Community of practice
The community of practice is open to staff and leaders in colleges and universities with a role and interest in the development of digital capabilities. There is a strong emphasis on leadership by the community, learning from each other and sharing what works. We also have a series of support webinars for subscribers to the discovery tool.
Upcoming events
Community of practice events (BDC and DEI)
Joint building digital capability and digital experience insights community of practice
Join us online for our tenth joint BDC and DEI insights community of practice event on 12 November 2024 10:00 - 14:30
Sign up details can be found on our events page
Support webinars (BDC only)
Using the discovery tool institutional resource cards to support digital capability - Online 24 October 2024 13:00
This session is aimed at current discovery tool subscribers who would like to edit their institutional resource cards within the discovery tool and includes a presentation from the University of Leeds.
Joining details are available via our events page
Previous community of practice events
06 June 2024 Joint BDC/DEI community of practice event
Our ninth community of practice event, hosted online in collaboration with Leeds Trinity University, to find out more about our building digital capability and digital experience insights services.
Recording available via our events page
29 November 2023
Our eighth joint building digital capability and digital experience insights community of practice event where we looked at developing digital skills with AI literacy.
Recording available at our events page
8 June 2023
In person joint building digital capability and digital experience insights community of practice event at City University, London. The theme for this event was Digital transformation: perspectives on implementing change.
24 May 2023 - Maximising and personalising digital resources in BDC
This online event will provide users of Jisc's building digital capability discovery service the opportunity to explore the curated resources within the tool, learn how to upload their own resource cards and hear how others have personalised their user experience within their own and Jisc's resources.
28 February 2023 - Discovery tool demo
Join this online event to find out more about the Building digital capability (BDC) discovery tool. This session will be an opportunity to refresh users with the features of the discovery tool, for users to ask questions and for Jisc staff to provide support. For more information see our events page.
7 December 2022
The sixth joint building digital capability and digital experience insights community of practice event. Several organisations shared practice, ideas and issues around enhancing student, staff and organisational digital capability, particularly in the current context with a move to more online delivery. They also discussed approaches to gathering students and staff expectations and experiences of technology in the current changing context.
26 May 2022
Learn about how staff and leaders in higher and further education are developing the digital environment, experience and capabilities of students and staff.
5 April 2022
Hear about how our community champions of 2022 are sharing effective practice in both FE and HE and helping their communities to collaborate and flourish.
3 March 2022
How are your professional services staff experiencing the digital environment? Following on from our reports on the digital experiences of learners/students and teaching staff, we launched the 2020/21 digital experience insights survey findings for professional services staff.
30 November 2021
Joint building digital capability and digital experience insights community of practice event, delivered in partnership with University of Sunderland.
19 May 2021
This event was co-hosted by Manchester Metropolitan University. A summary of the event is available on our blog. Presentations from Jisc and Manchester Metropolitan University (transcript [Word]), some of our members (transcript [Word]) and the City of Wolverhampton College (transcript [Word]) are available from YouTube.
17 November 2020
This event was co-hosted by the University of Derby. A blog post is available, providing a summary of the themes from the day.
24 September 2020
Supporting staff to teach effectively online: exploring our new discovery tool question set. View the recording (YouTube) and read the recording transcript (Word)
21 May 2020
Online community of practice event co-hosted by the University of Northampton. View the recording (YouTube)
27 November 2019
University of Edinburgh. Resources from this event are available from our blog
14 May 2019. London
Hosted in collaboration with UCL and the Bloomsbury Learning Environment (BLE)
21 November 2018
Hosted by the University of Hertfordshire in collaboration with Jisc. Information available on our events page
22 May 2018
Hosted by the University of Leicester in collaboration with Jisc.
Previous BDC support webinars
New discovery tool feedback and support (6 October 2022)
This session was an opportunity to feedback on your experiences of the discovery tool enhancements. Unfortunately recordings are not available for this event and its breakout sessions.
Leeds Trinity University and Education Partnership North East (15 March 2022)
View the recording on YouTube and download the transcript. View the presentation slides from Patrick Turner (Leeds Trinity University).
