Background
University of Wales Trinity St David (UWTSD) is one of the oldest educational institutes in Wales, beginning in 1822 with the founding of our Lampeter campus. Today, UWTSD is a dynamic education establishment with campuses in Swansea, Carmarthen, Cardiff, London and Birmingham.
The Institute of Inner‑City Learning (IICL), comprising London and Birmingham campuses, is passionate about widening participation and raising the aspirations of students from diverse backgrounds by maximizing their potential. Students and the provision of a friendly, supportive and tailored learning environment, focused on courses in health and social care, business and computing across undergraduate and postgraduate levels, are at the centre of all we do. We are an innovative institute that upskills our students both personally and professionally, equipping learners for the new modern world of education and employment.
At IICL, we have provided a fully digital library and learning resources offer since our creation (London in 2012 and Birmingham in 2018). At the time of writing, London has one campus at Canary Wharf with three team members across the Library and Digital Skills team, while Birmingham has two campuses, in the City Centre and in the suburb of Sparkhill, with a total of five team members across their Library and Digital Skills team.
As we focus on and cater to more mature students, many of whom have been away from education for a significant amount of time, as well as students from some of the most disadvantaged areas and communities in our cities, within our Library and Digital Skills team we have to consider a variety of pathways to offer support and guidance to our students in an online setting.
How do we offer support?
We have had a fully digital library at UWTSD Birmingham since we opened in 2018 (whereas our Welsh campuses have a mix of both physical and digital resources). This ensures unlimited access to our entire catalogue for students and staff, whether they study/work with us on a weekday or a weekend, who are thus not restricted to opening hours or the number of items they can access at any one time.
Many of our students can be sceptical about the fully digital library initially, but through in‑class visits and ongoing support from the Library and Digital Skills team, they can build their skills in a safe and supportive environment, where they can also be offered support in the use of digital accessibility tools such as dictation, change in font or font size and the ability to change the colour of the background they are reading from.
The digital library is also a key access point for students and staff to access the online reading lists (ORLs) related to the modules they are involved with. These interactive lists, which can also be accessed via our internal virtual learning environment (VLE), are an important starting point for students in their university journeys and can include a wide range of resources from e‑books, journals and databases to videos, audio clips and external resources. All of this is freely accessible to students and staff to offer an additional pathway of support in their learning and academic experience.
Our Infoskills programme, which is delivered both in person and online, is the focal point of our student support offer. The starting point is in‑class visits where, working alongside the lecturer, the library team deliver mandatory sessions on navigating the digital library and referencing for all new students in the first term of their Certificate for HE (Level 4) courses. This builds a baseline knowledge for students to go forward and develop their core skills throughout their first year at the University.
In‑person class visits for our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes are arranged in response to lecturer invites or requests. At these levels, we work with our Programme Managers and lecturers to design a personalized session linked to subject learning objectives. This can be anything from dissertation support and using journals and databases, to critical thinking and referencing refreshers. In the months before writing this article, we also saw an uptake in lecturer interest for us to run class sessions in relation to GenAI.
All our lectures across the Institute are recorded, so should any students miss a Library session, they can always rewatch the session in their own time to ensure full access to Library content for every student. The slides are made available as a PDF file for the lecturers to share with their classes.
We also offer support to all students on a one‑to‑one or small group basis outside of lecture time. This can be delivered in person or online via Microsoft Teams and is arranged in consultation with the student regarding date and time. These sessions have proved a very popular option with our students, many of whom choose to have face‑to‑face appointments, showing that, despite being a digital library, we as a team are more front facing than ever.
Alongside our in‑person Infoskills, we also have our Online Infoskills programme. This content was created by the full Academic Liaison Librarian team and covers a vast array of information literacy skills within interactive tutorials such as evaluating information, using Google Scholar, peer‑reviewed journal articles, being an informed researcher, the ethics of GenAI and referencing. These tutorials, that are based on our internal VLE, offer asynchronous support for our students and staff. They also offer the opportunity for students to gain digital badges on the successful completion of each module, which can then be included in their CVs.
In the year before writing this article, we worked with campus senior management to embed the Online Infoskills programme into teaching in all Certificate of HE programmes to build student independence, resilience and to offer another pathway for them to gain knowledge essential to their learning.
