Category Archives: Digital creation, problem solving and innovation

Digital media and production, copyright, digital research methods, data analysis, digital scholarship, innovation and project management in digital settings.

How we used digital dexterity to write a book chapter on digital dexterity: a meta journey!

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by Ruth Cameron, University of Newcastle Library

The first steps

In February 2022 a CAUL Digital Dexterity Champion was idly reading an IFLA newsletter email when the following article struck a spark: Call for Chapters – Book on Digital Literacy. This sounded relevant and challenging so she posted a message in the Digital Dexterity Champions General Teams channel:

“Hi Digital Dexterity Champions, have you seen this? https://www.ifla.org/news/call-for-chapters-book-on-digital-literacy/ Deadline for proposals is unfortunately 31 March, so we would have to move quickly …”

Six Champions (all from separate institutions across Australia and New Zealand) chimed in that they were interested and we identified the theme to be addressed – Collaborative projects or programs on the diffusion, implementation and creation of materials and tools relevant to digital literacy. A draft abstract, written by one Champion, was posted into Microsoft Teams and the budding chapter authors added comments and suggestions over the next two weeks. Digital collaboration allowed us to pull the final version together in time for submission on 31 March 2022.

We had an immediate reply from one of the book’s editors: Many thanks for your very interesting submission – I will send to the other editors and get back to you.

Over the next few weeks we had a chance to sit back and wonder what we had done …

On the escalator!

On 29 April 2022 we got the amazing news that our abstract had been accepted, and we started to realise just what we were in for:

“Many thanks for your proposal for a book chapter titled “Supporting Digital Dexterity in academic library communities across Australia and New Zealand” in the upcoming IFLA Book Libraries Empowering Society through Digital Literacy. All the Book Editors reviewed your submission and were in agreement that it should be included in the book….” (Followed by a list of milestone dates and accompanied by two documents to assist with our writing).

Heather Todd, email message to author, 29 April 2022

Really getting started

At that stage we decided to move our conversations out of the General Teams channel into a dedicated Teams Chat, nicknamed Chapter superheroes to keep our spirits up. The first message in this chat might give you an idea of our feelings:

“Hello co-authors! I’d like to get started on our chapter but am feeling quite daunted about what our first steps are. What’s the best way for us to proceed, do you think?”

Luckily, our author group included many diverse strengths which were demonstrated over the writing period. We had an organiser, a drafter, a ‘pull everything together’-er, experienced writers and presenters, and subject matter experts (all of us had at least one strength, some of us had more). We used our Chat to share reference papers, suggest planning, and keep the author group up to date (we may also have suggested various coping strategies to each other).

Digital communication and collaboration

We all participated in the writing and editing processes. Draft documents were added to the Teams Chat so that we could all edit and contribute. We set up virtual meetings so that we could come together for sanity checks and mutual encouragement. When some of us couldn’t attend the meetings, the rest of us either rescheduled or got together at the original time and made sure we kept the others up to date.

Two meetings were designated as ‘Shut up and write’ sessions and it was surprising how helpful it was to have people in the same virtual space, concentrating on the same work. We could see each other’s contributions to the shared document in real time. This was digital collaboration and cooperation at its very best.

Results!

We submitted our draft chapter on the due date (1 August 2022). There was a lot of discussion in the Chat a few days beforehand about how to ‘tighten up’ some paragraphs, fixing grammatical issues, nominating a group member as the ‘final sweeper’ to make sure it read smoothly and made sense, and cheerleading each other so that we could submit on time. Once it was submitted we all celebrated with emojis, gifs, and congratulatory messages.

On 23 October 2022 we received an updated timeline from the editor. We settled in for more waiting … was our writing up to standard? Had we addressed the theme adequately? Was it all a horrible mistake?

Imagine our feelings at the opening words of the first peer reviewer when we received the reviewed document on 15 January 2023:

“This is an interesting and well-written chapter and makes a worthwhile contribution to the book. My comments below arise from questions I had as a reader, and also suggestions for clarification or improvement. I leave it to the authors’ discretion as to which and how many they wish to implement.”

On the home stretch?

We used Teams Chat again to discuss the review and make the required changes, and re-submitted by the due date. Our documents were organised into folders for ease of retrieval. Remember too that we were doing this while still working full-time in our library roles!

On 14 March 2023, we received the chapter with the final reviewer comments. They required tiny tweaks, such as putting capital letters in, deciding whether we wanted to include something in the references, and adding a separate image file. All of the superheroes jumped in to make the changes in the Teams document and we submitted our final, final, final draft on 23 March 2023. We received an encouraging email back from our reviewers and we are now waiting for the book to be published.

Our journey

From an impulsive “that looks like something we could write about”, this journey developed into a truly “meta experience” as we used our digital communication, collaboration, creation and innovation skills to solve problems, synthesise ideas and create new knowledge around digital literacies/dexterity. Our digital collaboration reinforced the trust that we had started to build as members of the Digital Dexterity Champions group. While not yet completely fearless, we are all confident that we could tackle a project like this again, especially if we have a supportive virtual group to contribute different strengths to the process.

We hope that you can take heart and learnings from our experience to try something like this in your future. Be curious, be collaborative, and you might surprise yourselves.

