Digital Literacy is a new concept, and is becoming a major focus for employers and educators who want to set people up for success.

Most people know what Language, Literacy and Numeracy (LLN) means and how that concept is used to make sure employees and learners have the right skills to succeed in a role or learning program.

Recently, Digital Skills have been added to the list, creating LLND.  This was an important addition because digital skills are so critical to nearly every aspect of modern education and industry requirements.

The Digital Literacy Skills Framework or DLSF (as it applies to education) sets benchmarks to help measure both the digital skill requirements of a course/qualification and the digital skills of the learner.

At ACCM College, we have designed our programs to make our qualifications as accessible as possible to those seeking to complete their studies online. 

But there are still minimum benchmarks for Digital Literacy to be suited for online learning.

There are six levels of performance under the current model of the DSL Framework.

While there are some variations based on content and subject choice within ACCM's qualifications, with the exception of our Accounting and Information Technology courses, our digital literacy requirements primarily fall within these two levels:

ACCM's online programs offer an incredibly flexible, relevant and useful delivery method that offers:

• 24/7 access to learning materials and assessment activities from anywhere with an internet connection
• The ability to access their program from a computer, laptop, tablet or web-enabled mobile phone
• User friendly and intuitive interfaces using the latest advances in online technology
• A broad range of mediums to transfer knowledge and understanding (text, video, audio, pictures, etc)
• Innovative, practical and meaningful assessment methods to gauge skills and ability

However, online learning isn’t always the most suitable learning method for all students.

There is a certain level of digital literacy required to be successful in our programs.

ACCM College is committed to ensuring each learner’s Digital Literacy is suitable for our programs.

ACCM makes every effort we can think of to ensure students know and meet the Digital Literacy requirements for each qualification. 

Specifically:

• Digital Literacy requirements are clearly listed for each qualification we offer on their information page.
• As part of the online enrolment process, potential students are provided information on Digital Literacy and asked to consider their skills against the published requirements of the qualification they seek.
• Potential students are encouraged to contact ACCM to discuss any Digital Literacy concerns as part of the enrolment process.
• Digital Literacy is evaluated during the Initial Skills Assessment as part of the induction process prior to accepting the enrolment.
• Digital Literacy requirements are discussed and student suitability determined during the mandatory induction call prior finalising the enrolment application.
• Student progress and feedback is reviewed to ensure Digital Literacy concerns are addressed.

Assessment is the process to award a student competency in unit/s of competency.

For a student to be assessed as competent, we must ensure the student has:

• Learnt and absorbed the required knowledge
• Developed the skills (often progressively) and
• Can combine the knowledge and skills to demonstrate:
  - An ability to perform relevant tasks in a variety of workplace situations (or accurately simulated workplace situations)
  - Consistency in performance and a consistent ability to demonstrate skills when performing tasks
  - An understanding of what they are doing and why, when performing tasks
  - The ability to integrate performance with understanding, to show they are able to adapt to different contexts and environments.

We use a range of methods to gather evidence of competency i.e. evidence of your completion of the assessment activities.

For typical question and answer activities you will type the answers into the online learning platform Webclass.

Role Plays will be conducted by phone or video calls e.g. Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

Many practical activities are evidenced by you completing simulations within the online learning system e.g. data input or completing a sample workplace form or spreadsheet.

Some subjects require specific interactions. These may be addressed by email exchanges, a group video conference or use of a specific application e.g. IT Ticket System.

Observations can be by live video or a recorded video where we can see the participant was you.

In general, we have identified assessment methods that are suitable for remote assessment.

Each subject will have a range of formative and summative assessment activities selected based on the units of competency.

Common formative assessment methods used to assess foundation knowledge include written short answer questions, multiple choice questions and match the correct answer questions. These are typed into the online learning platform Webclass. Case Study scenarios are often used to give relevant context to these questions.

The main or summative assessment activities are often more skill-based and practical activities such as:

• Demonstrating skills like communication and service skills in role plays or skills checks
• Practical activities like scheduling a meeting or completing a purchasing order
• Completing accounting or IT activities (for those types of courses) in a Lab environment
• Demonstrating safe manual lifting skills

In higher level qualifications the summative assessments might include activities like:

• Drafting policies or procedures
• Investigating a complex scenario and identifying recommendations
• Conducting complex verbal negotiations or discussions
• Preparing project documents using specific project tools 
• Writing detailed documents

Instructions for all assessment activities are provided, along with information about what the expectation is to achieve competency.

Each subject will have specific Assessment Resources and Assessment Conditions based on the unit/s of competency.

In general, we will provide the required assessment resources and establish the required conditions.

These may typically include:

• Sample workplace policies and procedures to apply eg complaints procedure
• Sample workplace forms eg safety incident reports
• Relevant and realistic scenarios eg a loan application 
• IT labs where the specific troubleshooting, setting or networking activities can be undertaken
• Having a group discussion or meeting with multiple participants
• Accounting transactions to be processed

Each subject will give you an overview of the summative assessment activities at the start; and specific activities will include or reference the required resources. The instructions will disclose any specific conditions to be applied.

You will however be required to:

• Have phone access to conduct required role plays/skills checks
• Access specific computer applications where specified in that subject e.g. Microsoft Word for word processing, Microsoft Excel for spreadsheets,  XERO/MYOB for accounting courses, or specific IT applications 
• Use a video conferencing tool eg MS Teams or Zoom and
• For limited IT subjects - have specific hardware to be used

One of the challenges of online assessment is ensuring the student is the person undertaking the assessments. Yes, we know you would need to be pretty rich and desperate to pay someone to do your Certificate III course - but we do need to check.

The ACCM process has a number of ways we do this, of which you should be aware of:

• Online text allows the functionality to look for copied text whether that's from the internet or from another student.
• Online also allows typing speeds and patterns to be captured and compared.
• Webclass records the computer IP address being used. This alerts us if your work is now being done on a new device.
• Answers that are selected can be randomised - so the correct answer is listed in different orders for different students.
• Activities ask that you use your name or date of birth or other details in specific questions.
• Different case study scenarios are allocated based on your surname.

These processes may mean you are asked to identify yourself during the assessments e.g.

• To use your name in documents.
• To use your date of birth in calculations.
• Answer specific case study scenarios from a designated pool of questions.
• While online you may find a pop-up that asks you for information about your enrolment. This is triggered if our system identifies something unusual about your assessments.
• In role plays you may be asked to identify yourself.
• In recorded videos you will have instructions about how to show us your identity i.e. to see your face on screen talking or showing us your Drivers Licence.

Lastly, and importantly, we ask your Workplace Supervisor (for employment related enrolments) to agree with us about competency before it is awarded.