What are digital skills?
Digital skills are the skills needed to participate in and contribute to the digital world. To live, learn and work in a digital society, organisations, leaders, staff and students need to develop their digital skills so that they can engage and thrive in a digital world. Developing these digital skills will enable people to find, evaluate, create, share, learn, and network digitally.
If staff and students are skilled in a broad range of areas then they will be well-equipped for the opportunities and challenges of a rapidly and ever-evolving digital world. In the future, it is predicted that current technologies will be replaced by their newer, more advanced counterparts at an accelerated rate. Thus, having a good digital skillset is becoming ever more advantageous.
The Jisc Framework
There are a number of frameworks that outline fundamental digital skills. At the University of Bath, we recommend following the Jisc digital capability framework. This allows staff to evaluate their digital skills, outlining what that can already do whilst also highlighting areas for development. The Jisc framework categorises digital skills into six key components:
- ICT Proficiency
- Information, data and media literacies
- Digital creation, problem solving and innovation
- Digital communication, collaboration and participation
- Digital learning and development
- Digital identity and wellbeing
These are then further broken down into individual proficiencies. Please see the document Building digital capabilities: The six elements defined for further details.
We encourage all staff at University of Bath to reflect on their digital skills by using the discovery tool. Staff can use the discovery tool to reflect on their digital skills and receive a personalised report to identify both strengths and areas for development.
