Digital Learning – Page 123 – Digital Learning Dispatches

Last week we were pleased to announce a group of leading scholars and well-known educators who will play a valuable role in guiding the work and future direction of the National Institute for Digital Learning as members of the International Advisory Board. Board members currently include:

Professor Grainne Conole (DCU Visiting Professor)
Professor Terry Anderson
Dr Larry Johnson
Professor Mike Keppell
Sally Reynolds
Professor George Siemens
Professor Rhona Sharpe
Professor Peter Shea
Professor Norm Vaughan
Professor Airina Volungevicene
Professor Martin Weller
Professor Steve Wheeler

Over the next year we expect the NIDL will host many of our Advisory Board members and they will feature in our Visiting Scholar Series. These presentations will be open to all educators and we also welcome approaches from people who may wish to host some of our visiting speakers in their own institutions.

The success of Dublin City University’s Student Laptop Loan Scheme may be of wider interest to the sector. In October of 2013, as part of DCU’s commitment to innovation, digital learning and an inclusive student experience, Information Systems & Services (ISS) in conjunction with the Library and Quality Promotion Office launched the Student Self-Service Laptop Loan Scheme. The scheme allows students to take a loan of one of 24 laptops on offer for use in the Library for 3 hours per time. DCU was the first organisation in Ireland to introduce a self-service laptop loan service and this was done through Lapsafe.

This scheme has been hugely popular with students over the academic year from October 2013 to May 2014 as the following figures demonstrate:

Number of times laptops loaned – over 9000
Over 4500 loans per semester
Average loans per month – 1500
Hours of laptop use – over 23,000
Individual laptop loan per month – between 60 & 70 times

The demand for this service, evidenced by the above data, demonstrates how digital learning has increasingly become a core feature of the learning experience and that institutions need to plan for ways of ensuring that all students have access to appropriate enabling technologies. Well done to the DCU team for initiating and maintaining such a valuable scheme.