The IFLA chapter superheroes (Emma Chapman, Kat Cain, Kristy Newton, Ruth Cameron , Sara Davidsson, Simone Tyrell and Wendy Ratcliffe)

A fail-safe ‘recipe’ to assess the digital literacy levels of your patrons 

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By Hannah Armitage, Discovery UX Specialist, The University of Melbourne (Hannah.armitage@unimelb.edu.au)

A hot topic of concern around the library sector in recent times is the realisation that people who are generally considered to be ‘digital natives’ are struggling to navigate digital and information landscapes and are, for all intents and purposes, digitally illiterate. 

As it stands, this is a complex and multidimensional problem that requires an equally multidimensional solution. However, we can’t start to identify possible solutions until we endeavour to understand who our patrons are, their motivations and frustrations, what they do and why they do it. In short, some user research is required. 

Here, I have provided a framework of user profiles that you can use as a template to do your own research into your patron’s digital literacy levels. Just follow the ‘recipe’ I have provided, and it will be as simple as baking a cake.

Ingredients

As for any recipe, you will need to gather all the elements that are essential for this project. 

Participants

You will need to recruit 5 to 10 participants from each of the following groups: 

  • Coursework students; under graduates to postgraduates 
  • Early researchers; Master and PhD candidates to postdocs
  • Researchers; Research Fellows to Professors.

Interview questions

For the user interviews, create a set of questions for each of the user groups.  

To get you started, I’ve listed a set of themes to form your questions around. 

Who are the users in this group? List questions that extract the nuances of the users within each group.  

How does the library feature in their workflow? Find out what their journey looks like and how the library ecosystem fits within their journey. What need does a library resource fill, what task is it helping them to complete? 

What resources are they accessing and why? Find out what type of resources they prefer to use and why they prioritise them.  

How do they discover and access library resources? Identify the pathways and processes they use to search for and access resources. At what point do they struggle?  

Observation prompts

You will be conducting an observation task, so you will need a task prompt to give your participants. The task must ask the participant to show their workflow when searching for and accessing library resources. 

Framework profile template

Lastly, you will need the Digital Literacy Assessment framework as a template for your user profiles. 

Who: The type of users included in the group and their individualities. 
Motivations: Reasons, needs and incentives behind what they’re doing. 
Frustrations: Frustrations and any pain points or roadblocks in their process.
Goals: End goals or aims.  
Info literacy skills: Levels of – knowledge of systems; discovery skills; resource access; ability to assess the quality of resources. 
Characteristics: Levels of – technical skills; motivation; priority of convenience or quality of resources. 
Preferred systems: Which systems and platforms they prefer to use. 
Preferred format: Which resource format they prefer to use. 

Directions:

Step 1 – Data collection

Time to make the batter. Using the ingredients above, conduct your interviews and include the observation task at the end after you’ve asked all your questions.

Step 2 – Sort participants into groups 

Put your batter (user data) into four separate cake tins (groups). To do this, review each participant’s data depending on how well they’re able to navigate, find, and access library resources. Next, sort them into either novice, intermediate, advanced, or master users.   

Step 3 – Sort data from each group into the template 

Put your cakes in the oven. Using the template provided, sort the data from each group into the headings in the template. Once your data is sorted under each heading, summarise each category into one or two sentences or visualise it on a scale or graph.  

This will leave you with four separate profiles, each representing a separate stage on your users’ digital literacy journey. 

It should look something like this: 

Serving suggestions:

The main purpose of this ‘recipe’ is to create a foundation of user insights that initiate further, more targeted projects.   

Potential projects include: 

  • Creating a framework to tailor digital literacy learning materials and teaching plans. 
  • Identifying and removing barriers to streamline user workflows by making system and service improvements.
  • Using quantitative user metrics to measure the impact of strategic initiatives. 

These are just some examples of how this user data can be used to improve the digital literacy skills of your patrons. However, the potential is endless and will be defined by the individual needs of your patrons.  

Happy baking!

Being Prompt with Prompt Engineering

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Krista Yuen, The University of Waikato
Danielle Degiorgio, Edith Cowan University

Warning – ChatGPT and DALL-E were used in the making of this post.

Experienced AI users have been experimenting with the art of prompt engineering to ensure they are getting the most useful and accurate responses from generative AI systems. As a result, they have created and synthesised techniques to ensure that they are getting the best output from these systems. Crafting an effective prompt, also known as prompt engineering, is arguably a skill that may be needed in a world of information seeking, as the trend of AI continues to grow.

Whilst AI continues to improve, and many systems now encourage more precise prompting from their users, AI is still only as good as the prompts they are given. Essentially, if you want quality content, you must use quality prompts. The structure of a solid prompt requires critical thinking and reflection in the design of your prompt, as well as how you interact with the output. While there are many ways to structure a prompt, these are the three more important things to remember when constructing your prompt:

Context

  • Provide background information
  • Set the scene
  • Use exact keywords
  • Specify audience
  • You could also give the AI tool a role to play, e.g. “Act as an expert community organiser!”

Task

  • Clearly define tasks
  • Be as specific as possible about exactly what you want the AI tool to do
  • Break down the steps involved if needed
  • Put in any extra detail, information or text that the AI tool needs

Output

  • Specify desired format, style, and tone
  • Specify inclusions and exclusions
  • Tell it how you would like the results formatted, e.g. a table, bullet point list or even in HTML or CSS.

