Curtis receives Jisc student digital champion award

South Staffordshire College is hugely proud to share that Curtis Burrows, from our motor vehicle course has been recognised as a student digital champion by Jisc.

As the UK’s digital, data and technology agency for further and higher education, Jisc works with colleges to drive forward their digital transformation. FE relationship manager Craig Stowell met Curtis while visiting the college and got to hear first-hand about his extensive list of activities and achievements to drive the use of digital technology at the college.

Craig said: “Curtis has not only used digital technology successfully to improve his own educational outcomes, but he has also shared his knowledge and experience with his peers and given up his time at college open days to demonstrate the range of innovative technologies available. His expert digital skills will no doubt be invaluable for whatever he decides to do after college. He’s a fantastic student role model and digital champion.”

Curtis received a £100 Amazon voucher in recognition of his digital work at the college.

Curtis is a worthy winner of this award, here’s why.

Earlier this year, Curtis was crowned the UK’s highest continuous user of the CENTURY platform having used the platform, both in the classroom and in his own time, to enhance his math’s and English skills for 79 continuous weeks. Curtis has continued his use of CENTURY’s AI resources to support his learning and has racked up a massive 89 weeks of continuous use. This sees him remain the longest successful user of CENTURY across the UK. Curtis’ digital innovations to support his learning hasn’t stopped there!

Motor vehicle tutor, Kate Sollers-Dominey along with the digital learning team introduced the use of metaverse spaces to support teaching and learning within the motor vehicle subject area. Inspired by the metaverse lesson materials, Curtis took an unprecedented step of creating his own metaverse space (in his own time) to support his learning.

Curtis’ metaverse reflected the look and feel of the college’s motor vehicle workshop, included college branding and even had his own personal avatar. The metaverse is an area where he stores digital notes taken in each lesson, uploads his assignments and acts as a digital revision tool.

Steve Wileman, Head of Digital Learning said “Witnessing Curtis develop these advanced digital skills has been truly inspiring. As the Head of Digital Learning at South Staffordshire College, I am immensely proud of Curtis, he’s a true champion of digital technologies in education. He’s a fantastic advocate for digital technology, using it to excel in not only his motor vehicle course, but also to further his maths & English skillsets”.

Beyond his personal achievements, Curtis has become one of the college’s student digital champions. He actively shares his enthusiasm and knowledge of how he uses digital technology to support his learning with his peers. He also participates in piloting AI courses and is currently leading on a project guiding other learners to create metaverses for their curriculum areas and spearheading a cross-college work experience project, where IT and games students are creating a comprehensive South Staffordshire College careers metaverse hub. Curtis also supports the college at its open days where he shares his passion and knowledge of AR / VR technology with future students and their parents.

Motor vehicle tutor, Kate Sollars-Dominey said “Curtis is dedicated to improving his skills. It takes a special person to share the knowledge that they’ve gained with others to help them improve too – this is something I really admire about Curtis. It has been a pleasure to watch his confidence grow throughout his time at college”.

Curtis is a remarkable student who is demonstrating how digital technology can revolutionise learning and transform lives. Everyone at South Staffordshire College is so proud of him and can’t wait to see what he achieves next.