An OER to develop digital literacies for employability

An Open Educational Resource to develop

Digital Literacy Skills for Employability in the

Life and Health Sciences through a

Staff-Student Partnership

Kay Hack, David Skerrett-Byrne and Shane Kilduff

An Open Educational Resource to develop

Digital Literacy Skills for Employability in the

Life and Health Sciences through a

Staff-Student Partnership

Kay Hack, David Skerret-Byrne and Shane Kilduff

Digital Literacies?

“those capabilities which fit an individual for living, learning and working in a digital society.”

HEA Digital Literacies in the Disciplines

A series of mini-projects that aim to encourage the development of digital literacies among staff and students in their disciplines.

The School of Biomedical Sciences at Ulster is one of nine mini-projects funded through this project

Other projects in Psychology, Modern Languages, History, the Arts and Teacher Training

Developing Open Educational Resources

Project Aims

To develop a re-usable open educational resource (OER) which will support students in preparing for careers in the health or life science sectors

Embed tasks within the OER that prompt evaluation and development of personal digital literacy.

Develop the OER in partnership with students

Xerte: provides a tool kit for

the production of interactive eLearning materials

simple wizards used to compile content, create quizzes, provide links…..

repository for sharing, reusing, and adapting content

Students as Partners

Extra-curricular activity linked to Professional Practice module

Opportunity to evidence soft skills:

• team work & communication skills

• time & task management

“I got involved in this project is because as a recent

graduate I understand the confusion and frustration of

deciding what to do next and how to get there, and felt

my experience could help direct this project.”David Skerrett-Byrne, MSc Biotechnology

“I felt it was an important subject of study to aid students

in their career progression. Furthermore, the project has

helped to develop my own communication and teamwork

skills which will benefit me in my future career”Shane Kilduff, MSc Biotechnology

Students as Partners

Professional Practice Module:

Identifying & evidencing DL skills

Evaluating & developing Digital Identity

Developing job application & interview skills

Classroom Activity:

Identify key words used in job advertisements

Think about what they mean

Rank them in terms of their importance.

Identify and articulate the required evidence

Interactive/Online Based:

Assign what DL skills they think evidence the skills required for the position

Helps articulate skills & experience to future employers

Career Paths for Life & Health Science Graduates

Life & Health Science

Industry - QC / QA

Postgraduate Studies

Post Doc

Academia

Life & Health Science Related

Regulatory Affairs

Sales & Marketing

Scientific Writing

Engineering

Bioinformatics

Transferable Skills:

I.T.

Accounting

Banking & Finance

Human Resources

Interactive Tools: ‘Drag and Drop’ Exercise

Aims of exercises

“Taking this information, we were able to use the Xerteprogramme to create various exercises to enable other students to:

Identify the different career paths available to them

Identify the essential requirements for the position

Think about the digital literacy skills that evidencethese requirements”

Evaluation

2nd year students from Biomedical Sciences

Students from Faculty of Life and Health Sciences enrolled on extra-curricular Employability Award

Repurpose for other disciplines

Feedback and Engagement

eMail: cj.hack@ulster.ac.uk

Blog: http://catherinehack.wordpress.com/

Website: http://teachingcommunity.ulster.ac.uk/

Twitter: hack_kay

HEA Annual Conference: Poster 135