Help yourself guides

This short online course is a great place to start with getting up to speed with the key digital skills you need to help you in your studies. While the course doesn’t focus on teaching practical digital skills, it provides valuable tips from a variety of sources, including university support for students, as well as helpful resources and videos.
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Each unit focuses on a particular topic:

1. General Technologies
   Working with files, Microsoft Office applications, browsers and search engines
2. Learning Technologies
   Online learning environments, forums, assignments/assessments and video
3. Access, Sharing and Safety
   Accounts/access, safety, social media and sharing
4. Getting Organised
   Notetaking, referencing and digital wellbeing

You can self enrol onto the Digital Skills Awareness course which is available in Blackboard. There are two steps to this:

Step 1:  Enrol on the course.

Step 2:  Access the course material or find it in your course list in Blackboard once you are enrolled.

This site has free courses to help you learn new skills.  Although aimed at employment, rather than just education, it includes courses on general skills and more specialised skills. Courses are offered by a range of organisations including the Open University, FutureLearn and Microsoft.

Of particular interest will be the courses on Computer Essentials and Practical Maths.

• Explore the Skills Toolkit

As a Staffordshire University student you to have the opportunity to leave us equipped with a wide range of digital skills which will make you more employable and stand out in a crowded job market.  Certification available includes the Microsoft Office Specialist I(MOS) which is suitable for all students and which will give you the skills needed to fully use Office 365 applications.  There are also more specialised courses covering the Adobe Certified Professional and Microsoft Technical Certification.

Access the training and certification site - you will need your user ID and password to access this.