Area 1: Professional Engagement, score 15/16
I systematically use different digital channels to enhance communication with students and fellow academics e.g. emails, blogs, the department’s website, Apps
Your answer
I systematically select, adjust and combine different digital solutions to communicate effectively
The next step for you is to critically reflect on your strategy and continue improving it. Consider and anticipate colleagues' and students' communication needs and problems. Keep adjusting your strategy and don't be afraid to discard a promising idea if it does not work for your communication partners.You may also want to work with colleagues on developing a common digital communication strategy for the whole department. A transparent but flexible strategy that addresses academics', and students' communication needs can foster organisational innovation.
To level up: Anticipate your partners' communication needs and strategically employ digital solutions
3 out of 4 points
I use digital technologies to work together with colleagues inside and outside my educational organisation
Your answer
I jointly create materials with other academics in an online network
Reflect on whether you are making the most of this exchange. Are you learning from your peers and are you bringing in your expertise so that they can learn from you? One option for realising added benefits from online collaboration could also be to implement a joint project, linking your students with students from other departments, in other areas.
To level up: Expand collaboration to students
4 out of 4 points
I actively develop my digital teaching skills
Your answer
I help colleagues in developing their digital teaching strategies.
You are in a prime position to join forces with other digitally engaged academics to foster innovation at the organisational level. While it is important for each one of you to continue working on your individual strengths and weaknesses and to learn from each other, it is equally important to discuss how the whole organisation can benefit from your innovative teaching strategies and to make concrete proposals for an innovation strategy at thel level of the department. It does not matter if not all your proposals are successful. What is important is that the department as a whole becomes aware of the potential it has in you and your colleagues and seizes it, in one way or another, to innovate teaching and learning across the organisation.
To level up: Drive innovation and change across the department
4 out of 4 points
I participate in online training opportunities e.g. online courses, MOOCs, webinars, virutal conferences...
Your answer
I frequently participate in all kinds of online training
Make sure that you use the insights gained to the benefit of your students and their learning. If you realise that in some areas the training offer is inadequate for your needs, you could consider providing online training yourself, thus helping fellow academics enhance their skills as well.
To level up: Offer your own online training for fellow academics
4 out of 4 points
Area 2: Digital Resources,Score for this Section: 10/12
I use different internet sites and search strategies to find and select a range of different digital resources
Your answer
I advise colleagues on suitable resources and search strategies
Make sure that this advice goes both ways, so that you also benefit from knowledge sharing, and include as many colleagues as possible. With your knowledge on digital resources you are in a prime position to join forces with other digitally engaged academics to foster innovation at the organisational level. You can start with something simple, like an information sheet or a website with useful resources, which you share with all colleagues, via e-mail or at staff meetings. You will soon be able to identify interested colleagues and together you can make your knowledge valuable for improving teaching across the whole department.
To level up: Foster digital resource use across the department
4 out of 4 points
I create my own digital resources and modify existing ones to adapt them to my needs
Your answer
I set up and adapt complex, interactive resources
What is important for you, at this high level, is to remember that technology is a means and not an end. When juggling with the different features of the many different digital tools, programmes and apps you use, keep your focus firmly on the concrete learning objective and your students' learning needs and preferences.
To level up: Enhance the user experience
4 out of 4 points
I effectively protect sensitive content, e.g. exams, students' grades, personal data
Your answer
I protect some personal data
Data protection is a responsibility for all academics. This protection becomes easier for you if you approach it systematically. For example: Protect your computer with a password that cannot easily be guessed and change it every month. Keep your firewalls and anti-virus programmes updated. Protect personal data, such as exams, students' grades and reports with different passwords. Check if there are special rules or recommendations in place at your educational institution that will help you protect personal data systematically and effectively.
To level up: Systematically protect personal data
2 out of 4 points
Area 3: Teaching and Learning,Score for this Section: 11/16
I carefully consider how, when and why to use digital technologies in teaching, to ensure that they are used with added value
Your answer
I use digital tools to systematically enhance teaching
The next step for you would be to think a bit ‘outside the box’.
Think of one of your favourite topics and what you find fascinating about it. Then consider how you, as a student, would like to make first contact with this topic and engage with it. Imagine there are no institutional or curricular/course plan restrictions, no dedicated lessons, no rooms with tables and chairs, whiteboards and books. Imagine an open field in which anything is possible and everything is allowed. In this ideal scenario, how would you as a student want to engage with the topic? Which questions would drive the process? Which activities would accompany them?Consider how the ‘wide-open field’ approach can be adapted so that your students' learning can come closer to the ideal. Forget about what is usually done and about the obstacles you may face. Remember: you know how to make use of digital technologies to enhance teaching and learning. You will make it happen.
