2.1 A framework for building digital capabilities
Many higher education and further education institutions have adopted the Jisc digital capabilities framework, which expresses the essential digital skills every adult should have in the context of the workplace and provides a means of articulating and understanding digital capabilities in an FE/HE setting. The framework states that:
- At an individual level we define digital capabilities as those which equip someone to live, learn and work in a digital society.
- At an organisational level we need to look beyond the capabilities of individuals and consider the extent to which the culture and infrastructure of an institution enables and motivates digital practices.
(Jisc, n.d).
The framework defines these capabilities as follows.
| The six elements of the individual digital capability framework are: | The six elements of the organisational digital capability framework are: |
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In the video below, Dr Becki Vickerstaff, Higher Education Senior Consultant at Jisc, explains the Jisc digital capabilities framework.
Download this video clip.Video player: hyb_5_2022_sept105_framework_for_building_digital_capabilities_compressed.mp4
Transcript
BECKI VICKERSTAFF
The Jisc digital capability framework is really a way of looking at digital capabilities from a higher level, if you like. And it focuses on six different areas of digital capability. So, we've got ICT proficiency, information data, and media literacies, for example. But this was a framework that was actually designed and worked with and collated and collaborated with the sector as well. And it's one that's used across a lot of higher education institutions, and the sector both nationally and internationally as well.
Within the framework, we have those main six areas of digital capability. So, we have ICT proficiency. So, that's kind of looking at digital proficiency and digital productivity and looking at those in terms of what a user may need to be able to really successfully navigate a digital world. And particularly in an educational setting, we would then be looking at the different types of technologies and methods to be able to really successfully navigate that technology, so they're using it really effectively in the different ways.
We also have information, data, and media literacies as well. So that's looking at areas such as data literacy, information literacy, and media literacy. So, it's being able to successfully navigate data and to be able to look at it successfully in terms of making sure that we're able to retrieve information, but also knowing what to do with that information as well.
We then have digital creation, problem solving, and innovation as well. So, that kind of goes and breaks down into areas, such as digital creation, digital research, and problem solving. So, that problem solving is really important, as obviously we're moving forward in a digital world, particularly with students as well as they look to become the agile graduate of those transferable skills. But also, digital innovation, so being able to understand what digital capabilities are needed to successfully navigate those as well.
We then go into another area on our framework, which is digital communication, collaboration, and participation. So, that's where we start to look at things like digital communication, digital collaboration, and digital participation. So, we're thinking about how we may be particularly thinking about the pandemic as well, how we look at working together online, how that looks successfully, what digital capabilities we may need to be able to do that. So, identifying the correct type of technology or platform to be able to successfully communicate together, and also, obviously, with all of those things is looking at a safe way to do that as well.
And then we have digital learning and development as another area on our framework. So, that's looking at digital learning and digital teaching. So again, that's really important being able to understand the digital capabilities that are needed to support those areas and to allow an individual, whether that's a staff member or a student, to be able to successfully do their role, choose those appropriate technologies, but be able to understand what's needed to develop that area.
And then we've got digital identity and wellbeing, and that kind of really encapsulates across the whole framework. So, we're thinking about all of those different areas, but really looking at that digital wellbeing able to know how long we should be spending online, keeping ourselves safe online, looking at online bullying, that sort of thing. So, it's looking at that digital identity management, so thinking about your digital footprint but also digital wellbeing. So, knowing when maybe spending an hour in front of a Zoom class or a Zoom lecture, and how that impacts our digital wellbeing. So, all of those, sort of, main areas of the framework. We have those six main areas of the framework, which then stem off into a further 15 areas of digital proficiency.
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When thinking about a digital capabilities framework, it is important to define the following in order to ensure that you understand the digital skills and behaviours needed for different contexts within your HEI – one size does not fit all!
- People: The group of people who need the skills
- Places: The context in which they need to use the skills
- Technology: The tools and systems that they need the skills to use
- Period: The time frame in which these skills are relevant (Orlik [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] , 2018).