Example prompt for text generation e.g., ChatGPT

You are an expert marketing and communications advisor working on a project for dolphin conservation and need to create a comprehensive marketing proposal. The goal is to raise awareness and promote actions that contribute to the protection of dolphins and their habitats. The target audience includes environmental activists and the general public who might be interested in marine conservation.

Context

The proposal should highlight the current challenges faced by dolphins, including threats like pollution, overfishing, and habitat destruction. It should emphasise the importance of dolphins to marine ecosystems and their appeal to people due to their intelligence and playful nature. It should include five bullet points for each area: campaign objectives, target audience, key messages, marketing channels, content ideas, partnerships, budget estimation, timeline, and evaluation metrics.

Task

Please structure it in a format that is easy to present to stakeholders, such as a PowerPoint presentation or a detailed report. It should be professionally written, persuasive, and visually appealing with suggestions for imagery and design elements that align with the theme of dolphin conservation.

Output

Example prompt for image generation e.g., DALL∙E

Create a captivating and colourful image for a marketing campaign focused on dolphin conservation. The setting is a serene, crystal-clear ocean under a bright blue sky with soft, fluffy clouds. In the foreground, a group of three playful dolphins is leaping gracefully out of the water. These dolphins should appear joyful and full of life, symbolising the beauty and intelligence of marine life.

The central dolphin, a majestic bottlenose, is at the peak of its jump, with water droplets sparkling around it like diamonds under the sunlight. On the left, a smaller, younger dolphin, mirrors its movement, adding a sense of playfulness and family. To the right, another dolphin is partially submerged, preparing to leap. In the background, a distant, unspoiled coastline with lush greenery and a few palm trees provides a natural, pristine environment. This idyllic scene should evoke a sense of peace and the importance of preserving such beautiful natural habitats.

This image was created with DALL·E 2 via ChatGPT 4 (November 22 Version).

Not getting the results you want?

If your first response has not given you exactly what you need, remember you can try and try again! You may need to add more guidelines to your prompt:

  • Try adding more words or ideas that might be needed. What kind of instructions might make your prompt obtain more?
  • Provide some more context, like “I’m not an expert and I need this explained to me in simpler terms.”
  • Do you need more detailed information that will make your response more relevant and useful?

Want to learn more?

There are a few places you can go to learn more about developing good prompts for your generative AI tool:

LinkedIn Learning: How to write an effective prompt for AI

Learn Prompting: Prompt Engineering Guide

Library strategy and Artificial Intelligence

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by Dr Andrew M Cox, Senior Lecturer, the Information School, University of Sheffield.

This post was originally published in the National Centre for AI blog, owned by Jisc. It is re-printed with permission from Jisc and the author.

On April 20th 2023 the Information School, University of Sheffield invited five guest speakers from across the library sectors to debate “Artificial Intelligence: Where does it fit into your library strategy?”

The speakers were:

  1. Nick Poole, CEO of CILIP
  2. Neil Fitzgerald, Head of Digital Research, British Library
  3. Sue Lacey-Bryant, Chief Knowledge Officer; Workforce, Training and Education Directorate of NHS England
  4. Sue Attewell, Head of Edtech, JISC
  5. John Cox, University Librarian, University of Galway

A capacity 250 people had signed up online, and there was a healthy audience in the room in Sheffield.

Slides from the event can be downloaded here . These included updated results from the pre-event survey, which had 68 responses.

This blog is a personal response to the event and summary written by Andrew Cox and Catherine Robinson.

Impact of generative AI

Andrew Cox opened the proceedings by setting the discussion in the context of the fascination with AI in our culture from ancient Greece, movies from as early as the start of the C20th, through to current headlines in the Daily Star!

Later on in the event, in his talk John Cox quoted several authors saying AI promised to produce a profound change to professional work. And it seemed to be agreed amongst all the speakers that we had entered a period of accelerating change, especially with Chat GPT and other generative AI.

These technologies offer many benefits. Sue Lacey-Bryant shared some examples of how colleagues were already experimenting with using Chat GPT in multiple ways: to search, organise content, design web pages, draft tweets and write policies. Sue Attewell mentioned JISC sponsored AI pilots to accelerate grading, draft assessment tasks, and analyse open text NSS comments.

And of course wider uses of AI are potentially very powerful. For example Sue Lacey-Bryant shared the example of how many hours of radiologists time AI was saving the NHS. Andrew Cox mentioned how Chat GPT functions would be realised within MS Office as Copilot. Specifically for libraries, from the pre-event survey it seemed that the most developed services currently were library chatbots and Text and Data Mining support; but the emphasis of future plans was “Promoting AI (and data) literacy for users”.

But it did mean uncertainty. Nick Poole compared the situation to the rise of Web2.0 and suggested that many applications of generative AI were emerging and we didn’t know which might be the winners. User behaviour was changing and so there was a need to study this. As behaviour changed there would be side effects which required us to reflect holistically, Sue Attewell pointed out. For example if generative AI can write bullet point notes, how does this impact learning if writing those notes was itself how one learned? She suggested that the new technology cannot be banned. It may also not be detectable. There was no choice but to “embrace” it.

