Abstract
Student-staff partnerships can be used to support the development of contextualised digital learning and teaching practices. This can be done by shifting the focus from IT skills to addressing a priority in learning and teaching using a digital approach that is appropriate for that discipline. The development of a formal ‘Digital Innovation Partnership’ (DIP) scheme at the University of Leicester brings students’ digital confidence, perspectives and motivation to enhance learning and teaching. It also recognises the valuable contribution and expertise of student and staff participants. This draws on the academic literacies work of Lea and Street (1998; 2006) and digital literacies work of Sharpe and Beetham (2010) to appreciate that staff and students are developing social practices that are situated within a discipline and intertwined with social, cultural and political factors, power and identity.The reasons for the success of the scheme are explored here, with recommendations for how the model can be applied more generally to educational design to support students’ academic literacies development.
Highlights
The development of digital literacy is widely perceived to be important for citizenship and in higher education in the UK, JISC are at the forefront of considering Digital Capabilities
In order to support staff in raising their digital practice and develop innovative digital approaches to learning and teaching, the Digital Strategy has developed in collaboration with the Leicester Learning Institute a new project, the Digital Innovation Partnership
We propose that student-staff partnerships are one effective approach towards achieving this
Summary
The development of digital literacy is widely perceived to be important for citizenship (for example, the extensive work of the European Union DigComp 2.0 https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/digcomp) and in higher education in the UK, JISC are at the forefront of considering Digital Capabilities (https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/buildingdigital-capability). The strategy provides a framework for the institution (in all its facets) to raise its digital profile and a number of initiatives have already been deployed in this respect. In order to support staff in raising their digital practice and develop innovative digital approaches to learning and teaching, the Digital Strategy has developed in collaboration with the Leicester Learning Institute a new project, the Digital Innovation Partnership (abbreviated to DIP). DIP is designed to support students and staff in collaborating to improve the learning and teaching experience by jointly identifying elements within the curriculum which could benefit from incorporating new or existing digital technologies. DIP is unique within the University of Leicester because it provides a formal platform and mechanism for students to share their perspectives and work with staff as partners to implement and deliver jointly developed projects
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