Implementing the discovery tool: two FE case studies and a festive activity (14 December 2021)
View the recording, and download the presentation slides (from Jisc and Middlesbrough College and South Gloucestershire and Stroud College) and the recording transcript
Discovery tool implementation: activities to engage staff and students (6 October 2021)
Download the recording transcript and presentation slides, including presentations from the University of Plymouth and University of Sunderland
Discovery tool implementation: activities to engage staff and students (30 June 2021)
View the presentation slides (including guest presentations from the University of Hull and Ulster University), recording, and download the recording transcript
Implementing the discovery tool - presentations and community site discussions (24 February 2021)
View the presentation slides (webinar presentation excluding guest presenters, slides for James Cale: University of Wales Trinity St David presentation, slides for Gunter Saunders: University of Westminster presentation) and download the recording transcript
Evaluation of service and discussion of potential service developments (11 November 2020)
Presentation slides, recording and transcript
Supporting staff to teach effectively online: exploring our new discovery tool question set (24 September 2020)
View the presentation slides, recording and download the recording transcript
Implementing the discovery tool (23 June 2020)
A transcript of the recording is available
Organisation-wide data visualisations in the discovery tool (29 April 2020)
A transcript of the webinar is available and you can also view the presentation slides
Making the most of your data (25th February 2020)
Watch the recording of this session and view the presentation slides
Approaches to adding resources to the discovery tool (29 January 2020)
Watch the recording of this session and view the presentation slides
Building digital capability webinar for FE and skills (10 December 2019)
Watch the recording of this session and view the presentation slides
News and updates from the service (23 October 2019)
Including plans for data visualisation enhancement, overview of our organisational maturity model and an outline of our working with you offer). View the presentation slides
Sharing implementation approaches (10 July 2019)
Watch the recording of this session and view the presentation slides
Adding your resources to the discovery tool (28 March 2019)
Watch the recording of this session and view the presentation slides
Access and understand your data (30 January 2019)
Watch the recording of this session and view the presentation slides
Join our active community of practice
It is an open community that welcomes both experienced participants and those who have not previously engaged in this field but who would like to find out more.
With over 100 active participants, the network events and mailing list offer opportunities for colleagues to work together on all aspects of digital capability for staff and students.
Benefits of membership
- Keynote speakers share their vision and strategy
- Introduction to resources that will help your students and staff
- Opportunities to network and learn from others
- Updates on latest initiatives and research
Subscribers to our building digital capability service will also receive two priority places per institution for each of the two community of practice events held each year.
Support webinars
We have a separate Microsoft Teams community and a series of webinars for subscribers to the discovery tool, offering guidance and support for those implementing the service in their institution.
Our Microsoft Teams community offers members who are subscribers to the discovery tool a chance to ask questions about implementing the discovery tool and to discuss issues and solutions with their peers in other organisations.
The Teams community provides discussion threads. It is also home to various support resources, including the text of the question sets and some of our support webinars.
Access is limited to administrators or those involved in implementing these services in their organisation. You will be provided with a form to join the community after onboarding.
Additional resources
We would like to share the following resources that have been used at our community and other events:
The game of digital pursuits - this is a good icebreaker that helps people to talk about digital capabilities in a practical and non-threatening way. How many 'cheeses' or 'pies' can you collect?
- Board game (downloadable PDF)
- Question cards (downloadable PDF)
(NB: a dice and coloured game components are required)
Step change: the game of organisational digital capabilities - a board game designed to prompt discussions on developing organisational digital capability
Game board, strategic cards, wild cards, case studies and facilitator's notes
(NB: a dice and counters are required)
Digital capabilities exploration game - a game developed by colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire designed to help individuals to learn about their own and others' digital capabilities by sharing experience and knowledge
Game board, instructions and resources
(NB: a dice and counters are required)
DigiDice (created by Dr Monica Chavez, educational developer (TEL), University of Liverpool. This link will take you to a Google drive) - resources include a short video explaining the origins of the game and how to play, instructions, card deck and template for the dice.