Ethics

The ethics of AI is a key concern. In the pre-event survey, ethics were the most frequently identified key challenge. Nick Poole talked about several of the novel challenges from generative AI, such as what is its implication for intellectual freedom? What should be preserved from generative AI (especially as it answers differently to each iteration of a question)? Nick identified that professional ethics have to be:

  • “Inclusive – adopting an informed approach to counter bias
  • Informed & evidence-based – geared towards helping information users to navigate the hype cycle
  • Critical & reflective – understanding our own biases and their impact
  • Accountable – focused on trust, referencing and replicability
  • Creative – helping information users to maximise the positive benefits of AI augmented services
  • Adaptive – enabling us to refresh our skills and expertise to navigate change”

Competencies

In terms of professional competencies for an AI world, Nick said that there was now wider recognition that critical thinking and empathy were key skills. He pointed out that the CILIP Professional Knowledge and Skills Base (PKSB) had been updated to reflect the needs of an AI world for example by including data stewardship and algorithmic literacy. Andrew Cox referred to some evidence that the key skills needed are social and influencing skills not just digital ones. Skills that respondents to the pre-event survey thought that libraries needed were:

  •        General understanding of AI
  •        How to get the best results from AI
  •        Open-mindedness and willingness to learn 
  •        Knowledge of user behaviour and need
  •        Copyright
  •        Professional ethics and having a vision of benefits

Strategy

John Cox pointed to evidence that most academic library strategies were not yet encompassing AI. He thought it was because of anxiety, hesitancy, ethics concerns and inward looking and linear thinking. But Neil explained how the British Library is developing a strategy. The process was challenging, akin to ‘Flying a plane while building it”. Sue Attewell emphasised the need for the whole sector to develop a view. The pre-event survey suggested that the most likely strategic responses were: to upskill existing staff, study sector best practice and collaborate with other libraries.

Andrew Cox suggested that some key issues for the profession were:

  • How do we scope the issue: As about data/AI or a wider digital transformation?
    • How does AI fit into our existing strategies – especially given the context of institutional alignment?
    • What constitutes a strategic response to AI? How does this differ between information sectors?
  • How do we meet the workforce challenge?
    • What new skills do we need to develop in the workforce?
    • How might AI impact equality and diversity in the profession?

Workshop discussions

Following the presentations from the speakers, those attending the event in person were given the opportunity to further discuss in groups the professional competencies needed for AI. Those attending online were asked to put any comments they had regarding this in the chat box. Some of the key discussion points were:

  • The need for professionals to rapidly upskill themselves in AI. This includes understanding what AI is and the concepts and applications of AI in individual settings (e.g. healthcare, HE etc.), along with understanding our role in supporting appropriate use. However, it was believed this should go beyond a general understanding to a knowledge of how AI algorithms work, how to use AI and actively adopting AI in our own professional roles in order to grow confidence in this area.
  • Horizon scanning and continuous learning – AI is a fast-paced area where technology is rapidly evolving. Professionals not only need to stay up-to-date with the latest developments, but also be aware of potential future developments to remain effective and ensure we are proactive, rather than reactive.
  • Upskilling should not just focus on professional staff, but all levels of library staff will require some level of upskilling in the area of AI (e.g. library assistants).
  • Importance of information literacy and critical thinking skills in order to assess the quality and relevance of AI outputs. AI should therefore be built into professional training around these skills.
  • Collaboration skills – As one group stated, this should be more ‘about people, not data’. AI requires collaboration with:
    • Information professionals across the sector to establish a consistent approach; 
    • Users (health professionals, students, researchers, public etc.) to establish how they are using AI and what for;
    • With other professionals (e.g. data scientists).
  • Recruitment problems were also discussed, with it noted that for some there had been a drop in people applying for library roles. This was impacting on the ability to bring in new skillsets to the library (e.g. data scientist), but on the ability to allow existing staff the time to upskill in the area of AI. It was discussed that there was the need to promote lifestyle and wellbeing advantages to working in libraries to applicants.

Other issues that came up in the workshop discussions centered around how AI will impact on the overall library service, with the following points made:

  • There is the need to expand library services around AI, as well as embed it in current services;
  • Need to focus on where the library can add value in the area of AI (i.e. USP);
  • Libraries need to make a clear statement to their institution regarding their position on AI;
  • AI increases the importance of and further incentivises open access, open licencing and digitisation of resources;
  • Questions over whether there is a need to rebrand the library.

The attendees also identified that the following would useful to help prepare the sector for AI:

  • Sharing of job descriptions to learn about what AI means in practice and help with workforce planning. Although, it was noted how the RL (Research Libraries) Position Description Bank contains almost 4000 position descriptions from research libraries primarily from North America, although there are many examples from RLUK members; 
  • A reading list and resource bank to help professionals upskill in AI;
  • Work shadowing;
  • Sharing of workshops delivered by professionals to users around the use of AI;
  • AI mailing lists (e.g. JISCmail);
  • Establishment of a Community of Practice to promote collaboration. Although it was noted that AI would probably change different areas of library practice (such as collecting or information literacy) so was likely to be discussed within the professional communities that already existed in these areas.

