Digital Learning – Page 44 – Digital Learning Dispatches

We are delighted to announce that Eportfolio Ireland invites you to another free half-day seminar/workshop on Monday November 11^th at Dublin City University’s (DCU) St. Patricks Campus. The workshop, which follows after the ICDE World Conference on Online Learning (3-7th November,) will run from 9.30am to 1:00pm.

Kristina Hoeppner, from Catalyst IT, New Zealand and guru on all things eportfolio has kindly agreed to keynote on the day. Following that, we hope to facilitate a “Connect & Converse” session to share our own eportfolio practices. The value of the Eportfolio Ireland community is nested in these events where we can share our collective experiences and seek to learn from one another.

The format of Connect & Converse is a 10-minute presentation/discussion in small groups as participants rotate around the room (a speed dating format, if you will!). If you would like to share what you have been doing with eportfolio in your institution, what you would like to try, or would simply welcome feedback on your initiative from others in the field, please just send a 5 line description of what you would like to discuss by emailing Lisa Donaldson:

<lisa.donaldson@dcu.ie>

Please note that tables for this event are limited, so please contact Lisa as soon as possible if you would like to contribute a brief talk and register here to reserve your place.

This is the second post in a series describing some of the recent externally funded projects secured by the NIDL team at Dublin City University (DCU). In partnership with Tampere University of Applied Sciences, the NIDL was successful in securing almost €1m of external funding for a project intended to promote equity and access to higher education through Open and Distance Learning (ODL). Known as the BUKA Project, the aim is to help enable increased access to higher education for people in rural and remote regions as well as those with diverse backgrounds (e.g. mature age students, working students, first-in-family students, students with learning difficulties) in Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. Local partner universities include:

New NIDL Small All Partner Countries belong to Region 6, Asia. When designing the project, special care has been taken to involve the key decision makers in all the partnering universities as key staff in the BUKA project. This is to ensure that the project deliverables align with local institutional priorities and the project team helps to develop local solutions for local problems.

This European funded project falls under Project Category 2, “Improving Management and Operation of Higher Education Institutions”, and, more specifically, under “Equity, Access to, and Democratisation of Higher Education”, including disadvantaged groups and regions.

The specific objectives of the project include:

Building the capacity of teaching, technical and instructional design staff in the partner HEIs in inclusive instructional design and learning analytics;
Improving learner engagement and retention through inclusive instructional design and learning analytics;
Improving pedagogical and technical accessibility of online and blended learning materials; and,
Providing more effective and personalised support for online distance learners in partner HEIs.

The first project meeting takes place in Malaysia in early February 2020 but members of the project team will also meet up at November’s ICDE World Conference on Online Learning in Dublin.