To level up: Innovate teaching and learning
3 out of 4 points
I monitor my students' activities and interactions in the collaborative online environments we use
Your answer
I occasionally check on them and their discussions
As a next step, you should consider not only to monitor your students' discussions, but to also offer guidance when needed, without undermining students' ownership and engagement. You could, for example, start with comments offering help and directing their work, e.g. additional information or links. Or you alert attention to a good proposal that has not been taken up. Be positive and motivating, emphasizing what has already been achieved.Make sure to use what you learn about your students' difficulties, interests and preferences for improving the effectiveness of your teaching, i.e. re-arrange, re-focus or re-teach course content to address apparent learning needs.
To level up: Provide guidance when needed
2 out of 4 points
When my students work in groups or teams, they use digital technologies to acquire and document evidence
Your answer
I require students working in teams to use the internet to find information and present their results in a digital format
You are aware of how important it is for your students to learn to collaborate and of how important it is to gather information, discuss it and jointly transform it into knowledge.The next step for you would be to use digital strategies more systematically to enhance collaboration. Consider the problems and limits of how you are currently implementing teamwork. Are there problems based, for example, on differences in working patterns between members on teams; inefficient communication processes, unequal participation, lack of discipline and-or a high workload in assignments that impacts group work?A collaborative digital environment, like a wiki or discussion thread, can help students to focus in classroom learning and to more efficiently finalise group assignments at home. Moreover, digital environments allow you to structure the group discussion and to interfere when needed. The input by different team members becomes transparent to you and their peers. Furthermore, you can also choose to use the environment for students to document and showcase the results achieved.
To level up: Try out a digital environment to scaffold collaboration
3 out of 4 points
I use digital technologies to allow students to plan, document and monitor their learning themselves E.g. quizzes for self-assessment, ePortfolios for documentation and showcasing, online dimore...
Your answer
I use a variety of digital tools to allow learners to plan, document or reflect on their learning
The next step for you would be to self-critically check if you are using and combining digital tools for planning, reflection and self-assessment meaningfully and with added value. Also reflect on concrete problems you or your students encounter when using the tools and try to solve them. To go a step further, investigate if it is possible to use the data that are automatically generated in a structured way, to give you and your students a more detailed understanding of their learning pathway. Do not forget to use the information you and your students generate this way to re-align your teaching interventions with students' learning needs.
To level up: Systematically use tools to foster student self-regulation
3 out of 4 points
Score for this Section: 6/12
Area 4: Assessment
I use digital assessment formats to monitor student progress
Your answer
I do monitor students' progress regularly, but not with digital means
The next step for you would be to find a digital solution to reinforce your strategies. If your students have personal digital devices available in class this is very easy. There are a range of easy to use digital tools available that allow you to set up tests and quizzes. Or, you can convert the quiz into a homework activity or, if a small number of devices are available in class, into a group task or with students taking turns.Another option can be to create a digital environment in which students post their ideas and showcase samples of their work. Here you can combine assessment with self-reflection or self- and peer-assessment. You can experiment with using different formats for assessment, e.g. assessment rubrics, symbolic feedback (stars or "likes"), written or audio/video feedback etc.
To level up: Explore digital solutions to reinforce your strategies
1 out of 4 points
I analyse all data available to me to timely identify students who need additional support "Data" includes: students' engagement, performance, grades, attendance; activities anmore...
Your answer
I regularly screen all available evidence to identify students who need additional support
The next step for you would be to systematically combine data sets to enrich your understanding of each student's individual learning needs. You may also find it helpful to look at overall indicators for each year group in a specific program, comparing pass-fail rates at the course level, along with looking at individual performance indicators.
To level up: Systematically analyse data to timely intervene
3 out of 4 points
I use digital technologies to provide effective feedback
Your answer
Sometimes I use digital ways of providing feedback, e.g. automatic scores in online quizzes, comments or "likes" in online environments
The next step for you would be to amplify your strategies.
One way of doing this is to check out the functionalities of the digital tools and environments you already use. Many online assessment tools allow you to provide feedback on wrong answer options and positive reinforcement when students answer correctly. Online assessments with feedback will also allow you to track and visualise progress over time. Charts visualising progress can be a powerful way of motivating students to celebrate their achievements.Investigate different digital solutions to understand which tools offer the most personalised and actionable feedback for you, your subject and your students. There may not be the perfect fix, but if you are a bit innovative, you will be able to pool together a set of resources and approaches that you can customize to fit your needs.
To level up: Integrate and systematically use digital strategies for providing feedback
2 out of 4 points
Area 5: Empowering Learners,Score for this Section: 8/12
When I create digital assignments for students I consider and address potential digital problems E.g. equal access to digital devices and resources; interoperability and conversion problems;more...
