Abstract:

Students inhabit a world of digital expression, collaboration and exchange as they learn. They now also expect University curricula to allow for and nurture these online modes of interaction as part of their academic and personal development.
However, we know from practice and pedagogical research that there is nearly always a striking gap between students' ‘digital participation’ on the one hand, and ‘scholarly and professional digital practice’ on the other. How do we allow students to bridge that gap as they enter into and progress through the curriculum?

This paper will explore the way the University of Leeds has been designing a ground-breaking curriculum to heighten student skills of digital literacy, awareness and critique. It will look at the way the institution has fully embedded principles of academic digital literacy formulated by JISC, one of Europe's leading advisory and pedagogic bodies relating to digital scholarship and creativity (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/developing-students-digital-literacy), and ask how other HEIs can follow suit in the most effective way.

As part of its 'Digital Strategy for Student Education' the University has built a compulsory online module "Studying in a Digital Age" to be taken by all incoming students, and a suite of higher level modules that allow students to explore digital platforms for research, develop their online presence and critique the landscape of digital scholarship (https://leedsforlife.leeds.ac.uk/Broadening/Theme/10/SubTheme/60).

Representing the first University in the UK to develop such a pathway of digital literacy modules, Dr Hallett will explain the urgent need for such bold curriculum design, showcase the new curriculum design, and also present an honest appraisal of the challenges of designing online and face-to-face guidance on digital literacy for up to 35,000 students.

Keywords:

Digital Literacy, Digital Strategy, Curriculum Design, online learning, online research, digital behaviour, digital learning.