This process began with the creation of termly plans highlighting the modules from the programme that would be most suited to link to current course content (which is broken down into weeks and outlined on our internal VLE). These plans were created using the Library Programme Manager timeline and were used as a starting point for discussions with Programme Managers and class lecturers, alongside additional resources such as pre‑prepared slides with direct access links to the relevant Online Infoskills modules. Initial feedback from staff was the importance of flexibility as to when modules could be delivered, which was fully supported by the planning team. From the start of the embedding in September 2024, support was made available for lecturers where partial or no embedding could be seen in lesson materials, as well as offering wider institute staff training sessions to build and raise holistic institutional awareness of our objectives and provide opportunities for discussion. This continued throughout the academic year with termly reviews with lecturers, the creation of new materials where needed and the onboarding of new staff who would be delivering the embedded programme for the first time.
Figure 1 contains data on student engagement from the project in full so far (excluding the data from our most recent term, which is still being analyzed). It focuses on Birmingham‑based students who have enrolled on the programme and completed at least one module in full. The upward trend across our first two terms of the year was extremely encouraging and despite the numbers being only a small percentage of our entire student body, the potential for growth and further engagement is there and will be further developed in upcoming terms.
Figure 1
Student engagement on the Infoskills programme
This project has raised awareness of the importance of the information literacy and services that the Library is able to offer. Engagement with the project is strong and has been shown to be effective for both students and staff. The importance of the project has also been shared both institutionally and through word of mouth – both means being equally powerful. It has also allowed our students to begin to see the links between their subject content and information literacy, which had previously been a struggle for some. The success of the project has now also been applied by our Digital Skills team in their embedding of the Jisc Discovery Tool into curriculum areas.
Jisc Discovery Tool
We have embedded the Jisc Discovery Tool into all the new Certificate of Higher Education (Level 4) digital skills modules, as a good way to gauge the skill levels in certain criteria of our students. We have received the data back from our first intake of students and we can see trends that are useful for us to start amending our courses to help the learners enhance these skills.
We have two digital skills advisors in our IICL campuses, who teamed up and built, with the support of management, a framework regarding what we want the discovery tool to do and how we want to embed it into our course curriculums.
We said that we wanted it to be as accessible as possible for both staff and students. As a result, we developed slides that guided the user on the process to make it as easy as possible for any student from all subjects to be able to follow.
We also decided to create a video of the discovery tool registration and how to start the question sets. This was fun to do, but we had some difficulties, e.g. having to create data for ‘new colleagues’ to do the registration process (we do now have generic accounts that our team can access when creating video content). The videos describe all the available courses and make clear which campus to select, and there are helpful text notes to reinforce the message. The editing was created using ClipChamp, which is easy and quick to pick up.
The embedding into the course was easy, as we had the slides in PowerPoint or as a PDF file and we asked programme managers to place these into their first week content. Senior management checked all courses had the slides in them, and we informed the lecturers of the new slides and their content. However, as it was self‑explanatory, there was little input needed for them apart from knowing why we had included it.
The results have been coming in, and we can see that the area our students are struggling with is digital creation. As a result, we have started creating content and using extra tools to help develop their digital creativity skills, such as using Canva, Adobe Express and any other tool the lecturing staff feel could benefit the learner’s creative side.
DigiCentre/MOS
UWTSD has a dedicated digital skills website page called the DigiCentre, where you can access structured learning to help with everything from the IT basics, to coding and presentation skills.
In conjunction with the DigiCentre, we have created bespoke digital badges that can be obtained by completing the learning pathway that uses the Jisc Discovery Tool topic areas. The badges can be downloaded and then used to advertise the learner’s skills. We encourage our students to put them on their email signature, on their CV and even advertising on social media, which links back to our focus on ensuring they are all future ready.
To further our students’ digital skills support we provide all students and staff access to the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) exams in Word, PowerPoint, Excel or Outlook for free. This is a great opportunity for students to gain the experience on how to use these applications in a proficient way, making them more employable. The process consists of providing students learning material through LinkedIn Learning, and then training mock exams through Gmetrix, (that appears the same as the real thing), so this gives a good idea to the students what the experience will be and reduces stress levels for preparation.
We provide the exams remotely, so that they can be taken at home, although we do ask for criteria to be met, e.g. showing their student ID, making sure they have a good internet connection, being in a room by themselves and having no other device on them. Once they have completed the exam, they will get the results straight away, and later they can download and print their certificate, which is officially accredited by Microsoft and has industry‑wide recognition.
Feedback from students and staff
Student feedback has continued to be positive throughout the 2024‑25 academic year, which was particularly evidenced by a 6.1% increase in student satisfaction with Library and Learning Resources at Birmingham campus in the recent NSS Survey Results (University of Wales, 2025).
