Stage 2: design and construct

Indicative responsibilities and actions involving senior managers, heads of school, heads of department, programme managers, directors and service leaders might include:

• Promoting the concept of digital professionalism to your team members and students encouraging an exploration of what this means to different audiences
• Reviewing data from organisational surveys that capture information relevant to digital capabilities, for example our digital experience insights service, or conducting your own survey if data is not available for this specific focus
• Leading and engaging your teams - communicating and conveying the importance and relevance to curriculum or target audience, providing clear direction but encouraging development of own approaches
• Initiating team digital capability profiling including profiling different roles within teams - senior managers could perhaps lead by example by sharing their profile with staff - perhaps having reflected on their experience of using the discovery tool
• Considering using the digital capability discovery tool which offers individual feedback as well as data dashboards for organisational leads
• Identifying desired student digital capabilities and graduate attributes appropriate for subject or specialist areas - exploring our learner profile is a good place to start
• Liaising with other stakeholders including students and staff, professional and curriculum teams, support services
• Aligning digital capability ambitions with other departmental or service team priorities, organisational strategies, targets and key performance indicators
• Reviewing the existing support offer for all members considering local and cross-organisational support mechanisms (for example HR, library and information services, technical teams, student services, NUS, student experience teams, special interest groups, communities of practice and networks
• Embedding opportunities to develop, recognise, reward and accredit digital capabilities in HR, personal development and student award processes, ensuring adequate funding and time has been allocated for staff and student engagement
• Establishing mechanisms for sharing, networking and collaboration - internally and externally including with specialist organisations
• Embedding digital capabilities in curriculum review processes

Tools and resources to help you in stage two include:

• Senior leaders briefing paper: delivering digital change: strategy, practice and process
• Developing digital capability: an organisational framework (pdf)
• Action-focused poster: strategic steps towards organisational digital capability (pdf)
• Appropriate section(s) of the audit tool for organisational digital capability (Word) or the shorter checklist for organisational digital capability (Word)
• Discovery tool
• Resources and guidance for HR teams to embed and support digital capabilities in HR processes
• Jisc NUS roadmap for supporting students to improve their digital experience at university and college (pdf) (useful for student-facing viewpoint)
• Feedback from National Student Survey (NSS) and student satisfaction reports
• Our digital experience insights service and reports on findings (students and staff)
• Analysis of relevant data from other sources
• Profiles for digital capability as appropriate for team roles - leader (pdf), teacher (HE) (pdf), teacher (FE and skills) (pdf), researcher (pdf), research manager/research professional in higher education, learning technology mapping (pdf), library and information professional (pdf), learner (pdf), professional services staff in education (pdf).
• Digital leaders programme to support personal development
• Our training programmes - including designing for digital capabilities in the curriculum

Likely outcomes, outputs and enablers that will arise from stage two activities include:

• An understanding of digital professionalism in relation to your own professions, subjects and practices
• The establishment of team, service or programme priorities
• Clarity over the range of support options available to community members spanning basic to specialist needs - aim for a continuum from fully-supported to self-serviced
• A tailored implementation plan that includes resource considerations
• Digital capabilities are embedded in curricula activities
• A range of recognition or reward opportunities have been identified and promoted to staff and students
• The digital ambitions of teams and staff are addressed through professional development review (PDR) processes and wider departmental plans with links to associated professional development frameworks