LiDA100: Learning in a Digital Age

Download print version of Assessment description and rubrics for LiDA101 (pdf)

You must complete five tasks for this Edubit assessment:

Consult the respective assessment rubric before you complete the tasks.

Task 1: Apply digital tools to support learning on the Internet for tertiary education purposes

Performance indicators

I can do the following:

1. Maintain a public personal blog as my elearning portfolio.
2. Interact constructively with public online learning communities using forums and social media.
3. Annotate and discuss web resources publicly in support of my learning.
4. Share with my learning peer group recommendations for online resources that I have found to be useful.
5. Use citation management software for my personal online resource library.

Evidence to demonstrate competency

I have provided:

1. Links to a minimum of three (3) individual blog posts that you have published online on any topic related to learning in a digital age or a formal learning context. These posts must include external links, images, tags and references where appropriate and must be approximately 250 words each.
2. Links to two (2) examples of forum posts (and/or replies) demonstrating authentic and substantive engagement with the topic of discussion within online learning communities. Provide a sentence summarising your intention and the context for each example.
3. Links to four (4) examples of your use of social media in support of learning online; for example, microblog posts or comments on other blogs. Provide a sentence summarising your intention and the context for each example.
4. Use the online tool Hypothes.is to annotate resources (see: Guide for Students). This should list your public annotations and comments for a minimum of four (4) different online resources or documents associated with your Hypothes.is account. The link to your user page of Hypothes.is which will be in the form of: https://hypothes.is/users/Your_username. Provide a sentence describing your experience using public annotations.
5. Source links to a minimum of four (4) examples showing where you shared and recommended online resources publicly; for example, in a social bookmarking site or blog post summary. Please note, we require the link demonstrating that you shared resource links – not the links to the actual individual resources. The link provided should contain your reason for sharing the resources, as well as the link to the original source. In a sentence, describe the approach you used to evaluate the legitimacy of your recommendations.
6. A link to a public online version of your reference library, or alternatively, provide screenshots showing an extract of your library collection and the detailed view of an individual item. Your reference library should contain a minimum of five (5) entries. (See how to select and use a reference management tool.)

(Please submit the url to a publicly accessible version of your blog post. Ensure that you have made your post public in the editing settings of your preferred blog software (unlisted or draft posts will not be visible to the public). You can test the blog url link before submitting using your browser’s private or incognito mode to ensure that the assessor can access the resources without login credentials. For more information consult incognito browsing published by Lifewire).

Task 2: Explain what digital literacies mean for you in a tertiary education context

Performance indicators

I can do the following:

1. Define the concept of digital literacies and its implications for my learning
2. Review the digital tools that I use for formal learning
3. Develop an action plan for improving my digital literacies.

Evidence to demonstrate competency

I have provided the following:

1. A personal definition of digital literacies based on my reading of the literature and credible online resources with supporting references in APA style. (Consult APA style published by the University of Canterbury.)
2. A description of what digital literacies mean for my formal learning (in a sentence).
3. A review of the digital tools that I use to support formal learning. This review should be presented in the form of a Personal Learning Network (PLN) map generated using your preferred graphics software. (Please consult this learning challenge for more information on PLN maps.)
4. A summary of your action plan for improving digital literacies; identifying the literacies you plan to improve, including the reasons why, and how you aim to achieve the nominated improvements.

(You can submit evidence for task 2 as a link to a blog post or text contained within your electronic submission.)

Task 3: Apply advanced search skills to select credible open resources for a research topic

Performance indicators

I can do the following:

1. Justify a topic suitable for a short research project.
2. Apply online search techniques to find relevant online resources.
3. Apply a framework to evaluate the credibility of online resources.
4. Justify the selection of credible resources for my chosen research topic.