Regarding staff feedback, we are thrilled that they are so pleased with the work we do and the collaboration, which we are keen to continue to develop. We received some wonderful testimonials including:
‘By collaborating closely with the dedicated librarians ... ensuring that students not only excel in their studies but also develop critical skills for their future careers.’
‘. . . helped them develop essential research, referencing, and digital literacy skills. Students have reported feeling more confident in locating and using academic resources, and many have expressed increased motivation after sessions.’
‘. . . have seen improvements in students’ understanding of research, referencing, digital safety and the vital issue of Generative AI.’
Looking ahead
As almost all staff in the HE sector will know, the financial constraints we suffer is an ever‑present burden. The impact this will have in the library and our allocation of support and resources for the students will be a big change. As we are digital only, we hope we can weather an impactful storm. We will, however, continue to help as much as we can with what we have.
At Birmingham campus, we hope to provide more grants for students to help them purchase a laptop of their own, giving reliable access to the internet at home, while onsite providing the use of more computer rooms, which will continue to increase access and engagement across all areas.
For most institutions across the HE sector, and in an ideal world, the library and digital skills department will need to expand to help to support learners with the more in‑depth and complex questions they will be asking due to the solely digital aspect of libraries, along with the development of AI and other impactful technologies. We would also have the resources and financial stability and income to be able to cater to all the needs of staff and students. This is a long‑term journey that will be guided by regulations and policies in the years to come.
For ease of access to our content, we have been working on improving the user experience for our learners. We have tried this by redesigning our main library page set‑up, with the intention of reducing the number of clicks required to access resources as much as possible. With this improvement, we have made digital library resources easier to obtain for our learners. We have also enhanced our digital platform specifically for IICL, by making location‑specific digital resources available through our university‑wide Student Hwb (Hub) app (which also offers direct links to all online library and digital skills resources as well as other key student services).
Lastly, we are also developing a role for students as Digital Skills Ambassadors, where we will have students being at the forefront of extra digital support for fellow learners. This will help improve student confidence in digital skills and will be an inspiration to fellow learners to try to achieve the same.
In relation to GenAI, we intend to continue to address the challenges and ethical considerations associated with GenAI in the context of both the academic and working world. For students, understanding the broader ethical implications of GenAI, beyond its immediate applications, is essential. The need to further support students with varying levels of digital skills, ensuring that both beginners and advanced users can benefit from GenAI tools, is one of our highest priorities.
The dynamic and ever‑changing nature of the AI sector is another essential element, with an emphasis on preparing students for the evolving job market. The Library Online Infoskills Programme, which has been a core part of supporting knowledge and awareness of both students and staff, will also continue to grow in line with overall institutional policy and guidance.
For staff, the challenges include providing opportunities for hands‑on experience with GenAI in a supportive environment. Keeping staff updated on the latest AI developments is crucial to ensure they can effectively support students. We have been doing this by creating staff development sessions where we have opportunities for hands‑on experience with key skills to learn on generative AI tools. Our focus is usually on CoPilot, however we do showcase other tools, e.g. ChatGPT, but we also highlight to our staff how social media usage of AI is popular with students and so cover the likes of Snapchat and WhatsApp’s AI tools. We will also continue to discuss the financial aspects of AI tools, considering the implications of paywalls and subscription models for universities. We also pay key attention on the environmental impact of AI and the usage of super computers, and its use of a large amount of energy.
Conclusion
The work we have done with regard to infoskills, digital support and other areas has put our department at the forefront within our university towards being a more digitally focused service. We are ahead of the game and are pushing on how to make our services as inclusive and user‑friendly as possible for our diverse group of learners. We have become more visible and accessible to students and moved away from the traditional library environment. All of this is to ensure that our student body can fully engage with all our resources, whether that be in lectures, the early hours of the morning when they get back from work or for a few minutes in between childcare and other commitments.
Our roles at UWTSD Birmingham campus as Academic Liaison Librarians and Digital Skills Advisors are being redefined within the digital learning environment, and the ongoing daily developments it faces both for our institution and across the HE sector as a whole. We have become mentors, supporters and overall confidence builders for our students – all of this before we even talk about library and digital skills.
From what we have created we feel, more than ever, ready for the next steps in libraries, digital skills and the online world.
Abbreviations and Acronyms
A list of the abbreviations and acronyms used in this and other Insights articles can be accessed here – click on the following URL and then select the ‘full list of industry A&As’ link: http://www.uksg.org/publications#aa.
Competing interests
The authors have declared no competing interests.