Workshop outcome

Following the workshop Andrew Cox and Catherine Robinson worked on a draft Working paper which we invite you to comment on @ Draft for comment: Developing a library strategic response to Artificial Intelligence: Working paper.

Understanding how websites work: a brief introduction

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by Nicholas Rowsell, Digital Library Programs and UX Officer, University of Newcastle Library (nicholas.brett@newcastle.edu.au)

Knowing how to code in web mark-up languages allows you to create and edit websites and understand how websites work.

Much like learning an instrument, this can be very intimidating at first but with practice you may find yourself intuitively recognising patterns and predicting what logical step to expect next.

The Foundation

HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language) is the foundation of every website you visit on the internet. HTML documents are made up of elements, which are the building blocks of each page.

The following examples of code can be pasted into W3Schools.com allowing you adjust the code safely in a sandpit environment.

The Building Blocks

The basic structure of an HTML document includes the following elements (note that you will need to use single spacing between lines of code):

<html>

<body>

<h1>

Content Heading

</h1>

<p>

Content goes here…

</p>

</body>

</html>

The Working Example

<html>

<body>

<h1>

Digital Dexterity

</h1>

<p>

Digital dexterity is a critical component in the success of digital societies.

</p>

</body>

</html>

Note: As each element is opened with a tag <p> it is also closed with an accompanying tag </p> which has a backslash added.

Customising your Building Blocks

Elements consist of tags, attributes, and content.

A tag determines the element type. Examples include:
 

<html>Represents the root of an HTML document, differentiating from other types
<body>Defines the document’s body and may contain the below tags
<h1>Creates a header, can use the numbers from 1-6
<p>Defines a paragraph element
<img>Defines an image element
<a>Defines a hyperlink

An extensive list of tags can be found on W3Schools.com.

An attribute provides additional information or characteristics about an element. Examples include:

IDSpecifies a unique id for an element
altSpecifies an alternate text when the original element fails to display

Attributes are placed within the opening tag:

<h1 id=”myHeader”>Digital Dexterity</h1>

Content is the easiest part, this is the text or other elements within the tags that is your awesome subject matter knowledge you wish to share with the world!

Time to add some Style…

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is the language we use to style an HTML document. CSS describes how HTML elements should be displayed. Extending our metaphor from earlier, if HTML is the foundation of a website, then CSS is the architecture that makes it beautiful and functional.

CSS allows you to control the layout, font, colour, and other visual aspects of a website, just as an architect controls the layout, colour, and design of a building.

The code which determines this control over the style is known as a CSS rule.

A CSS rule consists of a selector and declaration blocks.

<style>

h1 {

  color: blue;

  font-size: 12;

}

</style>

In this instance <h1> is the selector as it designates the style to the 1st header.

Between the curly brackets { } are two examples of a declaration, the first being color:blue; followed by font-size:12px;. These declarations can be further broken down into their property and value. In the first instance is the property (color) which is separated by a colon : followed by the value (blue).

Bringing it all together

<style>

h1 {

  color: blue;

  font-size: 12;

}

</style>

<html>

<body>

<h1>

Digital Dexterity

</h1>

<p>

Digital dexterity is a critical component in the success of digital societies.

</p>

</body>

</html>

An ever-growing knowledge base

As the librarians at the University of Newcastle have developed our skills with web coding we have developed a knowledge base on LibGuides, where staff can see templates for components we have collected over time. The advantage of this knowledge base means having a library of consistent web elements which can be deployed as needed, saving time and creating ease of access.

To learn coding in a supported environment, W3Schools.com is a great and free web resource.

Open for Climate Justice: a podcast on open access, citizen science, and science communications

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UOW Library has released a new episode of the Light On podcast, focused on this years theme for Open Access Week: Open for Climate Justice.

The podcast is hosted by Sam Hutchinson, produced by (Digidex Blog member) Kristy Newton and features UOW academics Georgia Watson and Distinguished Professor Sharon Robinson, PhD candidate Teaniel Mifsud, and UOW Library’s Clare Job.

In the podcast, you’ll hear about:

  • how citizen science and science communication contribute to the accessibility of research for a wider audience
  • how the current Antarctic Futures exhibition at UOW combines scientific research, art and early learning activities to engage people of all ages with social justice and climate science.
  • how citizen science not only informed UOW research on how people encounter sharks while swimming, surfing or sailing, but also grew into a communication tool and opportunity for sharing knowledge between those involved too
  • how much people engage with the content in Research Online, because it wouldn’t be a UOW Library podcast without some Research Online statistics! (spoiler: already 2 million downloads this year).

If you’d like to discover more about our podcast guests, you can find them on Twitter. Sharon Robinson is @Antarcticmoss, Georgia Watson is @EcoloGee_, Teaniel Mifsud is @teanielmarie, podcast host Sam Hutchinson is @Saminthelibrary and podcast producer Kristy Newton is @librariano.

