Conferences – Page 11 – Digital Learning Dispatches

Launched in 2016, Reflect is DCU’s learning portfolio platform. Available to all DCU students and faculty, the portfolio makes learning visible through the creation of a personalised and reflective living showcase of academic, professional, and personal achievements.

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While it has taken a lot of work to embed Reflect in DCU’s digital learning ecology there are now over 10,000 regular users of our Learning Portfolio.

Back in April students from all programmes using Reflect were invited to enter the Learning Portfolio Showcase and Awards. Eportfolio showcase competitions have been used across the globe from New Zealand and Hong Kong, to the U.S. and Ireland to promote eportfolio practice, recognise and reward student attainments, and celebrate the hard work that teachers and students have put into making eportfolios a success.

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In April, the second annual DCU Student Showcase Awards took place. A large number of student entries were received and evaluated by a panel of judges using the eportfolio rubric, collaboratively developed by the Eportfolio Ireland community of practice.

Lisa Donaldson, our Reflect champion, reported that “the standard of entries was exceptionally high, with first year students in particular, proving to be very creative with their learning portfolios”.
Eight students were shortlisted for the top prizes of Beats headphones and gift vouchers.

Billy Kelly, Dean of Teaching & Learning, was present to recognise students in front of faculty and their peers and to present the awards.

Building on this highly successful experience, which validated some of the excellent work taking place using Reflect, we were then delighted at the end of May 2018 for DCU to host an international symposium on the use of eportfolios in education. Jointly hosted by the Association for Authentic, Experiential, and Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL), and the Centre for Recording Achievement (CRA), “ePortfolios & More: The Developing Role of ePortfolios within the Digital Landscape” provided a valuable forum for educators from around the world to reflect on the implementation of eportfolios for promoting critical self-reflection, 21st Century skills, life-long learning, and more.

You can access many of the post event documents and slides from the symposium website and still get valuable insights and a strong sense of the rich and productive discussions over several days from reviewing the relevant hashtag:

#ePortfoliosandMoreDublin

As reported earlier in the year the Teaching Enhancement Unit (TEU) in the NIDL at Dublin City University (DCU) is excited to be one of four University partners working on an Erasmus+ INTEGRITY project (funded under KA2 strand). The lead partner is Ilia State University, Georgia, in collaboration with 15 other Georgian universities.

The other three partners include University of Roehampton (UK); Uppsala Universiten (Sweden); and Universitaet Wien (Austria). Our specific role in this project is development of a resource toolkit for academics to help them design out opportunities for plagiarism. This work package includes creating a suite of resources and case studies to support faculty in designing assessments which actively encourage academic integrity. The toolkit can be used either by individual academics as a self regulation and development tool, or by a programme chair/academic developer to lead workshops with a programme team. The resources currently under development and review are:

Literature Review
Best Practice Guide: Principles and Examples
Self Assessment Checklist
Scenarios to prompt discussion
Case Studies

Earlier in the month the team presented the resources at at a four-day INTEGRITY conference in Kutaisi, Georgia. The resources were well received and we are now in a position to further enhance the toolkit. Earlier in the day a brief update on the NTEGRITY project was presented by the TEU team to delegates at this year’s EdTech 2018 conference in Carlow, Ireland.

The two-year project commenced in October 2017 and we are well on target to have the final toolkit ready for piloting in Spring 2018. Importantly the project outputs and related learnings will be shared and made available to the wider sector under a Creative Commons Licence. Watch this space for further updates.