Project: Professionalism in the Digital Environment (PriDE)
Institution: University of Bath
Programme: Developing Digital Literacies
"Through the establishment of a number of ‘learning communities’, PriDE took a highly contextualised action learning approach to defining and developing digital literacies within the subject disciplines of a research-intensive institution."
This is an edited version of the project's institutional story (final report). Please refer to the original for details of all references and additional information.
Summary
Developing professionalism in the digital environment (PriDE) in which we live, required us to take an institution-wide approach to developing digital literacies. Through the establishment of a number of ‘learning communities’, PriDE took a highly contextualised action learning approach to defining and developing digital literacies within the subject disciplines of a research-intensive institution. The multi-layered, multi-stakeholder approach resulted in institutionally-coherent but discipline-owned statements/outcomes, which describe the attributes of learners, researchers, teachers and professionals to which they should be aspiring to acquire. This approach to change management has provided the basis for significant change with the University of Bath and has attracted significant attention from other institutions. A rich description of a number of the project’s achievements have been captured in the special edition of Better@Bath – a dissemination channel which celebrates student engagement and success in teaching and learning.
PriDE ensured that appropriate links were made to employability, UK Professional Standards Framework, the Researcher Development Framework, etc so as to develop digital professionalism within the University of Bath. PriDE’s strong dissemination strategy ensured that the outcomes of this highly influential project were of benefit to the University of Bath, Jisc and to the wider HE sector.
Headline achievements
PriDE has engaged with approximately 100 staff over the course of the project, corresponding with an institution-wide increase in awareness of the importance of digital literacies. The term itself is no longer equated narrowly with "IT skills" by staff and there is some evidence (anecdotal) that curriculum teams and departments are looking for opportunities to develop the digital literacies of their students as an integral part of the programme review process. To aid this in future, we hope to review our Quality Codes of Practice to ensure that opportunities to engage with technology enhance learning is embedded within each one (see Sustaining and Embedding below).
The project has included significant student engagement at all levels. This includes participation in drafting the project bid, representation on the project's Steering Group, membership of the Faculty Learning Communities, employment as project research assistants and participation in year two's mini-projects. This has also resulted in the development and further enhancement of digital literacies for the individual students involved (see Other Impacts).
We believe that one of PriDE's most significant achievements has been the Faculty Learning Communites (FLCs) – not only the outputs from the FLCs, which have enabled us to do so much in terms of information institutional direction, but the model itself as a change management tool has been undeniably effective. In terms of output from the FLCs, these include (a) definitions of digital literacies articulated by each faculty and specific to the culture of that faculty, (b) sets of statements regarding the digital attributes, practices, skills and opportunities for access that learners in each faculty are expected to develop, and (c) a baseline report which included the views of staff at all levels and across all our provision. These statements have helped establish a common vocabulary within the University with which to talk about digital literacies and allowing a plurality of definitions to emerge has significantly boosted local ownership of a centrally-lead project. The developmental materials used to run the FLCs and the outputs which have been produced have been released under an open license to the wider educational community (see Outputs).
The PriDE project team worked closely with the Student Union at Bath to develop a recognised accreditation scheme for learners’ digital literacies. This will be offered for the first time in October 2013-14 as a component of the Bath Award - a skills competency framework aimed at recognising and accrediting students' extra-curricular activities and experiences. Importantly this will be an accreditation of digital practices rather than digital skills per se.
In collaboration with the Careers Advisory Service, the PriDE project has designed and delivered an interactive student facing workshop with the aim of exploring the importance of creating and managing professional online identities. The workshop is now offered to students as an integral part of the Careers Advisory Service's Skills Development Programme. Similar workshops are planned in the faculties as part of student induction and in the Students' Union as a component of their Skills Training workshops.
The success of PriDE has highlighted the importance of effectively managing organisational and cultural change within the institution. An unanticipated outcome of this has been the exploration of new practices of working within the e-Learning Team and the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Office. Learning from the transformational nature of the PriDE project has resulted in a review of strategic and working priorities which emphasise the transformational over the transactional practices (noted in section 7 of this document). This will be reinforced in the coming months through a structured professional staff development programme. Furthermore, the development of digital literacies of our students and staff now appears as a key responsibility in the job descriptions of e-Learning staff.