Evidence to demonstrate competency

I have provided an annotated bibliography for a research topic of my choice which includes:

1. A statement of your research topic in the form of a question.
2. A short explanation (e.g. 1-2 sentences) of why your topic is suitable for a short research project at the 1st year, tertiary education level.
3. A minimum of two (2) resources selected by applying advanced online search strategies.
4. A minimum of two (2) resources selected from online database searches.
   • Summarise the steps you applied to filter the selection of one (1) resource supported by screenshots of the online search techniques demonstrating your application of advanced searching skills.
5. A confirmation of the evaluation framework used to evaluate the credibility of the resources by stating the framework and providing a reference to the source.
6. A statement of the criteria used to evaluate the credibility of the resources.
7. An alphabetical list of the sources using the APA reference style; each followed with the summary for the bibliographic entry.
8. Each bibliographic entry must include:
   • A reference to the type of search approach i.e. online search using advanced search techniques or database search.
   • A concise summary of the resource.
   • A statement identifying how the resource relates to your research question.
   • A justification (based on your preferred evaluation framework) of why the resource is credible for tertiary education purposes.
9. Please note that the scope for an individual annotated bibliography is typically 150 – 200 words.

All resources must be legally accessible as open access without the need for a paid subscription.

Task 4: Present research findings for tertiary education purposes

Performance indicators

I can produce an analytical essay for a research topic of my choice that:

1. Investigates an idea / research question.
2. Evaluates evidence.
3. Generates a defensible argument that meets academic standards.
4. Uses digital tools to prepare a professionally styled document integrating citations and references.

Evidence to demonstrate competency

I have provided:

1. An essay of no more than 700 words applying the structural conventions for an analytic essay, including: a thesis statement, main position, alternative perspectives, justification of the main position and conclusion. See, for example, Writing an analytic essay published by the University of Toronto.
   • Your essay should be a demonstration of objective academic writing by illustrating both sides of an argument, and by avoiding personal opinion, generalisations and unjustified assertions. Do not use personal pronouns, slang, and intensifiers that exaggerate your writing; for example “very”, “really”.
   • Include a minimum of five (5) credible references and in-text references and citations where appropriate. (Use the APA style for in-text references and citations.)
2. A submission using in Libre Office (.odt) or MS Word (.docx) format, and presented professionally using the following style guidelines:
   • Title, 14pt bold (centered).
   • Use styles for headings and subheadings (Main headings 12pt bold, Second level 11 pt bold, third level 11 pt italic bold).
   • Use 11 pt for body text, 1.5 line or double line spacing.
   • Enclose quotes of less than 40 words in double quotation marks in text; indent quotes longer than 40 words in block format using italics.
   • List sources alphabetically (under the heading references at the end of the essay) using the APA style.
3. A submission demonstrating consistent spelling and acceptable grammar. (You may use a spell and grammar checker. Choose your preferred English spelling preference; for example American, Australian, Canadian, United Kingdom etc., and apply your spelling preference consistently throughout the essay).
4. Evidence that citations and references were generated using reference management software; for example, using form fields in the word processing document, or providing an explanation with supporting screen-shots from your preferred reference management software, to show how you generated the references.

Task 5: Assess your learning as a reflective digital online learner

Performance indicators

I can do the following:

1. Provide evidence of learning through self-evaluation.
2. Demonstrate reflective learning skills.

Evidence to demonstrate competency

I have provided a learning reflection based on my knowledge and experiences with Digital literacies for online learning that:

1. Explains the connections between my experience (what I already knew) and what I have learned from Digital literacies for online learning.
2. Identifies WHAT I have learned, and also HOW I have learned it.
3. Covers the following aspects in less than 400 words:
   • Description: Provide your reader with comments on specifically what happened during your learning journey.
   • Evaluation: What was “good” and “bad” about the experience?
   • Analysis: What did you learn from it? How do you feel about it now? Did it change you? How?
   • Conclusion: What alternatives did you consider at the time? What else might you have done?
   • Plan: What new knowledge or skills do you now have, and how will this expertise inform your future learning?