2. Project DigitISE:
Digital Information Skills
for Employability
Federica Oradini (Senior Lecturer in e-learning) &
Emma Woods (Academic Liaison Librarian)
University of Westminster, London

3. This session will provide:
• An introduction to the project
• A report on questionnaire & focus group
findings
• An overview of our one day student
conference, “Get the Digital Edge”
• Information on our legacy plans

4. University of Westminster
Typing class at the Regent Street Polytechnic:
Photograph taken from an album of 1899 http://flic.kr/p/8Cx18H
• Vision - “building the next generation of highly
employable global citizens to shape the future”
• 19,800 students across 4 sites
• Diverse student body

5. The project
• JISC Transformations Programme
• One year project (Spring 2012 –
2013) exploring the links between
students’ attitudes towards digital
literacy and employability
• Project Board and delivery group
include staff from across the DigitISE Delivery Group
www.photovisi.com
University

6. Questionnaire - introduction
• Distributed online in Autumn
2012
• Approx 400 respondents in
first round
• Some schools (more science
based ones) under- PG Diploma Office Technology and Business
Administration - using a word processor package
represented so opened Students from the Polytechnic of Central
London, 1989
http://flic.kr/p/d1fQ25
again.
• Total responses = 563

7. Questionnaire – key findings
81.5% 87.6%
believe they are love digital
digitally literate technology
56%
agreed that most
students like to
92.3% engage with
consider it learning material
important for while travelling
1.6%
students to use their
develop digital smartphone
skills for study

8. Focus Groups
February 2013 - 3 focus groups were held to follow up on
questionnaire findings:
• DL skills - whose responsibility?
• Awareness of current provision
• DL skills assessment
• Method of delivery

9. Get the Digital Edge – 21 March 2013

11. Beyond May 2013: DigitISE legacy
• Draft strategy
• WIReS (Change Academy proposal for
embedding information skills into the curriculum)
• Learning futures @ Westminster

12. Questions?
School of commerce
Students from the Regent Street Polytechnic
http://flic.kr/p/cRDf2q .
Emma Woods (Academic Liaison Librarian)
e.woods@westminster.ac.uk
Federica Oradini (Senior Lecturer in e-learning)
f.oradini@westminster.ac.uk
DigitISE project site: http://blog.westminster.ac.uk/jisc-employability/blog/
Digital Edge web page: www.westminster.ac.uk/digital-edge
With thanks to the University of Westminster Archive Services for the photos
http://www.westminster.ac.uk/about-us/facilities-and-services/archive-services