Key drivers
In 2011 the Student Union and the Student Experience Working Group at the University of Bath identified the digital environment as an important priority for students. By the digital environment we mean the totality of systems, infrastructure, policy, processes and online/physical spaces that provide a framework for student and staff to engage with digital technologies in their learning, teaching and working. Crucially, the digital environment provides access to digital information, resources, research and learning experiences but it also includes the skills, competencies and capabilities that underpin this framework. At Bath, we saw the need to develop student and staff digital literacies as a critical strand of work within the overall development of the institution's digital environment. At the University of Bath a key driver for becoming involved in the Developing Digital Literacies programme was the need to help students prepare for the workplace by developing the digital fluency that employers value and expect from our graduates. Along with the digital environment and the first year experience, graduate employability is a key focus for the University with an excellent record in placing graduates in work following their studies. Commenting on the recent development of a mobile application for non-native speakers in the health care profession, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching) Professor Bernie Morley said:
"This app is an excellent example of how we can use new technologies to deliver an exciting and engaging learning experience for our students. This builds on the work we have been doing on the digital environment and skills development in this area. It will help to inform this important element of our new Learning & Teaching Strategy to ensure we continue to equip students with the appropriate skills for their future employment."
As well as these key drivers internal to the University, there were also a number of external drivers to the PriDE project identified by project stakeholders. For example there was a perception that staff and students need to learn new skills to enable them to keep up with the fast-paced introduction of new learning technologies, in particular the sourcing, managing and evaluation of information and data. There was also recognition of the pervasive nature of digital technologies in the wider society and the resultant need to negotiate and navigate the digital environment on a global as well as local (institutional) level. Finally the increasingly competitive nature of higher education was another key driver, with stakeholders believing that developing the digital literacies of students and staff would be key to maintaining the University's competitive advantage in the marketplace. This is nicely illustrated by our Director of Marketing and Communications, in relation to the importance of mobile app development:
"It is good to see the initial success of the University's first step into the dynamic world of apps. The fast growing availability of mobile devices creates many new opportunities to engage with our different target audiences, whether this is to provide information, to give a taste of what the University can offer or to persuade them to choose Bath. The use of apps and other digital technologies is already transforming how Universities market themselves and we need to learn how to turn this to our own advantage."
Organisational context
The University of Bath is a research-intensive single campus university with a strong profile of teaching excellence, particularly in science and engineering, and in management. It consistently appears in lists of the top ten universities nationally and was Sunday Times University of the Year in 2011/12. There are approximately 15,000 students enrolled at the University of which one-quarter are international students and 16% are distance learners. Almost two-thirds of students undertake business placements and Bath has an exceptional graduate employability record with over 90% placed in graduate jobs. The University has a growing international profile with partnerships in place with universities in South Korea, Brazil, China, South Africa and the U.S.A.
At its core the University community values and celebrates the uniqueness of the subject disciplines and this is engrained in its motto Generatim discite cultus (learn each field of study according to its kind). It is through the disciplines, supported by a robust administrative and physical infrastructure, that the University of Bath embraces and leads change so as to support members of its community in maximising their potential. It is on these strengths and characteristics that the PriDE project was built.
After securing funding for PriDE in the summer of 2011, one of the first things we were asked to do as part of the project was to audit and benchmark our existing institutional provision of activities related to digital literacy in order to provide a starting point against which progress could be evaluated. This was also the first opportunity for us to engage with key stakeholders and establish a shared understanding in terms of the project's goals and overall direction. We gathered information for the audit from three sources: semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders; a horizon-scanning exercise carried out as part of a scoping document on the digital environment and data gathered from the activities of four Faculty Learning Communities established as part of the project.
The baseline exercise identified areas where we were doing really well in terms of developing digital literacies, and also possible gaps in our provision and support that needed addressing. Our good practice included an extensive programme of transferable skills development delivered and run by students for students via the Student's Union; workshops on the effective use of social media for students and researchers delivered by the Careers Service and Researcher Development Unit; and the embedding of learning technologies across aspects of the HEA-accredited PG Certificate, a course for probationary academics (now re-vamped into ‘The Bath Course’).
On the other hand a number of gaps in provision were identified. Firstly, there was limited acknowledgement of the need for developing digital literacies contained within institutional strategies and policies and in the mission statements of professional services. Where digital technologies and literacies were mentioned it was in relation to skills and access to particular technologies rather than the comparably 'higher order' sets of digital practices, ways of working and being and development of digital identities. Secondly, there was a tendency to equate digital literacies with 'IT literacy' and a limited awareness of the broader meanings of the concept. Lastly, the baselining exercise discovered that students and staff had a somewhat fragmented and inconsistent experience of the digital environment. While there were a number of digital literacies-related development and training opportunities available, there was a ‘one-size fits all’ approach to this which neither offered any reward, incentive or means of accrediting development opportunities, nor located these opportunities within an explicit institutional strategy.
