Improving digital skills; A student centred approach

Abstract

Today’s students are often thought of as ‘digital natives’ but any teacher of analytical, data and digital based subjects will know that this is, in many ways, a misnomer as we find widely varying skill sets and abilities with technology. Last year I was given teaching and learning funding to reward the top students on the Digital Business Intelligence module with the opportunity to sit their Tableau Desktop Specialist License. They were also asked to initiate and set up a Business Analytics Society that could be a touch point for all things Business Analytics across the Business School and the rest of the university.

In this talk we will review what the students created, how they have used it to enhance their own employment opportunities but also to enhance the provision of data analytics across the Business School and how they linked up with students on other programmes such as Data Science, Mathematics and Computing. The student experience will be highlighted either directly through student co-presenters or excerpts from interviews with them at the end of their journey - after having taken the external exam and having handed over the running of the BAS to a new committee.

The students signed a contract and decided roles at the beginning of the project as they gathered resources for the BAS and learnt about external providers of data literacy and sourced interesting speakers. They found places to source data and learnt about potential competitions they could enter. They came to lectures to offer students help with their work and to be a touchpoint for all things Business Analytics. We will hear about what worked and what didn’t which is helping us improve future projects of this type.