Click on the image to open the podcast in a new tab

Open knowledge activism for lifelong learning, independent research and knowledge translation

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By Clare O’Hanlon, La Trobe University Library

e: c.ohanlon@latrobe.edu.au

Open knowledge activism in libraries is about more than negotiating transformative agreements and making research available in repositories and open access journals. It also involves helping researchers and students give research back to communities in an accessible and meaningful format for their needs and contexts. Academic library worker support for student and academic digital literacies development, particularly information, media, and data literacies; collaboration; community and participation; and digital creation, problem solving and innovation, plays a crucial role in this. Local public library and community archive and museum workers provide extensive digital literacies, local history, STEM, and creative programming in their communities. Together we can do more to support lifelong learning, independent research, and knowledge translation.

Open knowledge activism by night

Volunteering with the Australian Queer Archives (AQuA) by night to preserve and make research and more knowledge available for and with LGBTIQA+ communities within and beyond the academy in multiple formats (from queer history walks and exhibitions to an Honours thesis prize and beyond) has helped me see that research can be a collective, generative, and transformative process. Our collection and work may not be open in traditional academic “Open Access” ways, and it is not safe for our collection to be completely open to all, but we are open in the inclusive sense of the word. In her Open as in dangerous talk, Chris Bourg illustrates the importance of individual privacy and protection from abuse and harassment, and warns that Open Access publishing can perpetuate existing systems of oppression and inequality and that opening up collections can potentially lead to a loss of context that is then extracted and shared in diverse ways. Bourg’s warnings and my work at AQuA by night motivate me to advocate for the collective, generative, and transformative kind of research and openness in the sometimes extractive and competitive academic environment I work in by day.

The Australian Queer Archives reading room
Australian Queer Archives reading room ready for visitors (author supplied).

Other ways that library workers can support open knowledge activism by night might include participating in learning spaces outside of universities, including but not limited to:

Open knowledge activism by day

Below are some ways I have helped and seen others help support lifelong learning, independent research, and knowledge translation through open knowledge activism by day:

Additionally, we could help connect academics and students with local public library, archive and museum-based STEM, local history, literary and creative programming rather than compete with such programs. Some examples of this public library and related programming include:

We must keep in mind the amount of labour involved in opening up research, translating it into practice, and making it accessible to communities and recognise that this is not always adequately acknowledged and supported. With increasing focus on research impact and engagement, this is changing, and I hope this post will encourage academic and public library workers to collaborate with each other and academics and students to open research with and for communities.

Large protest on Flinders Street in Melbourne with a trans flag and placard with the words 'Change the System' written in rainbow-coloured letters and two Aboriginal flags on it.
Protest in Melbourne (author supplied).

The OER Capability Toolkit – Reflection and Learning

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by Frank Ponte, Manager, Library Services (Teaching), RMIT University Library

E: frank.ponte@rmit.edu.au or
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/francoponte/ and Twitter: @ponte_frank

The OER Capability Toolkit

Cover of the OER Capability Toolkit from RMIT

Read and download the OER Capability Toolkit from:
https://rmit.pressbooks.pub/oercapabilitytoolkit/

Eighteen months ago, I formed a team to investigate how we would address OER awareness, adoption, support and capability for teaching staff. We addressed these needs through the development of an OER Capability Toolkit designed for the RMIT University audience but shared openly for others to adapt.

The authoring and development of this work was conducted remotely in the shared Teams environment. The OER Capability Toolkit was published in July 2022. The published work also spawned a set of four open education self-directed modules via the university HR platform for onboarding of new staff and professional development, an authoring toolkit and a style guide. Collectively, these works are the fundamental building blocks to open education knowledge building and all designed to provide the support structure required for educators to successfully author an open work.

Building the OER Capability Toolkit allowed me to reflect on the process that was undertaken and share the learning from our project.  

Sustainability

Sustainability is key driver in the development of an open publication. Educators are tasked with bringing together large groups of authors, and consequently need to ensure clarity and purpose. Therefore, a strong foundation of support is required. The library has provided this through the aforementioned publications, self-directed modules, and the Pressbooks authoring platform. In addition, the library created an open publishing team to reinforce our commitment to open education, streamline the support the library provides, and assign each open textbook project an open publishing team member to provide advice and guidance for a successful outcome.

A publishing workflow

When we embarked on our project to develop the OER Capability Toolkit our understanding of an open publishing workflow was emergent. In retrospect, it would have been a simpler task if we had a clearer understanding of the fundamental principles, processes and tasks associated with publishing rather than vacillating between authoring and addressing complex problems. The subsequent emergence of the CAUL publishing workflow  now anchors our support with educators and ensures that the seven stages of publishing and associated tasks are addressed at the appropriate time.

Creative Commons licensing

The OER Capability Toolkit is a remix. That is, the publication is a combination of existing creative commons resources and original content. Lessons learned include:

  • Ensuring there is an understanding of the license type you are publishing under from the outset. This will determine what resources you have at your disposal and can use in the adaptation process.
  • Knowing a non-derivative license cannot be used in any adaptation.
  • Maintaining track of what was being used in the adaptation. Doing so, assisted in creating the reference list and acknowledging the original resource.
  • Reflecting on your level of comfort with releasing an open work. That is, are you happy for your newly created work to be adapted, remixed, or monetized.

Formative and summative assessments – H5P activities

H5P is a plugin available in Pressbooks which allows the author to create formative and summative assessment tasks for learners. There is evidence to suggest that this kind of interactivity assists learners to stay focused and engaged with the content.  I wanted to include these activities in the OER Capability Toolkit as learning and engagement was a critical element to building and delivering this work. The toolkit contains a number of H5P activities used as formative assessment and presents a summative assessment called the “open pedagogy plan” in Part 5 as the culmination of this learning.

