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Digital skills: succeeding in a digital world
Digital skills: succeeding in a digital world

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Week 2: Getting up and running

Introduction

The importance of digital skills is now recognised at a national level by the House of Lords who held a Select Committee on digital skills in 2015. They stated:

We must aspire for the vast majority of the population to achieve the level of digital literacy needed to fully participate in society.

(House of Lords Select Committee on Digital Skills, 2015)

How can you build the skills needed to succeed in a digital world?

During Week 1 you had an opportunity to think about how you use the internet and social media. You made a note of a few of the online tools and apps you use.

This week you will be finding out about the skills you need to be effective in a digital world. Over the course of the week, you will find out how to improve what you do online and the way you do it, from finding information to communicating and collaborating with other people.

You will be given an opportunity to assess how confident you are in a range of skills. You will also be introduced to resources designed to help you develop your skills, which you can add to your Digital plan.

In this video Katharine and Wendy, from Open University Library Services, talk about ways in which people interact with their digital environments.

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Video 1: Introduction to Week 2
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By the end of this week, you will be able to:

  • describe what digital literacy means
  • understand how digital literacy can support distance and online study, for example, at The Open University
  • identify which skills you need to develop to be an effective online learner.