Working in partnership with students to promote digital literacy and innovation at City and Islington College

Abstract

The Student Digital Ambassador Programme is a pilot project for City and Islington College. It launched in October 2016, with the aim of improving the student experience with learning technology, developing digital literacies and driving change and innovation. At the same time, we hoped to promote student engagement and employability and to improve staff confidence and insight into student needs.

We recruited eleven students from across the College, who like helping others, enjoy learning about new technologies and social media and want to enhance their study programme with valuable work experience. Students meet once a week and hours and successes are logged as part of their study programme.  At the end of the academic year, we shall award students with a certificate and personalised reference.

We have shaped the programme around Jisc’s good practice principles for promoting digital literacies as well as our own strategies for student engagement and employability. So far, students have worked in partnership with the Digital Learning Team to give feedback and make suggestions on digital learning, to design and deliver training, to research and review the latest innovations, to create user guides, to support teaching staff with small-scale initiatives and to host events with speakers from industry.