Project approach
Facilitating change
Drummond, Nixon and Wiltshire (1998) have researched the change management processes involved in the development of graduate skills and attributes within an educational context. They found that irrespective of support at senior levels within institutions, project teams must generate support at departmental and individual levels of the university, so that successful implementation of change initiatives can take place. This project therefore proposes to facilitate organisational change through ongoing engagement of stakeholders within learning communities comprising mixed but balanced memberships, straddling academic, administrative, professional and student communities. Through action learning and the involvement of externals (from sector bodies), this project will foster the development of a number of learning communities at each of these levels:
Departmental level
Engagement at this level aimed to make explicit and document the varying perceptions of the concept of digital literacy, the variety of skills and abilities which underpin the attributes in each discipline and the diverse practices which promote, develop and support the achievement of digital literacy attributes. PriDE fostered the development of a number of discipline‐based learning communities (1 per faculty, 4 in total) through which existing initiatives which contribute the digital literacies agenda were identified. Argyris and Schon (1978) claim that this approach is capable of connecting up the individual world of each stakeholder with the world of institution and is likely to lead to institutional learning. The learning communities engaged learners, researchers, academic and professional services staff who directly support students (subject librarians, placement officers, technicians, etc) and who had a shared vocabulary with which to discuss the development of digital literacies within their field and for their beneficiaries. Each faculty produced its own statement for graduate attributes for digital literacies and undertook a needs analysis, which will also recommended suitable innovations as appropriate. An analysis of these statements informed the project at an institutional level. PriDE also captured lessons learnt from the implementation of these initiatives and shared findings across the disciplines. A series of case studies were produced and published to highlight and showcase institutional good practice.
Institutional level
Building on the findings from the departmental level activities (outlined below) and informed by a review of how current institutional policies and strategies enable/hinder the development of digital literacies, the PriDE Steering Group oversaw the bringing together and articulation of overarching digital literacy statements which are now being used to inform the development of future teaching, learning and work experiences and the various stages of designing programme provision. This process resulted in institutionally‐coherent but discipline‐owned statements/outcomes which can be used to describe the attributes of learners, researchers, teachers and professionals to which they should be aspiring to achieve. These statements represent a shared understanding of the outcomes of a university education within a digital society and we sought to relate these statements to relevant existing standards statements (UK Professional Standards Framework for teaching and supporting learning, VITAE’s Researcher Development Framework, SCONUL’s Pillars of Information Literacy).
Initially we had envisaged the formation of an institutional learning community, however, after further consideration it was deemed it would be more fruitful to integrate with existing processes and structures rather than invent new ones. This deviation is documented in the external evaluation report and is not deemed to have hindered the project in any way.
Individual level
A greater degree of self‐awareness is required in order to participate in and help shape a connected society. At this level PriDE offered opportunities for self‐assessment, through the use of a self assessment tool, enabling individuals to situate their personal development against the identified graduate skills and attributes and promoted access to relevant developmental opportunities. Feedback from those undertaking self‐assessments was used to further refine the project’s understanding of digital literacies. Students at the University of Bath are empowered to initiate and promote change, actively participate in institutional life and are encouraged to help form the institution’s future direction. Capitalising on this strong tradition and ethos of student engagement, the PriDE project involved students in absolutely every aspect of the project. The Students Union supported the proposed bid when it was submitted to Jisc, a student representative helped steer/govern the project (SU President on the PriDE Steering Group), a student representative was a key member of the project team (VP Education of the SU), students took part in the FLCs, students were employed to analyse the data collected from the FLCs, a student designed the self-assessment tool as part of their dissertation project, a significant number of students took part in the mini-projects and students helped us disseminate the outcomes of the project internally and nationally. An additional outcome of student involvement has been the development of their digital literacies in the process of engaging with the project (documented in section7). Evidence of this is available throughout this document and is beautifully captured by Charlotte Tucker, one of our students (involved in data analysis) in her article on page 12 of the Better@Bath publication. An extract is provided here:
“On a personal level, I can relate to the concept of feeling digitally illiterate when entering a new environment. Having completed my undergraduate studies at two different Universities, the subject of digital literacies became something that I was made aware of firstly, when studying abroad during my undergraduate degree, and then again when I started at Bath. To explore what we mean by a digitally literate graduate is an extremely important piece of work to ensure that graduates flourishing employment or further study, and continue to develop digital literacies throughout their life. The fact that similar projects have been developing in other Universities around the UK has been incredibly exciting and the idea that our work could actually have an impact somewhere has certainly been a drive. Being part of this project has actually improved my digital literacies - I had never heard of a wiki before or posted a blog. I am really looking forward to learning how this project moves forward and following the rest of its journey: keep blogging! All the best!”