Open publications that contain formative and summative activities have the capacity to be embedded within the context of a broader course curriculum and provide the flexibilities required for educators to engage with open pedagogical practices.

Referencing

Ensure that attribution and citation are clearly defined and articulated from the beginning.  Even though the terms share characteristics, citations and attributions play different roles and appear in different places. A citation allows authors to provide the source of any quotations, ideas, and information that they include in their own work based on the copyrighted works of other authors. It is used in works for which broad permissions have not been granted.

Attribution on the other hand is used when a resource or text is released with an open licence. This legal requirement states that users must attribute — give credit — to the creator of the work and encompass these critical elements at a minimum:

  • Title of the work
  • Author (creator) of the work
  • Source (link) or where the work can be found
  • License of the work

Peer review, front and back matter

Peer review was an important element to get right. We engaged in three rounds of peer review. Starting by reviewing each other’s chapters within the authoring group. This exercise provided an initial opportunity to assess, grammar, language, the use, or overuse of acronyms, and finesse language and comprehension. The second peer review involved an external cohort of colleagues from other Australian universities who provided a similar overview but from an external perspective. A third peer review was undertaken using a tool called Hypothe.sis. This tool is a plug-in in Pressbooks and allows for social annotation with students. It is also a useful tool to implement as part of a peer review process. All commentary is contextualized within the chapters and responses are received by email and easily edited.


Front and back matter was important to include as part of the publication process. Including the front and back matter provided completeness to the work and offered context to the reader. The front matter introduced the new work and helped the reader understand the evolution of its creation and the back matter included a glossary and appendix.

In conclusion

The open education philosophy seamlessly interconnects with RMIT Library’s ethos of sharing knowledge and supporting learning. RMIT Library is well positioned to work with academic staff to create, produce, and disseminate open works via open platforms for maximum impact, and the library as publisher, can lead and shape the transformation of curriculum pedagogy where every learner is supported and valued.

Creating accessible content

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Luke Gaiter, Senior Manager – Digital Capability Support, The University of Queensland Library
Miranda Newell, Digital Content Specialist, The University of Queensland Library

Accessibility benefits everyone

Making content accessible isn’t just about changing existing things or establishing new ones to help a specific group.  It’s about shifting how we do things on a structural level to remove barriers that could affect anyone, permanently or temporarily.  

Accessibility involves thinking about your users and trying to reduce obstacles which prevent people from using the environments, systems and digital tools that others may take for granted.

Characters look confused about having to navigate a ladder over a mountain, a bridge over a river and travel a windy path to reach the other side.
Image by Manfred Steger from Pixabay.

Universal design

‘Universal Design is the design and composition of an environment so that it can be accessed, understood and used to the greatest extent possible by all people regardless of their age, size, ability or disability.’

Centre for Excellence in Universal Design

Screen Reader Demo for Digital Accessibility (YouTube, 4m44s) shows how screen reader users can efficiently navigate through content and what happens when content is not set up well for accessibility.  

Content elements

When you create content there are key elements to consider to make your content more accessible.

Structure

Content structure helps users to navigate the text. This can be particularly helpful for users with neurodiverse medical conditions.  Use:

  • heading styles and consistent formatting. Do not skip heading levels. Headings are used by screen reader and other assistive technology users to navigate through content 
  • short paragraphs that cover a single topic  
  • lists to present content. Lists tend to be easier to scan and often require fewer words   
  • Descriptive links. Let your user know what will happen when they click on the link.  

Language

Use simple and clear language when you write your content. Plain language is concise, well structured and easy to understand.

Tool to help – Hemmingway editor

Text (fonts)

The type, size and format of text can affect the accessibility of your content.  

  • Use a Sans Serif font. Sans serif fonts are designed to be simple and easy to read.   
  • Set font size to be at least 12 points for body text. This is the minimum size recommended for low vision and those who have a form of cognitive disability.  
  • Limit the use of bold, Italics and CAPITALS.  

Helpful tools: 

  • Dyslexie font helps to increase the ease of reading and comprehension for some users with dyslexia.  
  • The Ascend browser extension allows users to add accessibility features to their browser, including for dyslexia.  

Colour

Check the contrast of the colours you use. Ensuring good contrast between foreground and background colours is important for users who have low vision or colour blindness.   

Tools to help you:  

Images

Add alternative text (or alt text) to images you use in your content. 

  • Be as descriptive as possible.  
  • Any diagrams or charts will also need to be explained.  
  • An alt text description is unnecessary if the same information is available in text near the image or is used purely as a decorative element.  

Video and audio

Video or audio content should have captions and transcripts. If captions are not included, users who are deaf will miss out on the dialogue and any important sounds. A transcript allows people with deaf blindness to access the content using braille software.  

Tables

Tables can be difficult to navigate and understand for those using screen readers if they are not set up to be accessible. Use headers and properties so that screen readers can read out the row headings along with the cell information. Try to keep tables as simple as possible and avoid merging cells.

Helpful guide – Creating accessible tables.

