Community of practice

This community of practice is open to staff and leaders in colleges and universities with a role and interest in the development of digital capabilities. There is a strong emphasis on leadership by the community, learning from each other and sharing what works.

Join our active community of practice

It is an open community that welcomes both experienced participants and those who have not previously engaged in this field but who would like to find out more.

With over 100 active participants, the network events and mailing list offer opportunities for colleagues to work together on all aspects of digital capability for staff and students.

Benefits of membership

Keynote speakers share their vision and strategy
Introduction to resources that will help your students and staff
Opportunities to network and learn from others
Updates on latest initiatives and research

And there’s more

Subscribers to our building digital capability service will also receive two priority places per institution for each of the two community of practice events held each year.

Thanks to all for organising and participating in a brilliant workshop. Great sharing of ideas and initiatives and a lot of inspiration to take back to University of Northampton.
Jim Harris, learning designer, University of Northampton

Join our mailing list by clicking on 'subscribe' under the 'options' section

Upcoming events

Exploring positive digital practices – 14 April 2022, 10:00-12:00 (online)

Showcasing new digital resources in scaling up positive practices in technology-enhanced learning and exploring opportunities to work together to pilot digital tools and resources in FE and HE, this workshop will seek critical feedback from participants. Free to attend but registration required. (Funded by the Office for Students, presented in partnership with Jisc).

Find out more about upcoming community fringe events and meetups

Previous community of practice events

Online event 5 April 2022. Hear about how our community champions of 2022 are sharing effective practice in both FE and HE and helping their communities to collaborate and flourish. Information available from our event page.
Webinar 3 March 2022. How are your professional services staff experiencing the digital environment? Following on from our reports on the digital experiences of learners/students and teaching staff, we launched the 2020/21 digital experience insights survey findings for professional services staff. The recording and transcript from the event are available on our event page.
Online event 30 November 2021. Joint building digital capability and digital experience insights community of practice event, delivered in partnership with University of Sunderland. The recording, transcript and materials from the event are available from our event page.
Online event 19 May 2021. This event was co-hosted by Manchester Metropolitan University. The recordings, transcripts and slides from the event are available from our event page and a summary of the event is available on our blog
Online event 17 November 2020. This event was co-hosted by the University of Derby. The recordings, transcripts and slides from the event are all now available from our event page, along with a blog post providing a summary of the themes from the day
Online webinar 24 September 2020 - supporting staff to teach effectively online: exploring our new discovery tool question set (slides, recording and recording transcript)
Online 21 May 2020 co-hosted by the University of Northampton
Edinburgh 27 November 2019 - resources from this event are available from our blog
London 14 May 2019 - kindly hosted in collaboration with UCL and the Bloomsbury Learning Environment (BLE)
Hertfordshire 21 November 2018 - kindly hosted by the University of Hertfordshire in collaboration with Jisc
Leicester 22 May 2018 – kindly hosted by the University of Leicester in collaboration with Jisc
Birmingham 30 November 2017
Birmingham 9 May 2017

Additional resources

We would like to share the following resources that have been used at our community and other events:

The game of digital pursuits - this is a good icebreaker that helps people to talk about digital capabilities in a practical and non-threatening way. How many 'cheeses' or 'pies' can you collect?

Board game (downloadable PDF)
Question cards (downloadable PDF)

(NB: a dice and coloured game components are required)

Step change: the game of organisational digital capabilities - a board game designed to prompt discussions on developing organisational digital capability

Game board, strategic cards, wild cards, case studies and facilitator's notes

(NB: a dice and counters are required)

Digital capabilities exploration game - a game developed by colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire designed to help individuals to learn about their own and others' digital capabilities by sharing experience and knowledge

Game board, instructions and resources