Welcome to week 2 of our #stircybersec campaign. This week we’re concentrating on Digital Skills. The fast pace of technological change and the change in digital technologies in all aspects of study, work and life places new demands on everyone. It’s important for students and staff to be able to learn and work in this constantly evolving digital world.
As defined by JISC* under the umbrella heading of digital identity and wellbeing, there are 5 categories of digital skills necessary in HE;
- ICT proficiency
- Digital creation, problem solving and innovation
- Digital communication, collaboration and participation
- Digital learning and development
- Information, data and media literacies
While you’re studying at University of Stirling, we have a huge range of services and resources to help you.
Monday’s theme – ICT proficiency
The University subscribes to Lynda.com which you can access from the portal. This is a great service that the University pays for and you can find many training videos in a huge range of topics (not just related to IT).
There are online training courses for Office 365, SPSS, Box, internet safety for students, digital citizenship and cyber-security awareness. There are also videos covering skills for learning and mindfulness, amongst the many, many courses.
Tuesday’s theme – Digital creation, problem-solving and innovation
To help solve problems, or find answers to questions you may have about the Library and IT services at the University, you can access UniDesk Self-Service from the portal. The Self-Service portal is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week. In the Self-Service portal, you can ask a Library or IT enquiry you can also search a huge database of FAQs and fill in forms to request different services.
We also have a Maker space where you can access 3D printers, 3D scanners and design your own models for printing.
Wednesday’s theme – Digital communication, collaboration and participation
Digital communication is incredibly important and there are a wide range of tools you will use during your time as a student or staff member. Amongst these are: use of email to contact students on your course, the ability to post appropriately and safely on Social Media; use of document sharing (at the University you can share documents using Box). Other collaboration tools include Skype, Facetime or WhatsApp. Canvas also has collaborative tools: conferencing; groups; discussions board and Campuspress blogging service for staff.
Thursday’s theme – Digital learning and development
Canvas is the Virtual Learning environment that Stirling uses. Your modules will be on your Canvas Dashboard (so long as you have completed enrolment). In Canvas you will find the following;
- Course/module handbook (all the information you will need about your course)
- Course materials
- Resource lists
- Listen again – recordings of your lectures
- Discussion boards
- Seminar, tutorial, lab and workshop signups
- Groups
- Conferencing
- Assignments
- Turnitin
Friday’s theme – Information, data and media literacies
Not all information and content found on the internet is reliable. You need to be able to use search engines and evaluate content (#NoFakeNews). For your studies at Stirling, you may want to use Library subject guides. The resources and content found via these sources are sourced and recommended by your Subject Librarians. If you are struggling to find resources for your studies you can email library@stir.ac.uk to make an appointment with one of our librarians. At Stirling you also have access to referencing tools (RefWorks) to help you with your academic writing. You also need to be able to store your data and be able to organise your information and content using filestore or cloud storage.
Fear not! If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by all of the above, we’ll be breaking it down into bite sized chunks of useful information throughout this week. Keep an eye on our social media channels for more. Twitter @isstirling, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/stirlinglibrary