Preparing for life’s curve balls with building digital capability

If the pivot to home-working during the pandemic taught people anything, it is this: it’s a good idea to be well prepared for life’s curve balls.

In 2021/22 Jisc sent subject specialists to help Southampton lay the groundwork with an on-boarding presentation to university stakeholders and discussions with teaching staff about digital capabilities. We’re staying in regular contact to see how we can help to take things forward, and the university is a member of our building digital capability co-design group to give us feedback and develop Jisc’s service further.

Learning designer at the University of Southampton, Alison Ormesher, says:

“Conversations with both students and staff have shown they are keen to improve their digital skills and so working with Jisc’s building digital capability service is a strategy that helps us meet that need."

“We’ve chosen Jisc’s solution because it works well in universities, and there’s a community of practice for us to share experiences and work with similar institutions.”

Thorough prep

The university’s team didn’t want to start small. They wanted to reach students right across the university. But first, they invested time in careful planning. For example, they decided not to use the standard wording offered with the questionnaires in the discovery tool. Instead, they tailored their own headings to make meanings very clear for different target groups. Alison explains:

“Southampton is a big, complex institution and we wanted to use precise language so users of the tool can easily identify themselves, but also so that faculties and departments can simply gather granular, actionable information.”

The pilot stage started in the 2022/23 academic year and is ongoing.

The Digital Learning team developed a workshop complete with PowerPoint presentation and a YouTube video, called GROW your digital skills with the Jisc discovery tool. The workshops can be completed online and there’s also an in-person format. Whichever way it’s delivered, it introduces students to the discovery tool, offers a step-by-step guide to creating an account, walks them through the questions, reassures them that their results are private and anonymised, and highlights all the support that’s available. Southampton’s approach uses the Grow model to help people identify their specific goals and develop a realistic plan to achieve them.

Tailored events

There are general events and resources to get staff and students involved, as well as work that’s more tailored. For example, first year undergraduates in education have used the discovery tool as part of their Digital Society module, and in the School of Engineering foundation year students have also used the discovery tool as part of their programme of study.

“We’re always looking for opportunities where we can introduce the discovery tool neatly, in a way that makes sense to students. Sometimes we do a one-off event and sometimes academics want to repeat the exercise with more participants, which can precipitate a wider set of activities.”

In summer 2023 the team did an online pre-sessional event introducing around 600 international students to the discovery tool. It was a great opportunity for those who’d be arriving in the autumn to prepare and understand how engaging with the programme will allow them to achieve more, as Alison explains:

“It’s really helpful for overseas students, especially those who come from learning environments that adopt less self-directed learning. We explain how prioritising their digital capabilities will benefit them and we break things down into manageable steps to avert any sense of overwhelm.”

Mature students have tried the discovery tool as part of events run by Widening Participation’s Student Inclusion Team, while the Business School Talent Development Programme has run its own workshops.

Customisable, bite-size resources

For those who’ve used the tool and come up with a personal action plan, Southampton offers a suite of resources, including the Digi Skills Metro Map , which was inspired by the University of Nottingham’s map approach as seen in ‘The Digital Student’, and signposts various cohorts of users to relevant resources. There is also an interactive help guide and a dedicated Building Digital Capabilities SharePoint site with the university’s own learning resources plus signposts to others, including ones from Jisc and LinkedIn Learning.

Less than two years after starting on its building digital capability adventure, the University of Southampton is becoming a service ‘super user’, with students and staff across the institution working on their digital skills.