Your answer
I discuss possible obstacles with students and outline solutions
Now consider to what extent the solutions outlined by you are possibly restrictive. Discuss with your pupils / students further solutions for possible difficulties. See how you can introduce new formats and activities, or allow more diversity without leaving anyone behind.
To level up: Allow for variety, expand digital strategies
3 out of 4 points
I use digital technologies to offer students personalised learning opportunities e.g. I give different students different digital tasks to address individual learning needs, preferences and interests
Your answer
I do provide students with recommendations for additional resources
You know which kinds of resources are more accessible or appealing for which of your students. The next step for you would be to apply this knowledge to your own teaching and to address different learning needs and preferences in the way you present information and select examples or design worksheets and in-class activities.
To level up: Address different learning needs and preferences when teaching
1 out of 4 points
I use digital technologies for students to actively participate in classes
Your answer
My students systematically use digital technologies to investigate, discuss and create knowledge
What is important for you, at this high level of engagement, is to keep improving your strategies. Continuously reflect on the suitability of your strategies; the balance between student autonomy and guidance; the mechanisms you implement to allow students to follow their own rhythm while at the same time ensuring that students with specific needs and other struggling students are supported and all students are given enough food for thought. Consider how you can help all students to develop their strengths and work on their weaknesses; how they can learn from each other and from their mistakes; and how their collaborative effort can be turned into a joint product that goes beyond their expectations.
To level up: Critically reflect on and continuously enhance your strategies
4 out of 4 points
Score for this Section: 10/20
Area 6: Facilitating Learners' Digital Competence,Score for this Section: 10/20
I teach students how to assess the reliability of information and to identify misinformation and bias
Your answer
I occasionally remind them that not all online information is reliable
The next step for you would be to include reflection on the reliability of information retrieved online in an assignment task, for example in a revision activity: Present your students with a website or audio-visual content taken from the internet on a topic they have just studied and ask them to identify inaccuracies, missing information or bias. Also consider collaborating with colleagues on this issue, as discernment is built through repeated education.
To level up: Use a flawed information source in a revision activity
1 out of 4 points
I set up assignments which require students to use digital means to communicate and collaborate with each other or with an outside audience
Your answer
My students use digital ways to communicate and to cooperate with each other and with an external audience
What is important for you is to systematically set assignments that allow students to slowly expand their skills. Empower your students to communicate in a professional manner, to argue their point while being polite and respectful towards others and their opinions. Your students themselves should realise, through their involvement in increasingly complex communication contexts, that oral and written communication follow different rules.
To level up: Students discover rules for communication
3 out of 4 points
I set up assignments which require students to create digital content e.g. videos, audios, photos, digital presentations, blogs, wikis...
Your answer
My students create digital content as integral part of their study
For you the next step would be to consider different activities and formats of digital content creation for your students. The aim should be to enable students to use many different digital means - visual, audio, video, text-based ... - and combine them effectively. This will not only enhance their digital competence, but also their competence to communicate their subject knowledge, to connect their findings or weigh arguments, and to comprehensively demonstrate their understanding.
To level up: Increase variety
3 out of 4 points
I teach students how to behave safely and responsibly online
Your answer
I inform them that they have to be careful with relaying personal information online
It is important that students are aware of the pitfalls of online communication, such as spamming, phishing, stalking, and know how to manage their digital footprint and protect their digital data. However, you should also consider the social and cultural norms for communication. Discuss with students the practical application of these rules in the collaborative environments they use and to the online activities they engage in. Consider with them concrete communication situations and how the rules agreed on need to be refined or modified to fit their communication. Discuss together with them which partially personal data they make available through the programmes and apps they use, and to whom. Let them also explore how to manage their online identity so that they feel comfortable with the way they present themselves to the world and with the information they share online.
To level up: Set a digital activity suitable for discussing rules for online behaviour
1 out of 4 points
I encourage students to use digital technologies creatively to solve concrete problems e.g. to overcome obstacles or challenges emerging in the learning process
Your answer
Occasionally, whenever an opportunity arises
You know how important it is to encourage students to overcome challenges and you also know that digital technologies can, in many cases, help students design a solution that they can experience as innovative.The next step for you would be to actively trigger such situations. Think about how you can embed a challenge into your subject teaching. Watch out for situations where students voice that there is something impossible to be known or asserted, or something too difficult to achieve - something desirable that they believe goes beyond their capacities or possibilities. Convert it into a challenge to be overcome - collectively by all students, or by a small group of students, or by individual students. Ask them to identify how this desirable goal could be obtained and design a plan to reach it, thinking about how technology can assist in the process. You will see that there are many opportunities for integrating digital problem-solving into your teaching and will slowly understand in which situations you can offer this approach to which student groups. This way you can ensure that all students are offered opportunities for developing their digital problem solving skills in your subject.
To level up: Trigger challenges and provide resources
2 out of 4