This article gives an overview of Jisc Discovery tool. The article explains how to log in as student or staff, and guides you to take your self-assessment.

What is Jisc Discovery tool

The Jisc Discovery tool is a developmental tool that staff and students can use to self-assess their digital capabilities, identify their strengths, and offers opportunities to develop their skills further.

Discovery tool questions are quiz-like and non-judgmental. They aim to assess users' confidence and experience about:

• user's digital skills
• confidence in different digital areas.

Just by answering the questions, staff and students are made aware of digital practices they already have and new ones they can develop.

On completion, staff and students will receive a report with suggested next steps and links to free resources that can help them develop further. The self-assessment will highlight strengths, levels of confidence and also areas where skills can be developed. It then suggests some resources to help build these digital skills. The report is anonymous-names are not saved as part of the report.

The Digital Learning Team also welcome your feedback on using the tool in this Discovery Tool feedback form.

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How to log in

Instructions for staff

Video tutorial

1. To log in to the Discovery tool, go to https://jisc.potential.ly/signin:
   
   1. Go to the 'Find your organisation' box and add the 'University of Southampton'
      
   2. Select 'Continue'
   3. Follow the usual university on-screen MFA log in process.
2. Account setup: When the discovery tool page opens, you will need to create an account:
   
   1. Select 'No' to the screen question ‘Were you a discovery tool user before 1 August 2022?’
   2. Select 'Staff' 
   3. Select 'Submit'.
3. Add your details. The 'Explore the Discovery tool' page will open:
   
   1. Select the box 'Discovery tool for staff'.
   2. A 'Welcome to the Discovery tool' box will appear on screen. If your name does not appear, you can overwrite the string of letters and numbers and add your name in the ‘First Name’ and 'Last Name' boxes.
   3. Next, choose your department and work area from the drop-down list
   4. Select 'Submit'. Your account is now set up
4. Take one of the questionnaires:
   
   1. Select the 'Question sets and reports for staff' box to open the questionnaire page. We recommend starting with the ‘Overall digital capabilities’ questionnaire (takes about 15 minutes).

Please note: the tool does not share your name or details with anyone. Your reports are completely anonymous.

Instructions for students

Video tutorial

1. To log in to the Discovery tool, go to https://jisc.potential.ly/signin:
   
   1. Go to the 'Find your organisation' box and add the 'University of Southampton'
      
   2. Select 'Continue'
   3. Follow the usual university on-screen MFA log in process.
2. Account setup: When the discovery tool page opens, you will need to create an account:
   
   1. Select 'No' to the on screen question 'Were you a discovery tool user before 1 August 2022?'
   2. Select 'Student'
   3. Select 'Submit'.
3. Add your details. The 'Explore the Discovery tool' page will open:
   
   1. Select the box 'Discovery tool for students'.
   2. A 'Welcome to the Discovery tool' box will appear on screen. If your name does not appear, you can overwrite the string of letters and numbers and add your name in the ‘First Name’ and 'Last Name' boxes.
   3. Choose your 'Level of course'. Remember to choose 'HE' for your level and the correct level:
      
      1. Undergraduate = 'HE (Bachelor's or Honours)'
      2. Postgraduate = 'HE (Master's)'
      3. PhD = 'HE (Doctoral)'.
   4. After you choose your subject from the drop-down list
   5. Select 'Submit'. Your account is now set up
4. Take one of the questionnaires:
   
   1. Select the ‘Question sets and reports for students’ box to open the questionnaire page. We recommend starting with the ‘Current students (Higher Education)’ questionnaire (takes about 15 minutes). Please so not select the FE student questionnaire by mistake.

Please note:  the tool does not share your name or details with anyone and your reports are completely anonymous.

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How Jisc Discovery tool works

The Discovery tool has different question sets. When you finish the self-assessment, the tool generates a report of your skills and confidence in a radar chart.

The report will give you short text explanations of each of your areas of digital capability as one of these levels:

• Developing
• Capable
• Proficient

There is also a 'Next steps' section with some suggestions of resources to help you build your digital skills. You can download this report as a PDF.

