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
Digital
Literacies
Employability
Students as Partners
 Extra-curricular activity linked to Professional
Practice module
 Opportunity to evidence soft skills:
• team work & communication skills
• time & task management
Students as Partners
“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
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 Xerte
programme 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 evidence
these 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