(1907) DIGITAL ME - INTERNATIONAL STUDENT AND STAFF PERCEPTIONS OF AND CHALLENGES TO THE NOTION OF DIGITAL LITERACY, PART OF THE 'IN-STEP' PROJECT - INTERNATIONAL STUDENT AND EDUCATION PARTNERSHIPS

摘要

This case study is based on an externally funded project at a University in the UK. The specificinstitutional problem addressed is the transition and orientation of international students into a blendedlearning environment. The project title 'In-STEP' - International Student and Education Partnershipsconveys a fundamental aim of developing mutual understanding and synchronicity between thestudents, staff and collaborative partnerships. There are 3 different contexts for this study the firstbeing a one-year International Foundation Year (IFY) delivered in the UK, secondly teaching inTransnational Education (TNE) settings and finally working with students as creative partners in theirlearning.Evidence from international student focus groups and interviews, indicates that students initiallystruggle not only with adapting to a new country, but also to unfamiliar pedagogies. This can becompounded by late arrival and missing induction programmes. Our findings are supported by theHigher Education Academy's (HEA) Teaching International Students Project. However, this researchalso indicates that international students, when comfortable in a digital environment, find the use oftechnology valuable as they can, for example, use online materials at their own pace, respond onlinein a 'safe' environment and engage in learning anywhere and at any time.As this project has developed students and staff identified issues that include challenging the notion ofdigital literacy, moving to digital fluency, students bringing their own devices (BYOD), (particularlyrelevant in TNE settings), digital identity and footprint, netiquette, information authenticity and reliabilityand information use.One of our major sites of enquiry is an existing collaboration between the University and a localtertiary college. We developed a four year integrated undergraduate 'package' which starts with anInternational Foundation Year (IFY), part-generic and part-subject specific followed by a three yearundergraduate degree course. In the IFY course team, the course leader and curriculum contentdesigners were initially from the University, but the modules were taught by the tertiary college.Included in the course is the module “Learning in a digital environment” which aims to help studentsdevelop their digital literacy skills. The module concentrates on four main digital capabilities:1. Learning skills and life planning2. ICT/computer literacy3. Information literacy4. Communication and collaborationThe curriculum is designed around a task orientated approach that brings together variouscomponents without setting a content syllabus. The content is driven by the students' needs andcapabilities. Students were encouraged to feedback on the tasks and suggest changes that fed intothe course design. From this course students identified with staff their main areas of concern, thesewere made into a design brief for a student focused awareness raising initiative. An internationalstudent studying photography was then commissioned to produce 5 photo essays on digital identity,cyber bullying, netiquette, information authenticity and reliability and BYOD. The images and videoclips explaining how and why the images came about and what they represent are available throughposters linked to web sites, accessible by QR codes. These resources will be shared in thispresentation and will be available for delegates to access after the conference.