EXPLORING YOUR DIGITAL IDENTITY
“The Digital Competence Framework 2.0 (DigiComp 2.0) was a constant point of reference for the UCD EDTL Team”
What problems were being addressed?
- The gaps in students’ awareness and management of their digital identity
- An awareness of the necessary standards of behaviour expected in an online
- The gap in understanding of digital wellbeing and the balance between time online and time away from screens
Who was involved?
The UCD EDTL Team consisted of Professor Jason Last, Dean of Students, the Senior Project Manager, Marian O’Connor, the Project Lead and Digital Learning Librarian, Marta Bustillo, their colleagues, Educational Technologists, Mairead O’Reilly and Cesar Scrochi, and the UCD EDTL Student Intern, Eimer Magee. They worked with the UCD Library.
Why did you choose to address the challenges this way?
- The UCD Library and the Digital Learning Librarian had the necessary skills and knowledge to develop the content for this module
- Students would be able to complete the module in their own time
- An engaging online module would facilitate interaction and self-reflection and allow for learning components to be re-used in a variety of contexts
How were the goals achieved?
The goal was to enhance the students’ digital skills, while also providing staff with a comprehensive resource they could direct their students to. The UCD EDTL Project Lead, Marta Bustillo, consulted with staff and students to identify needs and formulate a solution.
The Digital Competence Framework 2.0 (DigiComp 2.0) was a constant point of reference for the UCD EDTL Team, who wanted to ensure the knowledge provided would benefit the students beyond academia. They also wanted to clarify the value and grade of each category and segment, so students and academics could navigate the resource by distinguishing the information that was specific to their needs and level of comprehension.The Digital Learning Librarian developed UCD Library’s Digital Literacy Framework, which focuses on five key sets of competencies:
| Understanding Digital Identities & Practices |
|
| Think Critically & Evaluate Digital Information & Data |
|
| Find & Use Digital Information & Data |
|
| Create & Communicate Digital Information |
|
| Collaborate & Share in Digital Spaces |
|
Ensuring the resource was accessible to students, with or without logging into the VLE, was another dominant factor for the UCD EDTL Team. This meant the project needed two digital strands: public facing and embedded in the VLE.
The public facing project was hosted on the UCD Library website. It was created from a website template that was available to the library through LibGuides. The UCD Library Outreach Team designed the layout and the graphics.
UCD EDTL Intern, Eimer Magee, brought the student voice to the forefront by emphasizing the students’ needs and ensuring the language used was relevant and relatable throughout the entire project. It was also important to continually test and improve the project model, so the UCD EDTL Student Intern consistently reviewed the progress made – edited any areas of confusion and questioned any graphics that were unclear.
Within the VLE, Exploring Your Digital Identity was divided into three units:
| Monitoring Online Identity |
| Keeping Track of Academic Identity |
| Digital Wellbeing Identity |
The team encountered some challenges, especially in embedding the learning components for the pilot module in the VLE, but through teamwork the issues were resolved and the module went live. The library and the College Liaison Librarians, who were assigned to each of the UCD schools, promoted the project – but it was not long before the UCD EDTL Project Lead realised the importance of academic support to foster student engagement. The students trusted their lecturers and saw the benefit in following up on their recommendation of trying the pilot module.
Interesting Discovery:
The Exploring Your Digital Identity pilot module benefitted from insights from the EDTL team, UCD academics, librarians in several Irish universities and members of the European Network of Open Education Librarians, ENOEL. The opportunity to discuss international approaches to supporting the development of digital competencies ensured that the project had an informed perspective on the design and delivery of open educational resources for digital literacy at UCD.