Business
Turbocharging digital skills in business students
Supporting digital capability-building in staff and first year students
Meredith Tharapos
Associate Professor, Accounting, Information Systems & Supply Chain
Associate Professor, Accounting, Information Systems & Supply Chain
This project involved the creation of a series of dynamic videos and resources for use in the business foundation course, Business Decision Making across semesters and delivery locations. Focusing on Adobe Express, these resources support the development and application of business students’ digital skills and capabilities in a variety of real-world business contexts using an active, applied and authentic student-centred learning approach. Students engage with these resources in a team learning environment as they collaboratively learn and develop digital content that can be shared with prospective employers as demonstrable evidence of their digital adeptness.
Resources
> Teacher resource
> Assessment overview
> Student instructions
Problem Statement
In today's digital age, technology and digital storytelling play a central role in business operations. Digital skills provide business students with a competitive edge in the job market and have transformed the way people communicate and collaborate in the business world. Business students must be comfortable using various digital platforms as effective communication and collaboration skills in a digital environment are essential for working in teams, managing projects, and engaging with clients and stakeholders.
Being digitally adept is critical for business students to thrive and be positioned at the forefront of today's technology-driven business environment. It equips them with the skills and knowledge needed to navigate digital tools, leverage data, communicate effectively, innovate, and create value for organisations. Despite its importance, first year business students and their educators currently have minimal support to develop their digital skills.
This project lays a solid foundation for the development of digital skills within a first-year compulsory foundation course for all business students, Business Decision Making. Adobe Express is introduced to students in the course via the creation of a digital webpage, including a personal reflection and professional identity section, in assessment 3.
Project Overview
1. A series of professional development workshops to increase the digital capabilities of academic staff at RMIT Melbourne and Vietnam campuses, and local lecturers at SIM University, teaching into Business Decision Making. It is essential that academic staff teaching into this course are themselves digitally adept and competent using Adobe Express to stimulate students’ digital thinking, curiosity and creativity.
2. The creation of a series of dynamic videos and resources that can be used in the business foundation course, Business Decision Making across semesters and delivery locations. Using Adobe Express, these resources focus on the development and application of business students’ digital skills and capabilities in a variety of real-world business contexts using an active, applied and authentic student-centred learning approach. Students engage with these resources in a team learning environment as they collaboratively learn and develop digital content that can be shared with prospective employers as demonstrable evidence of their digital adeptness.
Emergent Outcomes
Workshops with staff teaching into Business Decision Making in Melbourne and Singapore were run at the commencement of semester. During the workshops, staff created their own webpage using Adobe Express to use when introducing themselves to students in the first class of the semester and as a demonstration of the medium that students will be required to use to complete assessment 3. The workshops also equipped staff with expertise in Adobe Express to support their students in the lead up to the assessment submission date.
> Staff example: https://express.adobe.com/page/cIHMQI81VPV8u
An assessment brief, rubric and marking guide were created suitable for use in a range of undergraduate or postgraduate business courses.
> Student assessment 3 examples:
The project outcomes will be shared in an Ed Talk at the American Accounting Association 2024 Conference on Teaching and Learning in Accounting in Washington DC in August 2024.
Digital Capability Building
This project involved:
Technical literacy in both teaching staff and students as they each engaged with Adobe Express to create a webpage that showcased their ability to leverage technology to covey information in a creative and engaging manner to their respective audiences.
Information literacy as the assessment required students to extensively research a company on the ASX200 list and use their digital skills to critically engage with the information, synthesise it and then present it in a creative and engaging manner to their intended audience which was a simulated Management and Leadership team.
Traditional accountancy
Contemporary accountancy