The University of Queensland Library supports staff and students to create accessible content by providing:  

 Adapted from Create accessible content by the University of Queensland under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. 

A collaborative approach to student digital skills support: The UOW Digital Skills Hub

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By Kristy Newton, Digital Literacies Coordinator (UOW Library)

Digital literacies, digital capabilities, digital dexterity… no matter what you call them, these are an essential and complex set of practical skills, attitudes and contextual understanding that help us navigate and interact with the digital world. They can span everything from learning how to use a new piece of software, to understanding how communication styles differ depending on the channel you are using to communicate, to developing a growth mindset that enables you to engage in a process of continual learning and development. This post outlines the process of developing the UOW Student Digital Skills Hub as a strategy for supporting student digital skill development.

A collaborative approach

At UOW, we recognised that a collaborative approach was essential for supporting student digital literacies and that this collaboration needed to be seamless for students to access. There had been collaborative work on developing an institutional approach to digital literacies for a few years, but the unexpected challenges of COVID19 and the rapid transition to remote learning meant that a lot of that work was paused to allow staff to address the immediate challenges presented by the pandemic. Libraries are often champions of digital literacy development, but the complex interplay of practical skills and digital behaviours means that digital literacy support at an institutional level spans several units with areas of expertise. The IT support units are an obvious match for the development of technical skills, but the development of digital capabilities at University also incorporates clever learning design that means students encounter these development opportunities in ways that are meaningful for their learning, and a future careers perspective that contextualises their skill development in relation to their professional post-University lives. 

Stakeholders from the Pro Vice Chancellor (Students) Unit, Information Management and Technology Services (IMTS) Unit, and Learning Teaching & Curriculum (LTC) Unit are all strategic partners in the creation of the Digital Skills Hub. While the Library has a strong history of supporting digital literacies, as well as supporting the more traditional information literacies, it was important to us, that the site was not recognised solely as a Library site. We felt that this might compromise the value of the site for students who might think it was just about using databases rather than the broader range of digital skills and behaviours that make up their everyday lives.

The Digital Skills Hub

In late 2021, the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic and Student Life) revitalised the institutional conversation about digital literacies as part of a strategy for supporting student success, and identified the Library as a key stakeholder in this initiative.  In response, we created an online Digital Skills Hub – a one-stop shop for students to be able to access all the digital literacy support that they needed. The Hub provides a consistent location for students who don’t know where to find digital literacy support, recognising that they often need to seek support from a variety of different units and departments, but don’t know which unit to approach for help with their specific problem. Having all the content in one place makes this an easier proposition, particularly for students who are less digitally literate. Pragmatically, because we had the support of the DVC (A&SL), we were able to secure support in embedding a link to the Digital Skills Hub in all the subject Moodle sites. This means that it was easily accessible for most students, in a location that they were already accessing for academic purposes.

One of the factors that made the Digital Skills Hub possible, was the acquisition of the JISC Digital Capabilities service. This included the Discovery Tool, a tool which allows students to undertake a self-assessment and receive a personalised report on their digital skills. Alongside the Discovery Tool, the JISC site provided a suite of support resources, and capacity for us to create UOW specific support resources that are embedded in the JISC reports. The JISC interface also provides us with valuable information in the form of an institutional dashboard. This highlights student skills across the different capability areas and provides a heat map of where the strengths and areas for development lie across different student types and different faculties. The data is de-identified, so we can’t see what a particular students progress might look like, but it does give us a good idea of trends, enabling us to target support services where they are needed.

A one stop shop for digital skills information

The front page of the Student Digital Skills Hub

There are three main ways that the Digital Skills Hub supports students:
– It provides them with access to the JISC Discovery Tool, a self evaluation tool that illustrates each student’s personal strengths and weaknesses in relation to digital skills and provides them with a customised report and suggested actions/resources for developing those skills further.

– It explores Digital Capabilities through the lens of the JISC Digital Capabilities Framework, and highlights how those framework areas relate to everyday skills and digital behaviours

– It provides them with easy access to a knowledge base of FAQs on a variety of digital skills topics and gives them the opportunity to chat/ask a question. This knowledge base incorporates existing relevant FAQs as well as newly created FAQs that are specifically designed to support the needs of the Hub.

There is also a rating system for students to rate their satisfaction with the site, as well as a link for them to provide feedback. 

Key points to consider

For institutions interested in doing something similar, the following points are worthy of consideration.

  • It’s important to get the strategic support of the different units that make up the digital literacies support services for students. Creating a site where some support is offered, but students need to go elsewhere for different kinds of tasks, just creates barriers for students.
  • An accessible and well-designed platform is key to the success of the site. You want to make sure that students with lower levels of digital skills can access the site and find it easy to navigate. 
  • Centre the development of the site on the needs of the students who will be using it. We are using an iterative design process, which means that we take on board student feedback and insights from the literature to inform the way the site develops. We see the Digital Skills Hub as a constantly evolving resource that will continue to be shaped and developed by the needs of the people using it.

Six months on from the creation of the site, we are currently engaged in a process of seeking feedback to inform the way that the site develops in the future. This is driven by an iterative, human-centred approach to content development that commits to continuously evaluating whether the site meets user needs, and adapting and evolving the site to ensure it continues to do so.