Evaluation
The evaluation strategy for PriDE was three fold: internal evaluation
- Internal formative evaluation which provided developmental feedback on progress throughout the life of the project.
- Evaluation of mini-project/innovations
- External evaluation
(Further information in section 4 of the final report)
Dissemination
PriDE’s dissemination strategy was far-reaching and its goal was to inform and engage both internal and external stakeholders (Jisc and the wider HE community) with the processes of developing institutional approaches to digital literacies as well as lessons learnt. Dissemination formed an integral part of the process and is on-going throughout the project’s lifecycle. PriDE’s deliverables (case studies, resources, etc) were shared and promoted externally (nationally and internationally) in a targeted manner and in partnership with the stakeholders and sector bodies, so as to aid sustainability through increased uptake.
Outputs
“Not only has the programme achieved its objectives (and more), but it has also had a significant impact on the institution’s readiness for DL. In particular, it has ensured that the project does not end on the project end-date, but has embedded its activities into institutional culture, processes and systems.” (Evaluation report)
More specifically, the project has delivered the following:
Discipline-specific statements for digital literacies skills, competencies and attributes have been produced which are made available as OERs and already widely disseminated.
Institutional internal baseline audit/report (2012), where the outputs and recommendations have been widely used at strategic/management levels at Bath and have informed key decisions over the
project's direction.
Case studies from each of our mini-projects which were undertaken in the second year of the project have been produced and published in Better@Bath publication (July 2013). This publication is an established means for showcasing good practice within Bath and a special PriDE edition has been produced for internal and external dissemination.
Change management tools/staff development resources made available as Open Educational Resources (OERs) and widely disseminated – these are high quality materials of relevance to all HEIs focusing on change management and digital literacies in the disciplines. The external evaluator of the project noted: “It cannot be emphasised too strongly the importance of the Faculty Learning Communities to PriDE’s success, where ownership of the digital literacies agenda has been realised – including defining what digital literacy means in their discipline contexts.” The resources produced by this project can assist others in taking up the Faculty Learning Communities (FLC) model, which has received significant interest nationally. The resources are available on the project blog along with a set of screencasts which demonstrate how they were used within the PriDE project.
A self-assessment diagnostic tool based on our FLC statements and definitions to be used by ourstudents. These also highlight relevant developmental opportunities for them.
A table of institutional processes which have been affected by this project was produced which also outlines how the processes have been enhanced to take into account digital literacies. This chart is available at:
Evaluation criteria from each of the mini-projects has been drawn together and considered in relation to the literature to develop a framework which could be used by others to evaluate/consider the impact of digital literacies initiatives. This framework includes the evaluation wiki and will be made available as an OER in due course. This deliverable was originally due to be informed by developments at the University of Bath. However, collaboration developed at a Cluster level, meant that the framework was developed jointly with the University of Reading (Digitally Ready project) and was implement at two institutions and with a greater number of mini-projects informing its development (at a micro and macro level).
In addition to the formal project deliverables the following have also been produced:
There has been a significant amount of internal communication and dissemination in order to achieve the outcomes of the project. Our dissemination strategy was key to this and as a result we have also disseminated the project’s progress and outcomes extensively both nationally and internationally. Further details of dissemination activities can be found in Section 5 of the final report.
Benefits and beneficiaries
The following points are extracted from the external evaluation report (pages 4-5) and demonstrate many of the benefits that the project has delivered. In addition to these there have been significant unanticipated/serendipitous benefits (see Other Impacts).
Strategy alignment: The project is influencing a re-write of the Learning and Teaching strategy and the discipline-specific statements are available for staff to consult when planning and reviewing their programmes and units.
Resourcing and support for DL: The project has built competency and understanding of DLs in other professional services (library, careers etc.) and has promoted local ownership of the agenda.
Staff learning and CPD: Using the discipline-specific statements, the project has informed the programme for staff and researcher development (as per Vitae framework) over the next year and the Bath Course and the Bath Scheme for CPD recognition are considering the outputs of the project.
Student engagement: There are various student engagement mechanisms in development which can incorporate the DL agenda with a specific focus on student and staff DL, student employability and employer engagement.
Alignment with graduate attributes: The project would like to see greater embedding within programmes. This can be facilitated by greater embedding of DLs in quality mechanisms. Accreditation for DLs is now offered through the Bath Award which recognises achievement and excellence in extra-curricular activities.
