Transforming Exams

Sister site: Exploring authentic tasks in invigilated on-campus high stakes computerised assessment.

Transforming Exams

1 August 2018: Unlocking the code to digital literacy - implications for learning and assessment

Associate Professor Jo Coldwell-Neilson (Deakin University, Australia)

Digital literacy was originally conceptualized as 'the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when it is presented via computers' (Glister, 1997). Gilster’s definition is one that is commonly used, in some form, in higher education in Australia today. Is this still relevant 20 years on? Digital technologies have changed dramatically in that time. Does an understanding of digital literacy that focuses on information meet the learning needs of our students, or of employers' expectations of our graduates? In this session Jo presented an updated understanding of digital literacy that encapsulates the broader, ubiquitous nature of digital technologies, together with the elements that underpin the understanding. This provides a framework to scaffold and contextualise digital literacy learning through the curriculum and inform assessment practices to ensure our graduates are prepared for a digitally enhanced workplace.

Ref: Gilster, P. (1997): Digital literacy, Wiley Computer Pub.

Work was carried out as part of the Australian Government Office of Learning and Teaching National fellowship "Unlocking the code to digital literacy".

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