We took a short break from updating our blog over the summer months as many of our NIDL staff was away on annual leave. Having said that, we have been busy on a number of fronts with a range of activities over the last couple of months as indicated by the following brief highlights: General
- We completed the refurbishment of our reception area
- We welcomed Muireann O’Keeffe as a new staff member in the Teaching Enhancement Unit
DCU Connected
- Successful DCU Connected marketing campaign through radio, bus stops and electronic media
- Double digit growth in number of confirmed registrations through DCU Connected with a significant increase in postgraduate students
- Teaching began at both DCU and Arizona State University in the new online Masters in Biomedical Diagnostics with more than 30 students
Events and New Initiatives
- Hosted a Hackfest Day in August
- Open DCU Staff Forum in September to share new and forthcoming NIDL initiatives
- Successful launch of Loop as the new overarching name for DCU’s new online learning environment.
Talks and Presentations
- Presentations given to Governing Body and Academic Council on the work of NIDL
- Dr Mark Glynn participated in two radio interviews on EduTalk
- Keynote presentations given by Dr Mark Glynn at UK e-assessment conference and the Annual Conference for SQT Training,
- Muireann O’Keeffe gave a keynote at the Symposium for Engineering Education in Manchester
- Dr Pip Ferguson presented two conference papers
- Director gave keynotes and presentations at the 3U N-Step Conference, University & College Teaching Conference, Birmingham, and Sloan (now rebranded Online) Learning Consortium Conference on Blended Learning in Denver
- Director contributed to the Knewton Designing the Future Event in San Francisco which was attended by Hillary Clinton
Research and Development
- Success in winning EU funded project called “Support Centres for Open Education and MOOCS in different Regions of Europe 2020” (SCORE2020) with a total budget of €300k
- Developed and submitted three funding proposals to the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning to support building digital capacity
- Successful application to the National Forum’s National Seminar Series for Reaching the Stars Symposium
- Member of the National Forum funded Virtual Learning Envrionment Student Survey Project
- Director invited to join the Editorial Board for the Journal of Open, Flexible and Online Learning
- Hosted an open networking event to share ideas with other institutions for applications to the fund for Building Digital Learning Capacity
External Engagement
- Director participated in a 10 day institutional review of flexible learning working on behalf of the Commonwealth of Learning
- Director established and chaired International Advisory Board for ICDE funded study on standards and guidelines for online learning
- Director chaired the Innovation in Teaching and Learning Working Group for the European Consortium of Innovative Universities
- Director participated as a faculty member in the Institute for Engaged Leadership in Online Learning at Penn State University
Digital Learning Dispatches 