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<\/a>This made me wonder about the extent of the published research that explores the digital skills and the alumni. There is so much potential in understanding the changing nature of the workplace through engaging with students feeding back on their transition into their chosen careers. It also opens up a potential window into how digital technologies are changing the workplace. I thought I would have a quick look around for what I could find of this. I haven\u2019t taken a systematic approach to this, I just wanted to capture some interesting findings. I hope you find this useful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Alumni research:<\/strong> The published research report on a variety of subjects past students are consulted on. Interestingly, one vain is a focused on encouraging donations. As you might expect there is little in the area of digital skills and capabilities. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Alumni and new students:<\/strong> A long term reflective action research approach was taken by the Hospitality programme team at Sheffield Hallam University (Egan and Cockill, 2012). This reported on work over 5 years to see how they a improve the course through engagement with alumni. They began with an audit of all the different ways in which they connect with alumni. I\u2019m sure this type of process is used by many teams, and this paper details the process exploring how the programme has developed in response to feedback. One key activity being the mentoring scheme between new and past students. This reminded me of the last ELESIG event on Digital Champions<\/a>. Imagine building an alumni of digital champions and the potential perspectives from this groups as they report back on the developing digital workspace, and how they could support new champions.\u00a0\u00a0
<\/li>- Alumni and skill development:<\/strong> A large survey of STEM students (1500n) was undertaken by Technion University (Lavi, Tal and Dori, 2021). Similar to the University of Nottingham survey this focused on skills. The analysis focused on soft skills development, and identifying the teaching and learning activities which developed these, helping to match better practices for particular skill development. Not surprisingly active learning methods were identified as more conducive to skills development than passive. Perhaps hinting at the ways to integrate digital skills and capability development into the curriculum. Another study conducted an appreciative enquiry through interviews with 8 students (Fleischman and English, 2019). The themes also highlighted soft skills, as well as the importance of resilience, and the willingness to constantly learn. The method shows how much can be gleamed from small studies such as these in understanding the students transition and growing awareness.\u00a0\u00a0
<\/li>- Hidden research findings:<\/strong> I am going to guess that alumni research is being conducted by little of it seems to be appearing in publications. Which is a shame as its potential to inform course development and wider understanding of the student journey beyond the institution. I hope that work such as the University of Nottingham\u2019s approach could be conducted across institutions to provide a richer picture of digital capabilities.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
ELESIG are a group focused on supporting the development of evaluation and research of the student digital learning experience. Alumni voice offers a new space to explore this experience beyond the control of the institution but unique in providing a perspective we can all learn from.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Alumni and skill development:<\/strong> A large survey of STEM students (1500n) was undertaken by Technion University (Lavi, Tal and Dori, 2021). Similar to the University of Nottingham survey this focused on skills. The analysis focused on soft skills development, and identifying the teaching and learning activities which developed these, helping to match better practices for particular skill development. Not surprisingly active learning methods were identified as more conducive to skills development than passive. Perhaps hinting at the ways to integrate digital skills and capability development into the curriculum. Another study conducted an appreciative enquiry through interviews with 8 students (Fleischman and English, 2019). The themes also highlighted soft skills, as well as the importance of resilience, and the willingness to constantly learn. The method shows how much can be gleamed from small studies such as these in understanding the students transition and growing awareness.\u00a0\u00a0
- Alumni and new students:<\/strong> A long term reflective action research approach was taken by the Hospitality programme team at Sheffield Hallam University (Egan and Cockill, 2012). This reported on work over 5 years to see how they a improve the course through engagement with alumni. They began with an audit of all the different ways in which they connect with alumni. I\u2019m sure this type of process is used by many teams, and this paper details the process exploring how the programme has developed in response to feedback. One key activity being the mentoring scheme between new and past students. This reminded me of the last ELESIG event on Digital Champions<\/a>. Imagine building an alumni of digital champions and the potential perspectives from this groups as they report back on the developing digital workspace, and how they could support new champions.\u00a0\u00a0