Unit 1: Digital Literacies for Online Learning (LiDA101)
Digital literacies for online learning (LiDA101) is the first of four micro-courses for the Learning in a Digital Age course.
Unit 1 will help you to gain a good understanding of what digital literacies are and why they are important for learning on the Internet. In this unit you will set up a personal course blog.
You will have the opportunity to reflect on your own level of digital literacies and will be provided with opportunities to improve them, including how to find and select credible open resources and a range of related digital and learning literacies for success in higher education.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 30 hours (excluding time for preparing an optional assessment portfolio for formal credit).
Image credit: Smartphone by Geralt, dedicated to the public domain
1.1: Establish a Personal Learning Environment
Learning in a Digital Age is about learning on the Internet, rather than learning via a single application like a learning management system (LMS).
Upon successful completion of this subunit you will be able to:
- Explain the difference between an open, component based learning environment and a traditional learning management system (LMS) / Virtual learning environment (VLE)
- Establish your Personal Learning Environment (PLE)
- Establish your own course blog
- Complete your first daily photograph challenge (this will be a recurrent theme throughout the course)
- Declare yourself to the LiDA learning community; and
- Apply strategies for achieving success with an open online course
1.2: Introduction to Digital Literacies
In this subunit you will research and develop a personal definition for digital literacy and explain the differences between digital skills and digital literacies.
Upon successful completion of this subunit you will be able to:
- Conduct a search of definitions for digital literacy on the web
- Explain the differences between digital skills and digital literacies
- Share links to credible resources you find on the topic on bookmarks.oeru.org (our resource bank for the course)
- Share your personal reflections on why digital literacy matters to you via the discussion forum.
- Publish your personal definition of digital literacy and depict your personal learning network (PLN) online.
1.3: Find and Select Open Resources
In this subunit you will choose and discuss a research topic of interest.
Upon successful completion of this subunit you will be able to:
- Discuss your proposed topic of research interest.
- Apply advanced search skills for more productive online searches.
- Implement advanced database searches on a number of open repositories to source OER and open access research publications.
- Evaluate the reliability and credibility of resources you find online for academic purposes.
- Adopt and use citation management software to support your academic work; and
- Publish an annotated bibliography online using the APA reference format with the help of your citation management tool.
1.4: Learning in a Digital Age
In this subunit our focus shifts to learning in particular the digital, academic and study skills required for success in higher education in a digital age.Upon successful completion of this subunit you will be able to:
- Use an online note-taking tool to summarise video and/or audio presentations for academic purposes.
- Summarise an academic publication to support your research.
- Identify the range of academic and study skills for learning success in higher education and share support resources for improving these skills.
- Discuss the future of higher education in a digital age with particular emphasis on the implications for academic and study skills.
- Prepare a learning reflection; and
- Improve skills and build confidence in using social media to support learning on the Internet.
“ The future lies in personal learning networks and paths, learning that blends experiential and digital approaches, and free and open-source educational models. ” —Anya Kamenetz
DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher EducationLiDA101 Edubit Assessment
Assessment Competency: Apply digital tools effectively to demonstrate learning literacies including researching, producing, analysing and presenting information for tertiary education purposes.
Course Feed for Unit 1 (LiDA101)
The course feed harvests learner posts from selected Internet sites. You can post to the feed by logging in to the course resource site.
