Academic Skills Team: A guide for staff

All students are expected to use a range of IT packages including Outlook for email, Word for assignments, web browsers, and possibly Excel and PowerPoint. They also need to be aware of good practice in saving and backing up work and printing to avoid problems at key times such as assignment deadlines.  The Library can provide support for this. 

If your students need to develop specific digital skills we may be able to offer training sessions within their module, or as an optional extra. We have offered training in PowerPoint for both presentations and to create posters; Excel for presenting and analysing data, and Microsoft Word to create long documents/dissertations, introducing students to more advanced features in Word.  Other areas where we have provided support and training include Qualtrics, our online survey tool, understanding and developing your digital profile, understanding copyright, and effective searching (including finding free images). 

To discuss options contact Julie Adams, Library Digital Developer. Students can also book a 1-to-1 appointment with Julie by visiting her appointments page

The Digital Skills Awareness course is for students that are about to start university or those in need of a bit more confidence, and provides guidance on the foundation-level digital skills they will need for a successful learning experience at university. 

About the course

The Digital Skills Awareness online course was developed for higher education institutions by The Bloomsbury Learning Exchange (BLE), the digital education partnership for the Bloomsbury institutions and the University of London, and has been tailored for local use by Staffordshire University Library staff.

The course outlines the key digital skills students need for their studies, and helps them identify the skills they have and the ones they need to acquire or improve. While the course does not focus explicitly on developing digital skills, it does provides tips from a variety of sources including university staff and student support, as well as helpful resources and videos.

Course content

There are four topics:

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)

The Staffordshire University Digital Skills Awareness course for students. 

• Self Enrol onto the course; 

To sign up for this module first click here to enrol on the course.

Then click here to access the course material or find it in your course list in blackboard.

Not yet started at the University? That is ok!

• Follow this link for a generic version Future Learn Digital Skills Awareness course.

Digital Skills for Starting Higher Education MOOC

In 2022, the BLE launched the Digital Skills for Starting Higher Education MOOC on the FutureLearn platform introducing prospective students to the important skills, systems, and core technologies for learning to help them succeed at university and Higher Education. Delivered over a three-week learning period, the course takes just a few hours each week to complete and covers similar content to the original online course including:

• Week 1: The Learning Environment;
• Week 2: Foundations of Digital Study;
• Week 3: Digital Safety & Wellbeing.