Digital and online learning skills needed for college success

Submitted by David Rosen on Thu, 11/14/2019 - 17:09
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  • 4 Comments

Hello LINCS colleagues,

I have three questions about the digital and online learning skills adults need to be successful in college distance and blended learning courses. Let's assume that an adult learner already has the kinds of basic digital skills addressed by the Northstar Digital Literacy Assessment or other basic digital literacy skills assessments. What other digital skills do adult learners need if they are to be successful in community college or in four-year post-secondary education?

1) Do they need comfort, competence and confidence in the digital skills needed to successfully?

  • manage a course in an online course management system?
  • manage learning content in a new learning management system?
  • protect their privacy online?
  • communicate clearly, completely, plainly, grammatically and considerately in online discussion forums?
  • manage their time in an online course?

If so, which of these are especially important?

2) Are there other skills attitudes, dispositions, and kinds of knowledge they need -- again, beyond basic digital literacy skills?

3) Can you recommend a good assessment of the digital skills needed to succeed in post-secondary education, perhaps one used by a community college, community college system, four-year college, or post-secondary board, association or network?

I would greatly appreciate hearing from you here in this discussion or, if you prefer, by email.

David J. Rosen, Moderator

LINCS CoP Integrating Technology and Program Management groups

djrosen123@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

Comments

Hello Colleagues interested in digital literacy and post-secondary success,

Here are list of topics and a list of learning objectives from a course to prepare students for "digital citizenship". Are any of these needed for college-level digital literacy skills?

Topics

  1. copyrights, fair use, public domain
  2. cyberbullying
  3. digital commerce
  4. digital communications
  5. digital footprint, digital privacy
  6. digital rights and responsibilities
  7. digital search/research
  8. image—how to use them legally
  9. internet safety
  10. netiquette
  11. passwords
  12. plagiarism
  13. social media

Learning Objectives:

  1. Know how to blend digital citizenship into lesson plans that require the Internet
  2. Be comfortable in your knowledge of all facets of digital citizenship
  3. Become an advocate of safe, legal, and responsible use of online resources
  4. Exhibit a positive attitude toward technology that supports learning
  5. Exhibit leadership in teaching and living as a digital citizen

David J. Rosen, Moderator,

LINCS CoP Integrating Technology and Program Management groups

At the top of my list for digital literacy is "Determine the credibility of information online, including checking the author and source of media and checking information received over social media." This is related items on your list - #7 digital search/research and #13 social media. Part of the problem in teaching these skills is that even generally well informed adults have not learned the skills needed to check information online. We all need to become more informed. There was a discussion on LINCS recently about the importance of media literacy, which I found very helpful. Charles MacArthur

 

 

 

Thanks Charles,

Are there particular strategies, approaches or curricula you use to teach learners how to judge the credibility of information online, in addition to "checking the author and source of media and checking information received over social media"?  Are there particular digital skills for judging the credibility of information online that you believe adult learners need so they can succeed in college? Do you know of good assessments of these skills that adult basic skills education teachers might use?

David J. Rosen, Moderator

LINCS CoP Integrating Technology and Program Management groups

 

David and Colleagues,

In a virtual professional learning setting, I believe the challenge is for the developer to hook, motivate, and offer quality information to the learner for solving problems. In turn, the virtual coach or peers confirm the effective use of the digital platform by the learner and the performance level of solutions offered during problem-based virtual learning. In this way, learners acquire new digital learning skills, content, and solutions and increase their digital skillset from experiences with different online platforms. This blog post goes deeper into how we need to develop habits of mind for quality virtual learning.

Nick