In this video, Stella Stefany discusses her role as Department Chair of Distance Learning at Universitas Pelita Harapan in Indonesia, and how she harnesses digital literacy principles and practices as an enabler for authentic assessments.

Stella explores what it takes to form a digitally literate student and how championing digital literacy is the responsibility of an entire institution. Recognising educators as on the frontline of this endeavour, she advocates for more digital literacy training to bridge the gap between pedagogy and traditional values, and infuse it into the assessment setting, to help prepare students for real world skills and demands.

Drawing attention to the current digital literacy challenge in the Indonesian higher education context, Stella comments on the absence of a national framework to support digital best practice. She points to global provisions such as UNESCO’s digital literacy framework, in helping signpost Indonesia's journey to a centralised and widescale adoption of digital literacy standards, for staff and student empowerment.

Commenting on the intersection of academic integrity which has taken on additional significance in the shift to digital learning, Stella emphasises the importance of students internalising concepts of plagiarism, citation, critical thinking, and the facilitation required by educators. If ignored, and students are simply required to adopt exceedingly formalised scholarly practices without any personal attachment, she contends that resistance and misunderstandings are likely to abound.

In support of edtech companies playing a bigger role in adoption of technology across Indonesia’s universities, Stella speculates on possible initiatives for edtech to embed digital literacy deeper in the learning experience.