Learning outcome
Critically harness digital literacy for professional practice and research and demonstrate digital citizenship in online learning, professional and social communities.
Student Benefits
Digital literacy skills empower individuals to learn, change and adapt to the digital global environment. Promoting the development of creative and analytical uses of technology, these skills take the user from passive consumers to active and confident ones capable of full and professional engagement in the online world.
In the Curriculum
Effectively embedding digital literacy into courses and subjects starts with assessments where you:
- Map Digital Literacies across a course.
- Plan and scaffold digital literacy throughout the entire degree.
- Use technology enhanced versions of successful learning and teaching situations.
- Include digital literacy in the objectives and learning outcomes in several subjects and assessment tasks.
- Assess digital literacy learning using a variety of methods.
- Where applicable, include digital literacy in your marking criteria.
Scaffolding
A graduated or tiered approach to the implementation of the Digital Literacy GLO is recommended. The GLO elements need to be made explicit in several core subjects throughout the course. They may also be implicit in many other subjects in the course.
The recommended development of digital literacy skills is below:
- Foundation level: Students can select and use appropriate online tools to manage information. They can successfully communicate using digital platforms and understand respectful behaviour online.
- Proficient level: Students can use digital tools to create new products either alone or in collaboration with their peers. They understand the use of social media platforms to share resources safely and ethically and to communicate with others.
- Advanced level: Students can select and adapt digital tools to meet complex professional, study and personal needs and are able to confidently share and communicate original ideas and knowledge. They can ethically and professionally contribute to online networks and actively cultivate and maintain a sophisticated online presence.
Course Requirements
Explicit acknowledgment of the knowledge, skill and application of the digital literacy GLO in the learning outcomes, assessment tasks and rubrics of at least 3 assessments in core subjects in a course. This should be supplemented by learning activities to ensure students acquire these skills. The library can provide support and suggestions for this.
Teaching Practices
- Introduce students to the use of appropriate digital tools.
- Design activities that require students to research, synthesise and present information in digital formats.
- Use assessment tasks and learning activities to explore digital technologies that are appropriate for the profession/discipline.
- Encourage students to participate in safe online communication with their peers and within their profession.
- Use technologies within a subject to facilitate collaboration and communication (for example wikis, blogs and online discussion forums). Help students define acceptable etiquette for these interactions.
- Promote the development of their capacity to engage online as responsible and proactive digital citizens.
- Design activities that require students to consider the professional, social and cultural use of technology (for example, encourage them to develop an online profile on a professional platform such as LinkedIn).
- Explore discipline specific case studies within a subject that examine ethical and/or legal issues associated with the use of technology.
Assessment
Assessment of Digital Literacy can include contextualised assessments that allow students the opportunity to select and demonstrate the appropriate and effective use of technologies. The Library’s Digital Literacy Guide provides a range of effective assessment examples.
Support
For additional support, please see the library guide below or contact your library faculty support team:
