance their practice of learning. The tool also includes a set of questions to help you to better understand your capability and proficiency with AI and generative AI tools.
The University encourages our students to make use of this tool to better understand your digital capabilities against a framework so that you are equipped to improve upon them. The tool is made up of questionnaires for self-assessment and online resources for self-development.
Please start with the question set titled 'New Students' for the best introduction to understanding your current digital skills. Relevant resources to enhance your skillset will appear once you have completed the question set. The AI question set will also provide you with a basis to self-assess your skills and knowledge of what AI is and how it could, or should, be used in the context of your studies.
The discovery tool can be found here: Jisc Discovery Tool
Guidance on how to log in and use the tool can be found here: Student guide
The University Of Northampton has provisioned all students with access to a comprehensive suite of educational videos and courses via the LinkedIn Learning online platform. There are more than 5,000 courses on a wide range of topics.
Some of the resources you will be presented with after completing the Jisc discovery question sets are on LinkedIn Learning. You will need to sign in to this system in order to view the resources. Please use your usual University login credentials.
LinkedIn Learning can also be accessed directly at:https://lnkd.in/eNEwe4pT
Further information for students, including a full user guide, can be found on the UON webpages.
Improving your digital capabilities is a lifelong endeavour. Even when you feel confident with all of the digital tools you use in everyday situations right now, there will be further developments with technology that may require attention in the future. Luckily, with your new found skills, you are now a digital learner capable of becoming familiar with any new developments thrown your way! Below are some suggestions on continuing your development.
Use your new skills in 'finding information and resources' to discover new developments and keep on top of trending technologies. If your JISC discovery tool results suggest you are less confident in this area, then it may be worthwhile focusing on this skill. The ability to conduct research autonomously will be instrumental to your continued learning. With every new digital development, there are numerous resources made available on the web to support your adoption of the tool, software, or resource.
Digital skills development is a large undertaking and sometimes you may not fully appreciate the progress you have already achieved. Keeping a brief learning log or journal may help you to identify the value you add throughout your journey. Reflective writing is an important skill in itself. If you are not yet familiar with how you might approach this, there is support for University of Northampton students and further information to get you started on the Skills Hub.
The Jisc discovery tool has the option to retake each question set multiple times. The results are overlayed so that you can quickly view progress over time. Simply revisit the tool, log in as before, and retake the question set. Viewing an improvement in your self-evaluation may well increase your confidence further!
If you found these resources helpful, please consider helping others to make use of them. Now that you are a confident digital citizen, there is nothing more rewarding than passing on what you have learned to others, thus perpetuating your own skills in teaching, coaching, or leading within the digital stage.
The obvious way to help is to highlight these resources to your fellow students, but maybe there is more you can do. Perhaps one of your own family members would appreciate some help learning about online banking or shopping, or maybe one of your peers has let you know they are struggling with something specific like note taking in class, for example. How might you assist? How can you help improve their confidence?