Activity 6 Jisc’s framework: how digitally confident are you?
Timing: 20 minutes
Research the Jisc digital capability framework in more detail. Consider what it means to you as an individual, and how digitally confident and capable you feel you are.
Jisc Digital Capabilities Framework
You may wish to use one of the following tools to help assess your own digital capability:
- If your HEI is a member of Jisc you may have access to the Jisc Discovery Tool which is a self-assessment tool to help you to understand and develop your digital capabilities.
- If your organisation is not a member you may wish to use The Digital Competence Wheel.
Write a summary of how digitally confident and capable you are and identify the areas you would like to develop. Think about which digital skills and behaviours are important in your personal life and in your role within an organisation. If you work in a HEI also consider the digital skills and tools you use, both in order to operate effectively as an organisation, and the skills to provide the best outcomes for your students.
Comment
Within The Open University the following approach has been taken to set Jisc’s digital capabilities into the OU context. Subject matter experts from across The Open University have collaborated to develop an approach to build and support digital capabilities, through guidance, training, support and processes.
| Capability | This means that we…. |
|---|---|
Using technology (ICT proficiency) |
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| Digital communication, collaboration and participation |
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| Digital creation, problem solving and innovation |
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| Information, data and media literacy |
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Digital learning and teaching (digital learning and development) |
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| Digital identity, wellbeing and sustainability |
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Note: The Open University has included digital sustainability as an additional capability, that is not part of the Jisc framework.
Using the Jisc framework
In the video below, Becki Vickerstaff recaps what the framework is, then contributors discuss how it has been used in their organisations so far and areas to consider for the future.
Download this video clip.Video player: hyb_5_2022_sept106_using_the_jisc_framework_compressed.mp4
Transcript
BECKI VICKERSTAFF
The Jisc digital capability framework is really a way of looking at digital capabilities from a higher level, if you like. And it focuses on six different areas of digital capability. So, we've got ICT proficiency, information, data, and media literacies, for example, but this was a framework that was actually designed and worked with and collaborated with the sector as well. And it's one that's used across a lot of higher education institutions and the sector, both nationally and internationally as well.
JO PARKER
We've used it pretty extensively in work with students because one of the things that it enables you to do is think about digital capability from an individual’s perspective, whether that's staff or students, and from an organisational perspective too.
So, we've used it to inform the development of student facing resources. So, for instance, we have our own digital and information literacy framework at the OU to help us think about the skills that we embed into modules for students. So, we've used some of Jisc's thinking there to shape and frame what we mean when we talk about it in a student facing context.
SARAH JONES
The University decided to map to the Jisc digital capabilities framework because essentially the mapping has been done for us. Digital capabilities, digital skills is a very broad area, from creating a Word document, logging into your email, doing your online shopping, engaging online, up to more complex tasks like programming. Just learning in a digital environment poses skills' barriers for some people.
So, Jisc having done that work already made it easier for us, and also some of the resources that we were using, for example, LinkedIn Learning have also already mapped their own resources to the Jisc digital capabilities framework.
BECKI VICKERSTAFF
One of the main benefits, if you like, of the framework is it really enables those important discussions and it helps build that consensus around what digital capability is and why it's important for a higher education institution, and particularly thinking about how we then empower staff and students, how that digital capability is really important at being able to help support staff to support the students in being able to thrive in that digital world.
And obviously, as things are developing, as the jobs of tomorrow don't even exist yet, that digital capability understanding is really important, but what it also does is that the framework allows the institutions to be able to signpost and align to their own provisions.
And we see a lot of our customers and members do that. So, they'll take that framework. They'll break it down. They'll align it to their own provisions. And it really creates this wonderful starting point, to aid those communications across the institution, to help build that kind of work on that digital transformation as well
But I think one of the strongest areas with the framework is that it breaks down those areas for an institution and then allows them to identify areas that will align again to their own provisions, their own initiatives and just be able to kind of support that.
