3.1 Digital skills for study
Watch this video to hear from other students about how they’ve found working online and what digital skills they use.
Download this video clip.Video player: bous_1_digital_skills_for_study.mp4
Transcript
STUDENT
I've enjoyed studying online. I'm quite competent and confident using the computer, and I do find that I spend a fair amount of time looking online for different resources via the Open University website, looking in the library for any information, any documents that are worth looking at and can be incorporated into studying. So on the whole, yeah, I've enjoyed looking at resources and accessing information online. It's part of what I do anyway for work, so it is good fun.
STUDENT
I don't really use any fancy technology or techniques to help me manage my study. I just have a to-do list app, and every few weeks, I will look ahead at my study planner and see what my deadlines are, what needs doing when, and put it into my to-do list app with reminders. That means that TMAs are never a surprise and if I need to do something for a particular tutorial, I'll have done it in time. That is the most important thing, keeping up with your study planner.
STUDENT
Use your study calendar, and then you can sort of link in to what you need to be reading at that point. Get to know that calendar really well. It's your best friend. It will point you to everything you need to know. I can't emphasise enough how useful that calendar is.
Yeah, just get to know where all your materials are. because a lot of them now are kind of in places on the website. Rather than having the books and the CDs and DVDs that you used to get, a lot of that content now is just online. Which is really helpful, because like I say, if you're out and about, you can just access it anywhere.
I also love the OU Anywhere app. It means that I don't have to drag a pile of books around with me. I can just use my phone or I could use my iPad. Or if I've got my laptop, I can use my laptop. Again, that's where headphones comes in really handy, because a lot of the materials now are online. And if you need to watch a video or listen to some audio, if you're in the middle of a busy cafe, you can't do that without all this noise around you, which makes it really difficult. So a good set of headphones.
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Activity 2 Assessing your digital skills
Timing: Allow about 10 minutes
It’s useful at this point to think about what your digital skills are like currently.
Answer the following questions honestly to get a good idea of where you might need to develop your skills.
Consider each of the following statements in turn - how confident are you with each one? Add a number between 1 and 5, 1 being ‘Not confident at all’, 3 being ‘I can manage’ and 5 being ‘Totally confident, I do this regularly’.
| Statement | Your answer (1–5) |
|---|---|
| I know who can see what I put online. I know how public or private the things I share on social media are, and I’m aware of my ‘digital footprint’. | |
| I can search for and find information online quickly and easily. | |
| I can judge whether the information I’ve found is trustworthy and relevant. | |
| I am comfortable using information presented in all sorts of different digital formats e.g. videos, podcasts etc. | |
| I know how to communicate respectfully online (e.g. when adding comments to social media posts or talking to others online). |
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Discussion
Do any of these skills surprise you? Digital skills cover much more than knowing how to use the different applications on your computer.
The next section will point you to some resources to help develop these skills.