Skip to main content

Your digital skills and capabilities

Supporting you to assess and develop your digital skills and capabilities, through resources, tools and technologies at Bath.

What are digital skills?

Digital skills are the skills you need to study and work in our fast-evolving digital world. Current technologies are being replaced by more advanced ones increasingly rapidly, so having a strong digital skillset, and feeling confident in your own capabilities to navigate through a constantly changing digital environment, will be very important for your future employment.

The types of skills and capabilities you need include:

  • learning how to use and adapt the right digital devices, applications, software and systems
  • finding, reviewing, organising and sharing information effectively
  • handling data appropriately and establishing good data security practices
  • using different online resources and tools to help you study remotely and engage effectively with your learning
  • being able to communicate and collaborate in a digital setting
  • understanding how to protect yourself, other students and colleagues, to stay safe in the digital environment.
Read our blog: Don't get left behind in the digital revolution

Assessing your digital skills

You can find out which digital skills you already have and which ones you need to develop by using the digital skills self-assessment tool.

Once you've answered all the questions in the tool, you'll receive a personalised report showing your current digital skills levels in six areas of digital capability. You can use this report to create your own digital skills development plan, using the links to free resources and courses provided.

Using the self-assessment tool will therefore help you to:

  • reflect on the digital skills relevant to your studies and future placement and employment
  • identify areas for development and plan your personal digital skills development path
  • ensure your digital capabilities are fully recognised and credited - completing the recommended courses gives you a digital badge / certificate which you can add to your CV or LinkedIn profile.
Access the digital skills self-assessment tool on MySkills
Aerial shot of three students pointing at a laptop screen.

Developing your digital skills

We use the JISC digital capability framework to help you develop and evaluate your digital skills.

This framework categorises digital skills in six key areas:

  1. ICT Proficiency
  2. Information, data and media literacies
  3. Digital creation, problem solving and innovation
  4. Digital communication, collaboration and participation
  5. Digital learning and development
  6. Digital identity and wellbeing.

These are broken down into individual proficiencies and associated to roles such as Learner and Researcher.

We've also compiled University of Bath resources linked to the six areas of digital capabilities. You can use these, as well as the resources highlighted in your personalised report, to develop your skills.

Access digital skills resources on MySkills
Two students work together on a laptop. In the background a third student is looking at a smartphone.

Your digital campus

At Bath you'll use a range of tools for your learning, teaching and assessment:

  • Moodle is our online virtual learning platform used to share lecture notes, access forums, submit coursework, take online assessments and find online courses.

  • Zoom is a collaborative webinar tool used for online teaching, tutorials and seminars.

  • Re:View (Panopto) is a video platform used to record and store video material.

  • Mahara is an e-portfolio system used to collect digital content to share learning, skills and development.

  • Office 365 is a Microsoft subscription service that includes access to Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams) and online productivity services, as well as services such as web conferencing, hosted email and online storage. It's available to all students at Bath and can be used across multiple devices.

You can find links to these tools and further guidance on MySkills.

Access guidance on using Bath’s tools on MySkills
Aerial view of a student typing on a laptop.

Importance of digital skills in the workplace

Using these technologies will help you develop your digital capability and confidence to meet the needs of future employers.

    82% of all online job vacancies require digital skills.

      Salaries for more specialised digital roles tend to be 36% higher than average.

        In recent years, the number of digital jobs has grown almost three times as quickly as other occupations.

        The importance of digital skills for employers. Sources: The Skills Toolkit; No longer Optional – Employer Demand for Digital Skills report commissioned by the DCMS, June 2019; Tech Nation 2016 report.

        License-free images in 'Assessing your digital skills' and 'Your digital campus' sections sourced from Unsplash.com.