The Digital Literacies Initiative at ERAU – Daytona Beach campus begin in 2015 in response to faculty calls for improved digital media skills from students. The initiative focuses on three ways to improve digital literacies campus-wide:
- Faculty development grants that encourage and support innovative digital media assignments
- The creation of a campus Digital Studio, to provide students access to digital technologies and supplemental instruction of digital literacy skills
- Campus outreach to identify extracurricular opportunities to advance students’ digital literacy skills
This initiative is supported by the Task Force on Innovation and the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence.
CTLE supported faculty in a number of ways.Faculty were provided with a modest stipend for their contributions to this prototype project. To encourage faculty to develop digital literacy assignments in their courses, the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence developed a Digital Literacy Grant. Adapting and implementing a digital literacies model from the University of Southern California, faculty spent the summer developing materials and creating rubrics for these assignments. This initial pilot program has been expanded with each semester.
The Digital Studio is a tutoring space located at Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach Campus that aims to expose students and faculty to various digital literacy skills through one-on-one tutoring. By providing access to digital technology, supplemental instruction of graphic layout & design techniques, and working closely with faculty regarding visually oriented assignments in their curriculum, the Digital Studio has helped hundreds of students improve their understanding of basic digital media creation skills since it opened in Fall 2015.
The Digital Studio employs many talented tutors who teach students both inside and out of the Digital Studio’s tutoring space. One way that tutors educate outside of the Studio space is through workshops. The Digital Studio also collaborates with various clubs and organizations on campus, such as the Archimedes Initiative and the semi-annual EGR120 poster competition.
