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School for Cross-faculty Studies

Certificate of Digital Literacy

 
Certificate leader:

Dr Jane Webb
Optional Certificate
Term 1
5 weeks
Starting Week 2
5 workshops (weeks 2,4,6,8,10)
Workshops: 5 hours
Additional work: 5 hours (optional)
Available to first-year undergraduate students in the School for Cross-faculty Studies

This Certificate counts towards the Warwick Award. For registration on that Award. Sign up for that here.
Not available to students outside the School for Cross-faculty Studies

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The Certificate of Digital Literacy is a Warwick Award-accredited activity. Undertaking this Certificate will contribute five points towards the Warwick Award.

The Warwick Award is free for all undergraduates and taught postgraduates. For undergraduates, the Award will appear on your Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) transcript, while taught postgraduate students who complete the Award will be issued with a digital certificate by the Skills Team.

Principal Aims

A recent JISC study has revealed that “as 90% of new jobs will require excellent digital skills, improving digital literacy is an essential component of developing employable graduates.” These necessary skills include everything from an awareness of different digital media platforms, the ability to manage a professional online identity, and the capacity to effectively utilise online tools for learning. Yet these skills are rarely recognised in undergraduate curricula. This 10-week certificate has been conceived specifically for the degree courses in Global Sustainable Development and Liberal Arts and aims to rectify that deficit by helping you to think through the capabilities you need to live, learn and work in an increasingly digital society.

Principal Learning Outcomes

Upon completing this certificate, you will have acquired the necessary skills that allow you to:

  • interpret the information you find online in a way that takes into account the cultural, political, historical and other backgrounds of the author/site/organisation;
  • identify the rights associated with material found digitally, and understand the best practice in terms of attribution and reuse of this material;
  • describe the issues around cyber security and protecting yourself in the digital world; and
  • describe the philosophy and etiquette of “the digital age”.

Employability Skills

Through this certificate, you will develop a number of different skills that are sought by employers which will support your professional development. We have highlighted this to enable you to identify and reflect on the skills you have acquired and apply them throughout your professional journey including during the recruitment processes whether this on an CV/application form or at an interview.

  • Collaboration: An ability to work collaboratively with others through forming and developing a group project, with strong interpersonal and team-related skills centred on the ability to source, evaluate, share and utilise content using information technologies.
  • Citizenship: The ability to consider issues and solve complex problems based on a deep understanding of diverse values and a worldview, particularly related to e-safety such as social media platforms.
  • Communication: being able to communicate effectively through a broad range of methods and tools, to a range of different audiences key to which is producing and presenting a post.
  • Online Professional Management: the capacity to create, manage and effectively market your online social media presence professionally and securely through platforms such as LinkedIn.
  • Information technologies and online tools - an ability to identify the appropriate IT package or tool for a given task and to use the internet effectively, responsibly, and securely. This includes critically analysing the strengths and limitations of online marketing platforms including social media.

 

Syllabus

Term 1

The certificate is taught in ten one hour workshops, which should be supplemented by independent study. In the workshops you learn about:

  • Online Identity (including social media, personal and professional profiles);
  • Copyright and the Reuse of Digital Information (including rights identification, attribution, etc.);
  • Digital Etiquette (cultural and personal good practice);
  • Digital Forms of Media (e.g. news, blogs, networks, feeds); and
  • Academic Technologies for Research and Collaboration.

Assessment