Recommend courses

• 'Overall digital capabilities'. This is the best one for all staff  (Academics, Professional Staff and Researchers)
• 'Current students (Higher Education)'. This is the best one for all students (new students, Undergraduates or Postgraduates)

The Digital Learning Team have created collections of LinkedIn Learning and university resources to help build digital skills in each area - these are available on our DigiSkills Metro map.

There are other self-assessment question sets available, but we do not have LinkedIn Learning resources for these yet - instead, you will be directed to other resources to build your skills.

Saving, viewing and downloading your reports

Saving your reports

The Discovery tool saves your self-assessment reports when they are complete or still in-progress (the progress bar on the report tile will change to a darker green).

Viewing and downloading your reports

Staff can view and download reports later by:

1. Navigating to the 'Discovery tool for staff' page.
2. Selecting 'Question sets and reports for staff' and then selecting the tile containing your report.
3. When the next page opens, select the blue 'View report' button.
4. Download your report by selecting the PDF icon in the top right-hand corner of the report.

Students can view and download reports later by:

1. Navigating to the 'Discovery tool for students' page.
2. Selecting 'Question sets and reports for students' and then selecting the tile containing your report.
3. When the next page opens, select the blue 'View report' button.
4. Download your report by selecting the PDF icon in the top right-hand corner of the report.

Retaking a self-assessment

You can retake the self-assessments and we suggest you do this in 6-12 months' time.

Staff can retake the self-assessment by:

1. Navigating to the 'Discovery tool for staff' page.
2. Selecting 'Question sets and reports for staff' and then selecting the tile containing your report.
3. When the next page opens, select the blue 'Retake' button.

Students can retake the self-assessment by:

1. Navigating to the 'Discovery tool for students' page.
2. Selecting 'Question sets and reports for students' and then selecting the tile containing your report.
3. When the next page opens, select the blue 'Retake' button.

You will then be able to compare radar charts for 2 different reports when you select 'View report'. This will help you see how your digital skills are improving.

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Improve your skills

The Digital Learning Team have created pathways of resources in LinkedIn Learning that you can use to build your skills in each of the areas of the report.

You can access these LinkedIn Learning Pathway resources via the DigiSkills metro map below.

LinkedIn Learning Pathways

Pathways are divided by level into the same categories as in your Discovery tool report: 'Developing', 'Capable' and 'Proficient'. Select the resources that are most relevant and useful to you.

 
If you want to add useful features to LinkedIn Learning, visit the following pages:

• Help Logging in to LinkedIn Learning
• Useful Features and Options in LinkedIn Learning
• Accessing Exercise Files in LinkedIn Learning
• Viewing Closed Captions in Linkedin Learning

DigiSkills Metro Map

Staff and students can improve their digital skills following the Digiskills Metro map. You will find 3 paths for staff (Academics, Professional Staff and Researchers) and 2 for students (UG Students - Undergraduates and PG Students - Postgraduates).

 
Your resources appear as 'stations' on the metro line. To build your skills, choose any station to access your resources. There’s no time limits, you can start and finish wherever you want.

Additional digital skills resources

There are over 850 resources that come with the Discovery tool. The resources are organized by:

• Digital skill.
• Question set (for example: 'Accessibility and Inclusion' or 'New students').
• Publisher (Microsoft, Google, ETF).

You can favourite, like and share these resources.

 
How to access these resources:

• Staff: go to the 'Discovery tool for staff' page and visit the ‘Resource bank for staff’.
• Students: go to the 'Discovery tool for students' page (or via the menu panel) and visit the ‘Resource bank for students’.

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How to get help

If you cannot log in, raise a ticket to ServiceLine typing ‘Jisc Discovery tool’ in the ‘Subject’ line.

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Related content

Jisc Discovery Tool : Help guide for Staff

Jisc Discovery Tool : Help guide for Students

LinkedIn Learning at Southampton