So, if we think about things like digital creation, for example, an institution may say, well, we can align that to some of our own workshops that we're offering. This ties in lovely where we're doing some redevelopment work on our curriculum. We want staff to create more online material. So, there's lots of different ways that they will use that framework as a starting point, adapt it, and make it more localised and specialised.
JO PARKER
What I have found in my conversations with people who are involved in skills development across the OU is that all those individual digital capabilities that are articulated in the framework are positioned slightly differently in the organisation. So, there's no shared understanding about what the big picture looks like, but there's lots of areas of the University that have responsibility for those digital skills areas.
So, what it enables us to do is build that thinking and that shared language around the whole thing, bringing people on board, but then also having conversations with them about, well, what stuff have you got that would help us build this big institutional picture?
So, from a staff point of view, it's enabled us to audit what we've got, and it's enabled us to build a hub where we bring all this stuff together. So, it makes sense to people in terms of what their digital skills look like at the OU.
BECKI VICKERSTAFF
So, the pandemic, I think, has created lots of different new ways of working. I think it's given us a lot of thoughts that we need to think about. It's given us a lot of experiences and thinking about what we need for the future.
We've certainly seen, as I'm sure most institutions have, a sudden acceleration and a sudden implementation of all these wonderful digital education tools and approaches. I think one of the things that's highlighted is that we need to have that attitude of lifelong learning.
So, we're thinking about the digital needs of our students and our graduates as well. When they go out into the workplace, the workplace is changing phenomenally at the moment in terms of the digital space. So, we need to provide them with those transferable digital skills.
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Many HEIs and FEIs work with Jisc and other organisations to develop resources to help build digital capabilities. In the video below Becki Vickerstaff explains how the Jisc framework has been used to create digital resources areas to help build digital capabilities of staff and students.
Download this video clip.Video player: hyb_5_2022_sept108_creating_the_digicentre_becki_compressed.mp4
Transcript
DR BECKI VICKERSTAFF
Thinking in terms of how some of our higher education institutions have used both our digital capability framework, the discovery tool, et cetera, we've seen some excellent uses of how that's impacted and empowered the University as well. And if I can draw on the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, they're a really good example of where you've got a really clear digital strategy and how that can have that really great impact across that institution.
So, what they did is they initially took again our digital capability framework, and they created a dedicated hub area, so very much thinking about, they've aligned it across their own initiatives and resources as well. But they've created a way that their staff and students can really evaluate their digital capabilities. So again, using the discovery tool as well as a way for that the individual, in a really safe space, to be able to reflect on their digital capability.
But also, then reflect on their needs and again, identifying their strengths. And then plan their way forward in terms of how they improve that. And what they've done is, again, they created this great online space for their staff and students where they can build on those digital capabilities. And because it's broken down and it's adapted, it's being brought more in line with their own institution as well. So, thinking about the different resources they have there, they've embedded, it is part of their induction process as well.
So again, really important with staff and students, understanding that digital capability right at the start of that University journey is really important, but also embedding it as well. So, they've embedded it in appraisals as well and they've run sessions with the leaders. So those responsible for those high-level institution initiatives, they've been brought in as part of this as well. So, having that really holistic approach to it is really important.
But again, one of the things that they've done is taken our role profiles for example, and they've adapted them, they've created some bespoke subject level ones as well. So again, really making that more customised for their institution but still aligning it to that nationally recognised framework as well. And then they've run workshops. And because you can pull on that data from the discovery tool, you can identify where there may be some requirements for development in different digital capabilities.
But one of the other things they've done is they've used the LinkedIn Learning mapping exercise. So, LinkedIn Learning did a wonderful mapping exercise against our framework. So, all of the resources that obviously form part of LinkedIn Learning, they've aligned them to our digital proficiency and our framework. So, it's a really good way for institutions that have that subscription to have them all aligned. So, time is incredibly precious. So, having that already mapped for you provides a really good way for staff and students to be able to go in and have a look at, these are some areas that might help improve my digital capability as well.
