Develop your digital capabilities

Welcome to this guide where you will find resources to support your digital development.

Working through this resource will help you to:

Understand what is meant by digital capabilities
Explore your digital capabilities using the Jisc Discovery tool
Get help using the Discovery tool
Create a plan to enhance your digital capabilities
Access further resources to support your development.

What are digital capabilities?

Digital capabilities are defined by Jisc as those required by individuals to “live, learn and work in a digital society.”

The Jisc Discovery tool can help us understand and explore our digital capabilities.

This online tool will take you through a series of questions about your experience and confidence of using different digital tools and approaches. There are no right or wrong answers, the purpose of the tool is to support your development.

Step One

Access the Jisc Discovery tool

Here is what you need to know before you use the tool for the first time:

Select ‘The University of Manchester’ from the list of Institutions and log in with your University username and password.
The first time you log in, you will be directed to set up your profile.
There are 2 questionnaires you can answer once you have logged in to the dashboard, one is for new students and the other is for students returning to the University.
It takes about 15 minutes to complete a questionnaire and this will give you a personalised, confidential report about your digital capabilities. In the report you will see your confidence level for each area, as well as suggested next steps and links to some resources you may wish to explore to further your development.
When you have completed a questionnaire, you will also have the opportunity to access a digital badge that you can add to your CV or portfolio.
You can go to the FAQ for further help.

Jisc Discovery tool

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Step Two

Read your report

Identify and reflect on the areas you would like to develop further. These might be directly related to your studies or future plans, or they may focus on a different area you would like to explore. Have a look at the ‘Next steps’ and ‘Online resources’ suggested within your report. Further resources are also signposted below, in Step Three, to support your continuing development.

Create a plan

An essential part of reflection is creating an action plan. Using or adapting a template like this can be useful. You may also find it helpful to discuss your report and creating an action plan with your Academic Advisor.

Revisit your plan

How effective has your plan been? Do you need to update it? Have you completed it? Is it time for a new plan? We recommend that returning students complete the ‘Current students’ questionnaire annually and reflect on their progress.

Record your progress

At every stage of your student journey, it is helpful to keep a record of activities you have done and how they have supported your development. This might involve updating a portfolio or CV. This blog from the University’s Careers Service gives helpful examples of how you can evidence your digital capabilities when updating your CV.

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Step Three

Explore further resources to support your digital development

You will be supported during your studies to gain the capabilities that are relevant to you and these will take time to develop. We are all continually developing our digital capabilities, this is part of life-long learning. You can revisit this MLE resource and the Discovery tool as often as is helpful throughout your time at The University of Manchester and we will continue to add to the resources available here to support your digital journey.

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. Click on the Login button
2. Select The University of Manchester from the drop-down list of Institutions and click on the Continue button
3. This will take you to a University of Manchester login page where you can login with your University username and password
4. The first time you login you will be asked to create an account
5. Once you have created your account you will be able to access 2 questionnaires from the dashboard. One is more suited to students who are new to Higher Education and the other to current students.
You may also find the following resources that are included down the left side of the tool dashboard helpful:
- Home
  No surprises here… this will take you back to the dashboard and the questionnaires you can access.
- Resource Bank
  Once you have completed the questionnaire, your report will include links to relevant online resources to support your further development. By clicking on the Resource bank, you can access all the resources in the tool in one place.
- Guide
  This provides an overview of using the tool and explains what you can expect from your report.
- Reports
  You will be able to access your reports here. If you would like to take the questionnaire again, then make sure you first download and save a copy of your existing report elsewhere.
- Glossary
  When you have clicked to start a questionnaire, on the first screen you will see a link to the Glossary, this explains the terms used within the tool.
No, only you can see and access your personalised reports. The University has access to an Institutional data dashboard. This collates anonymised data from completed questionnaires and benchmarks our University, again anonymously, with the Higher Education sector.
If you are a student who has a staff role at the University, you will have access to the staff login / dashboard rather than the student login and dashboard. You will still be able to access the tool. When setting up your account you will be asked which department you are working in, rather than what subject area you are studying; please select the most appropriate department. Please be reassured, you can complete the 'Explore your overall digital capabilities' questionnaire' which is similar to the questionnaire accessed via the student dashboard and will give you the same in-depth report on your digital capabilities.
The University has a subscription to the Discovery tool, which is provided by an external company, Jisc. Periodically, for example, during maintenance, the tool will be unavailable at times beyond the University’s control. If you are unable to log in to the tool, we recommend, in the first instance, clearing your browser cache/cookies (or using a different browser), and if you still cannot log in, trying again later, e.g., in an hour. If the issue persists, please contact IT Services
The University has no relationship with Credly, which is an external company. If you choose to sign up to Credly in order to access a digital badge once you have completed a Discovery tool questionnaire, please do not use the same password you use to login to University services when setting up an account. Before using Credly, we recommend you read their Privacy policy and Terms of use and if you need any support with their service, please access this directly from Credly.