Integration with marketing and communications plans: The project only dealt with the existing University community and has not targeted prospective students, though (1) all first year students now receive a study skills booklet which includes a section on DL; (2) all first year students will soon be able to access a digital skills self-assessment and (3) the “Manage Your Online Professional Identity” workshop is now promoted to all students who can access it through Careers or the SU.
DL governance: DLs are owned by a number of different services as well as academic departments. The project enabled one such service to take ownership of the agenda and bring all stakeholders together. Through the embedding of mini-projects and the increased ownership of DLs within professional services the project has specifically sought not to design new governance procedures but to tap into existing mechanisms.
Benchmarking: Through the Baseline Report and the FLC outputs the institution knows where it is now in terms of good practices and gaps in provision.
Sector-wide impact: The project provided a focus and a point of reference for those wishing to develop discipline-based approaches to digital literacies and those wishing to adopt effective change management techniques. The deliverables, the dissemination activities and publications have far reaching effects and wide applicability. Indeed a recent article in the Better@Bath publication highlights that the project has been “locally successful and nationally influential” (page 10, article by Helen Beetham.
Other impacts
Significant additional outcomes, which had not necessarily been planned for include the following:
The University has recognised that the lessons learnt from PriDE in terms of managing an innovations/change project can be applied to the general practices of the e-learning team, which will help them in future projects/activities, particularly in relation to changing cultures and practices. Under the direction of the Head of e-Learning and with the support of the Pro Vice-Chancellor and the Director of Learning and Teaching Enhancement, Bath’s e-Learning Team has committed to undertaking significant development so as to enable it to move from a ‘support’ to a ‘development’ model – moving from transactional to transformational practices. In order to do this they plan to develop further their change management techniques and their coaching/mentoring approaches. See Better@Bath publication, page 11, article by Kyriaki Anagnostopoulou.
The digital literacies of all students engaged in the project have been enhanced in various ways. For example, the digital literacies of the student researchers employed on the project to analyse data were enhanced via the use of new tools (wikis, cloud technology, etc). This was commented on by one of the students at: http://digilitpride.wordpress.com/2012/06/24/first-thoughts/ and at: http://digilitpride.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/goodbye/ Furthermore, the outgoing VP Education involved in the steering group is now taking a post-graduate qualification in e-learning partly as a result of his involvement with the PriDE project. Finally, one of our Computing Science students developed the digital literacies diagnostic tool as part of his dissertation project and meaningfully engaged in the relevant literature and in the PriDE project outcomes. We plan to continue to encourage more students to get involved in e-learning projects and for this reason we have just launched our final mini-project under the PriDE umbrella. This will help us explore what happens to learning when we put the power of technology in the students’hands.
There has been significant recognition of the value and benefits of the FLC (Faculty Learning Communities) model and such approaches can be adopted elsewhere. We are aware that this approach has attracted significant interest internally and externally and we are aware of colleagues who have recently bid for funding and are planning to use a similar approach in their proposed project. Furthermore, we have a number of invitations to present the model and the PriDE project as a case study of effective institutional change at a number of HEIs – discussions are on-going.
Sustaining and embedding
The University of Bath, Jisc and the wider HE community will be able to capitalise on the value of the completed project as benefits realisation will continue after the funding has ceased. The report from the external evaluator provides options for sustaining/embedding our activities which include ideas for scaling-up across the institution in order to more widely embed the good practice (see external evaluation report. Sustainability will also be through increased uptake of PriDE outputs, scaling up of initiatives and embedding of processes. The FLC approach adopted by PRiDE has fostered ownership and integration within the institution. Also, the strong dissemination strategy increased awareness within the HE sector of the evidence-based approaches adopted by the PriDE and has facilitated the adoption/adaptation of the open resources which have been produced. Further details are provided in the Section 8 of the final report.
Lessons learned and reflection
Reflections on the PriDE project are captured in the publication Better@Bath along with a significant number of case studies.
More specifically, PriDE has provided us with a tangible example of how transformational change management techniques can be highly effective – this has resulted in a change of approach by the institutional e-Learning Team. (page 11, article by Kyriaki Anagnostopoulou)
Reflections on the effectiveness of student engagement in the project and the commitment to continue to focus institutionally on digital literacies are provided on page 1, article by Prof. Bernie Morley PVC (Learning and Teaching)
Reflections on how the project has exemplified an effective partnership with students in driving forward innovation and helping the University take an institutional approach to the development of digital literacies – a topic which was highlighted as being highly important to our students - are provided on page 1, article by Alex Pool, VP Education, Students Union.
