This section will cover the computing skills that you need to develop in order to work effectively on your course.
By the time you have completed this section you should be able to:
Please also see sections:
Many students worry that they need to have a high level of IT literacy to cope with their studies. In fact, there are a relatively small number of skills required (and they are all covered in this section or other sections of Essential Student Skills). You will need to be able to:
Don’t forget that you will learn as you go (you don’t need to be an expert from day one!), and that there are always people around to help you.
As all UHI devices are installed with Microsoft operating systems and Microsoft Office applications, this section is written with these specific products in mind.
Student talking about IT skills (37 seconds)
Download a transcript of this audio/recording
The operating system is the main programme that your computer uses to function. This provides the ‘desktop’ or background that you see when you switch your computer on.
The operating system used at UHI is Microsoft Windows. As technology develops different versions of Windows are released. Most UHI devices are currently installed with Office 365.
Applications are other programmes that are run by the operating system. These perform individual tasks (e.g. browsing the internet, word processing, playing audio and video files, viewing and editing photos.) and are accessed using the icons, or via the Start menu, on your desktop.
Microsoft Office applications are a set of programmes most related to performing ‘office’ tasks such as creating documents, emails, spreadsheets and slideshow presentations.
Complete the following Skills audit questionnaire to determine your current IT skill and knowledge level.
Jisc’s Discovery tool enables you to explore different elements of ICT proficiency they call ‘digital capabilities’ (based on their framework, see picture opposite) and to find out more about your own digital practice.
Through answering their questions, you will assess your confidence and capability in the areas relevant to you as a student.
At the end you will receive a personal report with next steps to try and links to relevant resources.
Click on the follow link to access UHI’s page dedicated to the Jisc Discovery tool.
Digital capabilities framework (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Find out more about the software included in Office 365 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, etc.) by visiting the following UHI webpage.
As part of your Office 365 account, you have access to OneDrive – a tool that gives you 1TB of cloud storage. With OneDrive you can save, and share, over 300 different file types. Keep this in mind when reading through the next page of this resource (Managing files).
Find out more about OneDrive on the ITDI OneDrive information page.
During your time at University you will produce, and be given, a lot of work and resources in electronic format; such as word processed lecture notes and essays, reading lists, notes from your tutors, and book chapters.
Just like physical documents, these electronic documents take up storage space. You can save files in a number of places:
To access the information that you want easily is it useful to organise it in to folders or libraries. How you structure these files and folders is up to you. For example, you may want to create one folder for all your lecture notes and another folder for all your book chapters; or you may want to create a different folder for each module/unit that you are studying. Find a system that works for you- you want to be able to locate that vital document quickly when you need it!
A file is an individual item such as a Word document, a photograph, a PowerPoint slideshow or an audio file.
A folder is a container in which files, and other folders, are kept. You can create your own folder structure to organise your files in a way that makes sense to you.
Libraries are slightly different from folders in that they are spaces to arrange rather than store information. Creating a library allows you to display items (such as files and folders) from different locations on your computer as a single collection, without moving them from the location in which they are stored.
This activity shows you one way in which files and folders could be arranged. Drag and drop these files and folder names into the folder structure given below (you may use a name more than once).
Sometimes it is necessary and useful to include images within your written assessments, or presentations. Before you use an image in your work, ask yourself these practical and legal questions first:
Using images is not just a case of searching online and saving a photo that you like. You need to have permission to use them.
If you are legally permitted to use an image, you need to credit the author of the image wherever it is used in your work. You can do this by putting a caption under the image stating:
'Colours of Peace' by Vincent van der Pas from Flickr, used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic
Creative Commons is a non-profit organisation set up to allow copyright holders a means to share their work with the world, while still retaining certain rights. If the work has a Creative Commons (CC) licence, it can be used, subject to the conditions within the license, without contacting the copyright holder for permission.
These licenses clearly state the conditions under which images can be used. These include whether an image can be used for personal or commercial purposes, and whether or not the author requires attribution or credit.
Attribution: You must credit the creator and provide a link to the original material
Non-commercial use: You may not use the image for commercial purposes
Share alike: If you edit or build upon the image, you may distribute it only under the terms of the original licence
Non derivatives: If you edit or alter the image, you may not distribute the modified image
Sites such as Pixabay, Pexels and Unsplash offer vast amounts of high quality [and free] images with no formal requirement for attribution (they don't require it but they do appreciate it - also your lecturer will always appreciate it if you explain where things you use in your work come from).
The wording of their licenses differ slightly but on the whole, images can be downloaded, adapted and used free of charge - as long as you don't sell/ profit from them.
Pixels are the little dots that make up the images on a computer screen (the term is short for ‘picture element’). When using images in electronic format, dimensions are often given in pixels rather than centimetres.
Images with a lower pixel count can appear grainy, particularly if the size of the image is increased. Those with a higher pixel count will be clearer, but also require more storage space and can take time to upload or send in emails.
A key figure when considering printing images is the number of pixels per inch or PPI. You calculate this by dividing the pixel count by the dimension of the proposed printed image in inches.
This image has a PPI of
800 ÷ 4 = 200 for width
and
1200 ÷ 6 = 200 for length
For good quality printed images aim for a PPI of 200 or above.
800 x 1200 pixels
When saving your images, you have to strike a balance between the file size and quality of the image: a smaller file size usually means a lower quality image.
Here are a small number of resources which will help you to use images correctly and effectively.
Icon |
Skill |
Tutorial |
|
|
Reduce the file size of a picture |
Compressing a picture - Microsoft Office Help |
|
|
Know the best graphic format for the job |
15 best image file types - (Matteo Duo, 2022) |
 |
Search for Creative Commons images |
Finding content that you can reuse - Google Search for Creative Commons images - Creative Commons website |
In this section you have been introduced to Microsoft Word and PowerPoint; two of the main programmes that you will use in your studies. You have also learned about file management and how to source and use images.
