Notes and presentations from the 3rd Digital capabilities community of practice event – 22 May 2018

The University of Leicester provided a great setting for our third community of practice meeting. With eighty five delegates participating in person and many more joining in online (using the hashtag #digitalcapability) this was one of our most vibrant and productive meetings to date.

This is a brief summary of the event. All links to slides, recordings and other outputs from these sessions are available from the Jisc event page.

Dr Ross Parry, Associate Professor and Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor (digital) at the University of Leicester set the scene for the day with his opening keynote Digital capabilities as a strategic priority. He talked about the importance of creating a shared vision and gave a number of insights gained from his experience of developing and implementing the University’s digital strategy. He said “You can have all the tech in the world, but it’ll make little difference if you don’t also have a community with the confidence and fluency to use it in creative and exciting ways”. (Watch a recording of Dr Ross Parry’s keynote )

The three parallel community led sessions focussed on practical engagement strategies to engage students, senior leaders and human resource teams. This was an opportunity for participants to share their experiences, discuss with colleagues and identify opportunities for collaboration.

Students – Facilitated by Frances Deepwell, Director of Leicester Learning Institute, University of Leicester and Natalie Norton, Head of Technology enhanced learning and digital literacies, University of Winchester. (Padlet notes on practical strategies to engage students)

Senior Leaders – Facilitated by Dr Ross Parry, Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor (digital), University of Leicester and Dr Leigh Casey, Associate Director Organisational Development, University of Leicester

Human resource teams – Facilitated by Sarah Knight, Head of change – student experience, Jisc (Padlet notes on practical strategies to engage human resource teams)

These were followed by the first set of four pecha kucha sessions:

1. Future facing learning – Paul Durston, Teesside University
2. Digital Leadership for Students: Development of an online resource – Vikki McGarvey, Learning and information services manager, Staffordshire University Library
3. Can student-staff partnerships support the development of digital teaching and learning practices? – Alex Patel and Bethany Cox, University of Leicester
4. Digital Leaders – Integrating digital in York’s leadership programmes – Susan Halfpenny, Teaching and Learning Manager, University of York; Michelle Blake, head of relationship management, University of York

(Watch recordings of the first set of pecha kucha presentations )

The second keynote, How iDEA is developing digital citizens was delivered by Kerensa Jennings from the Duke of York Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award (iDEA). Kerensa gave an overview of this international programme which aims to help address the digital skills gap. She explained that all iDEA resources are free to use and are being increasingly taken up by UK FE colleges and other learning providers.

(Watch a recording of Kerensa Jennings’ keynote)

Sarah Knight and Heather Price then gave a brief update from the Jisc digital capability team  and we were able to discuss specific aspects in four parallel sessions:

• Digital Discovery tool surgery – Heather Price, Jisc
• How can we support students with the development of their digital capabilities using the Jisc discovery tool for learners? Helen Beetham and Sarah Knight, Jisc
• Mapping of Microsoft resources to the digital capability framework – Shri Footring (Jisc), Nevin Moledina (University of Leicester) and Clare Riley (Microsoft)
• Building digital capability service site – Clare Killen and Alicja Shah, Jisc

The event closed with the second set of four pecha kucha sessions:

1. Practising Digitally @ NTU – Elaine Swift, Digital practice manager, Nottingham Trent University
2. MedEd meet real world world – building capability in HE and NHS workplaces – Cath Fenn, Senior academic technologist, University of Warwick
3. To infinity and beyond: achieving the University’s ambitions through digital capability – Mike Quarrell, Worksforce development co-ordinator and Alison Small, Head of registry services and change, University of Derby
4. Can you escape the digital challenge? – A Pecha Kucha in rhyme about our Digital Escape Room event – Mark Hall, digital learning developer, Bishops Grosseteste University

(Watch recordings of the second set of pecha kucha presentations)

Overall, I was struck by the sense of energy throughout the day. This was evident in the keynotes, presentations and workshops as well as the depth of questions and conversations throughout the day. Delegates mentioned that they found the keynotes, presentations, and the opportunities to network and share ideas particularly valuable.

This is a community led event and we are really keen to work in partnership to run the next one, due to be held in November 2018. Please get in touch with us in the team if you might be interested in hosting the next event.