Talk by Sonia Gomes & Jane Secker at the joint MmIT and ILG Digital literacies in libraries event.

1. Evaluating the Impact of Digital Literacy
Programmes: Lessons from Student
Ambassadors
Sonia Gomes and Jane Secker
London School of Economics and Political Science
5th August 2016

2. Student Ambassadors for
Digital Literacy (SADL)
• Undergraduate
• Collaborative
• Peer support
Completed 3 years
Project Programme

3. SADL aims
• To understand students’ existing digital and
information literacy (DIL) skills.
• To explore how best to support students to
improve these skills and to provide peer support.

4. SADL Welcome event
Workshop 1: Finding and evaluating information
Workshop 2: Academic practices: reading and
research
Workshop 3: Managing and sharing information
Workshop 4: Your digital footprint
SADL Celebration
All resources on the project website:
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsesadl/resources/
Programme overview

5. Group
work

6. Workshop activities
Dealing with assignments Managing information

7. SADL Senior Ambassadors
• Completed SADL in a
previous year
• Work alongside staff (paid)
• Give input into workshop
content
• Guide and support students
in workshops
• Lead student projects

8. Collaboration in action

9. The evaluation methodology
• Pre and post programme survey
• Interviews with students, senior ambassadors,
a SADL graduate and academic staff
• Focus group with staff
• Visitor and residents workshop
• Blog and social media impact analysis

10. SADL: the impact on students
“I am glad I joined SADL because
I wouldn't have known anything
about copyright or any qualitative
skills if I didn't. So in terms of
study skills that really helped me
a lot like research and managing
information and things. It helped
me through my second year.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALaUhlWRnTg

11. Evaluation – Impact on students
Digital & Information Literacy skills
+ Transferability ∙ Study ∙ Personal lives ∙ Employability
+ Referencing skills ∙ Using new apps ∙ Blogging ∙ Managing
their digital identity ∙ Using LinkedIn effectively
+ Reinforcing and deepening interest in technology for careers
− some expected more technical skills; e.g. Excel, coding and
more advanced digital literacies
More than ‘tech’ skills
+ Public speaking ∙ Presentation skills ∙ Confidence ∙
Collaborative working

12. Evaluation – value of community
Value of collaborative approach to teaching
+ Friendly, informal approach, peer support and friendships This
point was made by staff and students alike
− Some students wanted more teaching / less discussions
Student project had mixed responses
− Need for greater consistency and guidance as dependent on
seniors
− Need for more freedom in choice of topics
− Student engagement and effort varied considerably

13. Getting the right balance
•Structure
•Agency

14. Evaluation – Impact on the SADL
team
Significant impact on Senior Ambassadors
+ Leadership skills ∙ Teaching skills ∙ Managing projects
+ ‘How SADL got me hired’
- Role needs more explicit expectations
Important staff development
+ Greater level of engagement with UGs
+ New teaching methods and approaches

15. SADL interactions
students
students and staff
staff in teams
teams (LTI & Library)

16. Visitors and residents
White, David and Le Cornu, Alison (2011) Visitors and residents: a new typology for online engagement. First
Monday. 16 (9). Available at http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3171/3049

17. Students’ online engagement
• Institutional tools – mostly used as visitors
• Social media apps – mostly used as residents
– e.g. Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, Skype
• Less likely to use the same app for both personal
& academic life
How can social media apps be used for
academic purposes to encourage engagement?

18. Engaging with SADL
•visitor
•resident

19. Improving and enhancing SADL
• Selling SADL in the right way is crucial: branding
• Catering to different levels of knowledge and
interests: entrepreneurs vs academic skills vs career
focus
• Scaling up is probably the biggest challenge
– Is it desirable and how to maintain a community
– Developing the ‘ripple effect’ and peer support
• Engage more academic staff with the programme’s
aims

20. Biggest challenges in 2016/17
• Scaling up and broadening the programme: LSE Life
• Developing the peer learning aspects of SADL to
empower students
• Keeping it student-led and student focused
• Maintaining the SADL community

21. Any questions?
Follow the SADL Story!
blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsesadl
@LSESADL

22. Further reading
Lau, Doriane, Secker, Jane and Bell, Maria (2015) Student ambassadors for digital literacy (SADL):
evaluation & impact report. Learning Technology and Innovation (LTI), London, UK. Available at:
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/63357/
LSE SADL Project website and resources (2014) Available at: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsesadl/resources
HEA (2014) Framework for partnership in learning and teaching. York, Higher Education Academy.
Available at: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/students-as-partners
Jisc (2015) Developing successful staff-student partnerships.
https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/developing-successful-student-staff-partnerships
Secker, Jane, Karnad, Arun , Bell, Maria, Wilkinson, Ellen and Provencher, Claudine (2014) Student
ambassadors for digital literacy (SADL): project final report. Learning Technology and Innovation ,
London, UK. Available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/59479/
Bell, Maria and Moon, Darren and Secker, Jane (2012) Undergraduate support at LSE: the ANCIL
report. The London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK. Available at:
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/48058/
White, David and Le Cornu, Alison (2011) Visitors and residents: a new typology for online
engagement. First Monday. 16 (9). Available at
http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3171/3049