This document summarizes an open online course for educators in Irish higher education to develop their personal and professional digital skills. The 6-week course is facilitated through an accredited program and open course platform. It is funded by the Irish Universities Association and Higher Education Authority to enhance digital teaching and learning. The course uses a self-paced model with live sessions, self-reflection on digital skills, exploring new skills, planning digital enhancements, and obtaining a digital badge upon completion.
Open course for educators in irish higher education
1. Getting started with personal and
professional digital capacity: an open course
for educators in Irish higher education
Dr Sharon Flynn, Project Manager
I-HE2021, 4 November 2021
@sharonlflynn
#IUADigEd
2. The Irish Universities Association (IUA)
The Irish Universities Association is the voice of the university sector in
Ireland.
Enhancing Digital Teaching & Learning project is funded through Higher
Education Authority (HEA) Innovation & Transformation Programme
2019-2021 (now extended to September 2022)
3. Enhancing Digital Teaching & Learning - Aims
• Enhance the digital attributes of Irish university graduates
• Enhance the digital learning experiences of Irish university students
• Develop, pilot, review and roll out an ambitious staff development
programme to enhance the digital confidence, skills and
competences of those who teach in Irish universities
4. Project Vision
This project aims to mainstream digital in teaching and learning
activities in Irish Universities, by addressing the professional
development of all who teach or support teaching and learning.
5. How it works
EDTL Project Team, National Convention Centre, Dublin, November 2019
7. University Activities
• Digital content: video creation, podcasting, H5P
• Student digital skills, digital identity
• Assessment: digitally enhanced assessment, developing student skills,
academic integrity initiatives, peer assessment
• Teaching online, remote teaching, digital communities, social
bookmarking, hybrid teaching, flipped learning
• Open resources: using, modifying, creating
• Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
8. European Framework for the Digital Competency of Educators (DigCompEdu)
Unifying Framework
9.
10.
11. Awarding the (pilot) badge
• September 2020 22 recipients, 4 universities
• December 2020 5 recipients, 2 universities
• April 2021 22 recipients, 3 universities
• July 2021 8 recipients, 3 universities
Awarded as part of an accredited PD module or unaccredited activities.
14. Some details
• 6 week course, approx. 25 learner hours
• Mostly self-paced, 2 live webinars (recorded)
• Unit 1 = self reflection (DigCompEdu)
• Units 2,3 = explore & demonstrate a new skill
• Units 4,5 = plan a digital enhancement
• Unit 6 = claim your badge (produce evidence within a peer triad)
• Does not provide technical training, rather imparts a structure for
individual exploration and development
16. Open course – Facilitator Led
https://opencourses.ie/opencourse/getting-started-with-
personal-and-professional-digital-capacity/
17. Open course materials
• Embedded into University accredited CPD
• Offered as stand-alone non-accredited formal CPD
• Materials will be available to download from NFETL and EDTL
websites
18. Full course development team
• Suzanne Stone & Rob Lowney, Dublin City University
• Morag Munro, Maynooth University
• Kate Molloy, National University of Ireland, Galway
• David Moloney, University of Limerick
• David Hamill, Trinity College Dublin
• Mairéad O’Reilly, University College Dublin
• Cliodhna O’Callaghan, University College Cork
19. Links
Facilitator Led course (starts 8 November)
https://opencourses.ie/opencourse/getting-started-with-personal-and-
professional-digital-capacity/
Enhancing Digital Teaching & Learning, project website https://edtl.blog/
National Forum, professional development framework
https://www.teachingandlearning.ie/our-priorities/professional-development/the-
national-professional-development-framework-pdf-for-all-staff-who-teach-in-
higher-education/
Digital Competency Framework for Educators (DigCompEdu)
https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/digcompedu
ABC Learning Design Framework (at DCU) https://www.dcu.ie/teu/abc-vle
Enhancing Digital Teaching & Learning (EDTL) is a 3 year project, commenced in January 2019, I came on board in May 2019 and it took some time to get people in place, get the project up and running. Now know that our time period has been extended to September 2022, given the initial start up time and the impact of the Covid pandemic.
Two high level aims, to be achieved through staff development. These were defined before Covid.
Early days, this became the project vision.
Image from our project launch.
Steering committee with senior representation from each of the seven universities + others, including VP Education from the USI.
Funding is used to employ project resources, people on the ground, in each of the 7 universities. Each university had autonomy to decide how that should be used, e.g. one full time, quite senior person; a learning technologist + part time support; part time learning technologists. So each university has between 1 and 3 people involved.
These form my project team. Initially we met one day per month, at IUA offices in Dublin. Now we meet online.
Each is embedded into the local context, which is seen as key to ensuring project activities are sustainable beyond the lifetime of the project.
We also have a student associate intern (left of picture), commenced in November 2019. Since then have expanded our intern team, now comprises 13 members.
These were defined as our underpinning principles. Don’t go into detail.
Each university defines its own programme of work, under the umbrella of the overall project, based on its own needs, strategy & activities.
Using DigCompEdu as a unifying framework, mapping university activities to this framework – identifying commonalities, areas for collaboration, but also potential gaps.
Aligned to the NFETL Professional Development Framework
These are the digital badge criteria
Since March 2021, ABC Learning Design approach – Diana Laurillard’s 6 learning types