Digital Datesa collaborative approach to developing digital skills in both students and staff

Helen Howard Skills@Library Team Leader

Today’s session

What Digital Dates is and why we started it

Our future plans

An honest account of what has worked and what hasn’t

A chance to discuss the approach in your context

What’s in it for you?

Replicate

Set up your own version of Digital Dates

Adapt

Adapt the concept by topic or format

Inspire

Working collaboratively with staff/ students

Delivering content in different ways

What is Digital Dates?

o Started in January 2013 and runs roughly once a month

o Focus on digital literacy, technology and tools

o Collaboration between Staff and Departmental Development Unit and Skills@Library

o Short presentations by and for staff and students: 20 + 10

A programme of short, informal workshops that help staff and students develop their digital skills and build an awareness of the tools available to support various aspects of their working lives.

Students and staff share their experiences and/or find out about other people’s experience of using technology to enhance their learning and teaching.

Rebecca Dearden (SDDU)Responsibility: Coordinate speakers

Jane O’Neil (SDDU)Responsibility: Coordinate speakers

Claire Perry (SDDU)Responsibility: Administrator

Helen Howard (Skills@Library)Responsibility: Coordinate speakers

Michelle Schneider (Skills@Library)Responsibility: Coordinate speakers

Pete Sycamore (Skills@Library)Responsibility: Administrator

Why did we start Digital Dates?

Staff picture:

o Blended learning strategyo Lecture captureo MOOCso iTunes Uo OERs

Why did we start Digital Dates?

Student picture:

“Many learners enter further and higher education lacking

the required skills to apply digital technologies to education.

As 90% of new jobs will require excellent digital

skills, improving digital literacy is an essential

component of developing employable graduates”.

JISC, 2013 http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning/developingdigitalliteracies.aspx

What kind of dates do we offer?

Teaching in an online classroom

Using social media platforms in learning and

teaching

Saving Face(book): the ethics of social

network sites

4Ts (trying tablet technology in

teaching)

Digital technologies for collaborative research & public

engagement

Thinking about your online

presence

The benefits of speed dating

Attendees only had to give up 30 minutes of their time

Organised over a lunchtime so people could bring their lunch

Presenters more focused on benefits rather than step-by-step guide to using the technology

If it wasn’t relevant, people had only given up 30 minutes of their time

If it was useful, people could follow up with other courses or information provided after the session

Gives people an awareness of a broad variety of topics

People more likely to be able to attend multiple short sessions

Who attends Digital Dates?

427attendees

Average of 28 per session

75% Staff 15% RPG6% TPG4% UG

o Most popular: Making the most of Twitter (61 attendees)

o Least popular: Using technology to win campaigns (15 attendees)

What do attendees say?

“Nicely brief, didn’t drag and covered relevant topics”

(Why Blog?)

“Maybe more in depth for starting a blog for complete

beginners” (Why Blog?)

“Very accessible and a lot of content in a short space of

time” (4Ts: trying tablet technology in teaching)

“It was reassuring to see and hear other’s thoughts

and experiences... I felt a lot happier about my use of

Twitter” (Making the most of Twitter)

97% very or mostly useful

How does collaboration help?

Digital Dates Team

o Extend reach: staff and students

o Different networks & ideas

o Shared workload

o Builds understanding of each other’s work

Students & Staff

o Variety of sessions

o Sharing knowledge across institution

o Showcasing expertise

o Partnership

o Shared workload

Collaboration

Would it work for you?

o Other University teams offering staff / student support?

o Students and staff supporting each other?

Programme

o Short session format?

o Other ways of supporting digital literacy?

o Using this idea for other topics / activities?

What’s the future for Digital Dates?

Deliver programme again next year with topics including “Developing the Digital Scholar” and “Going viral”

Adopt a more strategic marketing campaign

Ensure titles are both clear and catchy

Encourage more students to attend and to deliver sessions themselves

http://www.sddu.leeds.ac.uk/sddu-digital-dates.html