Six months of the new Effective Digital Content online course – reflections and next steps
The UX Service launched a new version of the Effective Digital Content online course in May this year. You can read about how we built the new version of the course in previously published blogs:
- Our six-part series on building the Effective Digital Content course
- Six practical tips: what we learnt building a new online course
How it’s gone so far
Six months on, I wanted to take time to reflect on how things have gone so far, what we’ve achieved since launching and what we’ve learnt in the process.
Just over 130 people have taken the course and submitted a workbook
Since launching the new course, we’ve had just over 130 people taking the course and submitting a workbook.
This is great to see, especially as the workbook was a new element of the course. We’ve been really impressed by the quality of answers provided in the workbook and the time that people have clearly invested in completing it.
The process of marking completed workbooks also keeps us in touch with publishers, which we enjoy. We’ve learnt about new topics we could cover in our Content Improvement Club sessions as well as ideas for improving our University Editorial Style Guide.
Learn more about Content Improvement Club
Participants’ job roles have been diverse and from a wide cross-section of the University
Since the new course has launched, we’ve gained a better understanding of the type of publishing participants do, through the examples of webpages they submit within their workbooks. This has given us an appreciation for the breadth of different roles that involve publishing digital content across the University.
The course has been completed not only by marketing and communications professionals, but also researchers, professors, scientists, analysts, service delivery managers, lab managers and interns to name a few.
We’ve had some positive feedback directly from participants
It’s been really encouraging to hear from some participants directly through the feedback form at the end of the course.
People have mentioned that the personal workbook feedback has been useful and a highlight of the course, which is good to hear given this was something we hadn’t tried before.
Thank you so much for the personal feedback, I really got a lot out of it. I am much more confident now in updating my webpages, so thanks for the support!
Also, people seem to be benefiting from the hands-on activities, which seem to have increased their confidence.
It is helpful to put the knowledge from the course into practice, with specific examples. I prefer this type of hands-on work to learn and acquire new concepts!
BadgEd accreditation awarded
Following the course launch we applied for a digital badge accreditation under the University’s Open Digital Badges scheme (BadgEd) which we were later awarded.
This means that learners will receive a digital badge upon completion of the course. The badge is a great way to showcase the skills they’ve learnt and it recognises the work they’ve put in, especially given the added workbook element.
People have also been sharing their badge on LinkedIn, which is great to see.
You can find out more about the BadgEd scheme on their web page.
An accessibility statement has been written for the course
Mel has worked alongside Viki Galt and her team to complete accessibility testing for the course, culminating in an accessibility statement being written.
Accessibility statement for Effective Digital Content
We plan to add a link to the statement within the course early next year as part of our first round of updates. We will also be reviewing and updating the accessibility statement as part of the ongoing maintenance of the course.
You can read more about Mel’s work to make the course as accessible as we can in her blog post:
Accessibility testing our Effective Digital Content online course
We’ve presented about the new course at different events
Over the last few months, we’ve been busy presenting about the work we’ve done to develop the new course. This has included our launch event to thank those who helped us in the development process, the UCISA User Experience Community Day, the Scottish Web Folk conference in Dundee, the MarComms October Forum and we plan to speak at the upcoming Learning Technology Community meeting.
This has been to share our learnings with others, but also to spread the word about the course itself and highlight the benefits of taking it.
If you have a forum or group that you feel would be interested in hearing more about the development or contents of the course, then please get in touch with me directly or with a member of the User Experience Service.
Contact the User Experience Service
Next steps
We will continue to look for opportunities to spread the word about the course within University communities and respond to feedback we receive to improve the course.
We have already earmarked some updates that we want to make to the course which we hope to implement early in 2026.
How to take the course
If you are interested in taking the course, you can find out more information on our course page which includes a link to enroll through People and Money.