So, they've done a really good job of, again, taking our framework, adapting our own profiles, embedding in the discovery tool so that they can have that meaningful data to help drive that staff development and supporting their staff in digital capability as well. And then another institution that's done some amazing work again with our discovery tool and framework is Edinburgh University. So again, they did a slightly different approach, but they again have mapped our digital capability framework against their own service.
So, what they've done is for all of those different areas of digital capability, they've looked at their own internal offerings so in that digital skills team. So, they created a resource area for their staff, again, which broke down all of those different areas as well. They created a University Resource Finder. So, under those digital areas, the staff could identify what areas, based on the discovery tool, that they might need to improve on and increase their understanding on.
And that Resource Finder was a really quick way to signpost staff to, this is what you can do to improve that area. But what they also did which was fantastic and we see again a lot of this, is they did some work with student champions. So those student champions became digital advocates, if you like. And that helped with that peer approach to supporting digital capability so they would go out and train other students, make them aware of the discovery tool, et cetera. So that was a great way of improving that as well.
And one of the things I really loved that Edinburgh have done as well is, with the digital discovery tool and that digital capability, they've aligned that with new programmes as well. So, created some bespoke programs to help staff increase that digital capability and understanding and really again use that data to drive those initiatives as well. And they also redesigned one of their management and leadership courses as well.
So really again, that importance of bringing digital capability to that really higher-level stakeholder buy in across that institution because you need that to really continue that digital innovation as well across an institution. But they also used the LinkedIn Learning mapping exercise as well to create a really great bespoke area for their staff to go in and improve that digital capability because creating resources takes time. And if there's something that's already there and is being used extensively, then it's a really good way to draw on those really good content to help support that digital capability.
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Activity 7 Explore the DigiCentre
Timing: 10 minutes
The University of Wales Trinity Saint David worked with Jisc to create the DigiCentre, their one-stop shop for digital skills needs.
In the video below Sarah Jones, Head of Academic Services, Library and Learning Resources, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, discusses how it can be used and areas to consider.
Download this video clip.Video player: hyb_5_2022_sept107_creating_the_digicentre_sarah_compressed.mp4
Transcript
SARAH JONES
My name is Sarah Jones. I'm Head of Academic Services for University of Wales Trinity St. David. I'm based within the library and the library is then based within the digital services directorate. So, my team is the teaching and learning arm of the library and also for digital services, in a sense. It includes the digital skills advisors, the digital skills development support, and also the digital information literacy skills that sit with the academic liaison librarians. So, we deal with a whole variety of skills development.
It's hugely important that we raise the digital capabilities of students and staff for a variety of reasons. Most immediately is that we're preparing our students for a very digital workforce. So digital skills have to be integral to the curriculum. For staff to be able to deliver this, and for professional services staff to be able to support this, they also need to have those same levels of digital skills. We're sending people into a increasingly digital environment. Most jobs that primary school children now will be going to do not exist.
SSo, we're also preparing them for a continuous development approach throughout their careers also. The main challenge for doing this is the buy-in of your users, of your staff, and students. Because if they can't see the relevance, if it's not something that works for them, not something that's built with the barriers that they might face in mind, then it won't succeed.
The most important thing for us is the conversations that we had along the way, listening to our user, having conversations with them, finding out what the barriers that we – unique barriers to them were and responding to that as reflectively as possible. And if you can do that, you will take people along with you.
HEIs can support their own staff to prioritise developing their digital skills and capabilities by prioritising it themselves, by creating these opportunities for staff to engage with their digital skills and to develop a continuous development mindset within the institution. They can also support staff by investing in it.
We were very fortunate in that we were provided with new posts. We were provided with time and space to think out what we needed to do and do it in the most sensible and useful way. Not everybody will have that luxury. However, there is a middle ground. And I think having that top-level support is crucial.
