FAQs – Discovery Tool
Below are some frequently asked questions about using the Digital Discovery Tool. These questions can also be found on the Jisc website.
Q: Why do I need to sign up to take the survey?
A: This is to ensure that you can return to assessments and reports that you have completed and you can access the resources in your reports or can retake assessments at intervals.
Q: Can anyone else see my reports?
A: No. You are the only person who can see your detailed report(s). You can download your report(s) as a PDF which you could share with others if you want to.
Q: Does the process have to be completed in one session?
A: You can leave a question and return to it, or change your answer, using the ‘next’ and ‘previous’ buttons. You can also save and exit the questions at any point and return for another session. You will be asked to complete any questions you have missed before submitting your answers, which triggers the release of your report. If you choose to take the assessment again, your previous report will be overwritten, so you are encouraged to download and save a version at the time you complete a question set.
Q: What if there are questions which are not relevant to me?
A: Jisc have tried to avoid this situation by splitting questions into capabilities ‘for all’ and capabilities for specialised areas of practice, such as teaching. ‘For all’ questions have slightly different versions for staff and students. It has been user tested for perceived relevance.
Any assessment that aims to be relevant across a wide range of roles and organisations will include items that are unfamiliar to some users. This is partly the point of the discovery tool – to raise awareness of opportunities beyond the user’s current knowledge and practice. So long as it is understood that the questions and the scoring are there to give feedback and not to judge performance, we hope you will feel comfortable identifying that some activities are not in your current skill set.
Q: What if I disagree with the results?
A: The discovery tool is not a test that you can get right or wrong. It aims to offer a reflective experience to help you think about the different aspects of digital capability and to offer ideas and next steps to help you improve in any areas that you want to. It is a generic tool intended to be used by staff across a wide range of departments and job roles and learners studying across diverse subject areas. Some areas included in the discovery tool might be less relevant to your own context, so do not treat the results as a definitive measure but as a general indication. You can repeat the questions again to check that you completed the questions accurately and to see what aspects of each area have been included in the questions.
Q: Can I repeat the survey?
A: Yes. You can repeat the questions but if you want to preserve your original report it is important to download it as a PDF first because every time you complete the questions online it generates and overwrites your report for that question set. It can be very useful to repeat the questions at intervals to see if your digital capabilities have changed over time, particularly if you have been working to improve a particular area.
Q: What devices and browsers are supported?
A: Potentially is a web-based platform, designed for easy access, sign-up and use. The Digital discovery tool should run on most devices with a browser and internet connection. You should not need to download any software or browser you don’t already have. For the best experience, we recommend completing the questions and viewing the report and resources on a full-sized screen on either a desktop, laptop or tablet at 1024×768 resolution using the latest version of Chrome or Safari. Google Chrome tends to work best.
Q: Is the Digital Discovery Tool fully accessible?
A: Potentially aims to meet level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) as a minimum and is working hard towards this goal. During the pilot process, Potentially will be continuously testing and developing the beta version of the tool towards meeting the AA standards, and any feedback from pilot users is welcome.
Q: What happens to my data? Does it comply with GDPR?
A: Your data will be shared by Jisc in an anonymised way, enabling the production of institutional reports with aggregated data only. Jisc will keep the information until the university no longer wishes to subscribe.