Draft framework for consultation

The scholarly literacy framework has been updated to reflect the growing importance of digital capabilities for students

An updated framework integrating scholarly literacies and digital capabilities for students

The University of Melbourne aspires to produce future-ready graduates who are not only equipped with exceptional specialist knowledge and expertise, but transferable scholarly and digital capabilities and the capacity for life-long learning.

The updated draft of the Scholarly and Digital Capabilities Framework provides a conceptual tool for staff and students that reinforces and enables the University’s goals for digital transformation and the development of digitally fluent, future-focused graduates. The framework is also a practical tool for student support teams to partner with academic and teaching staff to embed scholarly and digital capabilities in the curriculum, applying the capabilities to specific disciplinary areas.

The updated framework has been prepared by Student and Scholarly Services with input and feedback from academic staff, learning and teaching representatives from each faculty/school, and students studying across discipline areas at all academic levels.

Is the framework aligned to the University’s strategies and plans?

The framework has been updated to align with the University’s key strategies and plans, including Advancing Melbourne, Student Life, Research Strategy 2010-2025, Scholarly Information Strategy 2020-2025, The University of Melbourne Reconciliation Action Plan, and the UoM 20x Digital Agenda. The framework is further informed by the Flexible Academic Programming (FlexAP) project and pedagogical guidelines defined in The Melbourne Way.

What’s new in this updated version of the framework?

Building on the previous version of the framework that was endorsed by Academic Board in 2017, this updated version:

• aligns four domains of knowledge to the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) including directed research for undergraduate programs at AQF Level 7; guided research for honours and graduate certificate and diploma programs at AQF Level 8; self-directed research for graduate coursework (masters) programs at AQF Level 9; and independent research for graduate research programs (doctoral) at AQF Level 10).
• includes bundles of capabilities with updated descriptors. Emerging areas of digital competencies relating to open access, open educational resources, digital preservation, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT) have been represented, particularly in the ‘create, collaborate, reflect’ and ‘communicate, connect, share’ capabilities.
• broadens information literacy terms to include capabilities with data, information, knowledges and technologies. The term knowledge/knowledges reflects the growing understanding of traditional and Indigenous knowledges across the University community, including the critical challenges of representation through University Archives, collections and within curriculum.

Copies of the 2020 draft framework and the previous version of the framework that was developed in 2017 can be downloaded below.