HEIs this can support the wider community in developing the digital skills and capabilities by being as open and as accessible as possible. For example, our libraries are available for the public to come in and use. If they don't have access to technology at home, they can come in and make use of it here.
The DigiCentre is a one-stop-shop for staff and students to upskill and to develop their digital skills. The purpose of it is to provide one location where they can come to assess their digital skills using the Jisc discovery tool, and then to use a wealth of resources to fill any training gaps. And we also provide some structured learning routes so that people can come in, follow a short course, earn a digital badge, and develop their skills as best fits them.
The university decided to map to the Jisc digital capabilities framework because, essentially, the mapping has been done for us. Digital capabilities, digital skills, is a very broad area, from creating a Word document, logging into your email, doing your online shopping, engaging online up to more complex tasks like programming. Just learning in a digital environment poses skills barriers, for some people.
So Jisc having done that work already made it easier for us and also some of the resources that we were using, for example, LinkedIn Learning have also already mapped their own resources to the Jisc digital capabilities framework. We worked with Jisc to create the digital centre.
We worked closely with our account manager who was able to provide us with a wealth of advice as to what Jisc could provide us with to get us started. They also were able to provide us with case studies and feedback from other institutions who had already done what we were trying to do. They have communities of practice that we were able to join and to learn from the experiences of others.
The key learnings from developing the DigiCentre are really that digital skills and digital capabilities are not so much about the digital, they're not about the technology. They're about people. They're about people's fear, about people's willingness to engage, about people understanding what they're doing and things working for them.
The DigiCentre has been received very well by staff and students. We've started with a gradual roll out to different groups. That means that we can tailor what we're providing, starting with teaching staff. So, we've engaged with a huge range of teaching staff over the last few months. And the feedback that we've received so far has been overwhelmingly positive.
We're in the early stages. So, we're in the process of evaluating some of the usage data that we have and some of the qualitative data we have from some of the semi-structured interviews that we've been doing with staff also. The main benefit of the DigiCentre is that we've been filling a gap that people want, that people need. There is huge demand for our roll out for people to know when it would be available. And we feel that we've provided something that, during the pandemic, people have really discovered quite acutely that they needed. So that would be the main benefit.
We use the Jisc discovery tool as a starting point for staff and students to evaluate their digital skills levels. So, they would be suggested that they – it would be suggested that they complete the discovery tool. The discovery tool then gives them a personalised report that is private to them. We don't get to see it. And it evaluates their current digital skills levels against the Jisc criteria.
This then allows them to consider what upskilling they might need, which areas of strength and which areas of weakness that they might have. From this, as an institution, we also have access to a dashboard within the Jisc website that provides us with data, anonymised data, so that we can use this to spot trends and to spot improvements, spot areas of need across the institution, to help us to tailor the support we provide better.
The Well-being for Future Generations Act recognises that digital skills are one of the areas in skills for the future that need to be concentrated on. It also recognises that digital poverty and digital exclusion in Wales is higher than it is in the rest – in the whole of the UK as an average. Therefore, for me, that's where the key issue is. You can't transform if you can't provide the access and the skills to the whole of your population or as much of it as you possibly can.
Also, whilst developing the DigiCentre, we try to make as much as possible freely available rather than behind a login screen. At some times, that's unavoidable. For example, where there are licensing restrictions that mean you can only provide access to resources to your own staff and students. But as far as possible, we try to make everything available.
We're also working on packaging up our services for the school transition, because as we see it, we have a role in the community to support the development of digital skills from childhood up to old age, throughout people's careers, not just at 18 when they start education or at whatever time they start education.
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Take some time to explore the DigiCentre. You may also wish to read the Jisc case study about this project: University of Wales Trinity St David, Building digital capability (jisc.ac.uk).
Consider how you might approach developing resources to raise digital capabilities in your own organisation.