Teaching – Page 22 – Digital Learning Dispatches

Our NIDL team is delighted to be involved in the “Empowering Vietnamese VET Teachers for Transformation towards Education 4.0” (EMVITET) project. This is an Erasmus+ project, led by HAMK University in Finland, with the Teaching Enhancement Unit at Dublin City University (DCU) and Leuven University partnering to provide project technology and pedagogy solutions for six Vietnamese higher education and vocational institutions.

EMVITET aims to create new learning ecosystems for Education 4.0 in Vietnam, based on student-centered learning, competence-based education, collaboration/networking in digital environments, and sharing knowledge through a community of practice. Participants of this project will be able to:

Effectively use technology to enhance and transform teaching and learning practices
Design and implement competence-based and student-centred learning
Engage with communities within education and industry to create connections and support collaboration

The project commenced in January 2019 and the visit to Vietnam in February was the first opportunity for the European and Vietnamese partners to meet. Dr Mark Glynn and Lisa Donaldson travelled to Vietnam for the three day kickoff meeting. It was truly a collaborative experience with all partners contributing to the vision of the new pedagogical processes the project would enable. DCU will be supporting the partners to achieve a new understanding of Education 4.0 through delivering the Learning Management System portal and the eportfolio platform that will be used by participants to reflect on their learning during the three years of the project.

Reflecting on the first face-to-face meeting, a word has to be said about the incredible hospitality of our Vietnamese partners. 20190301_131205 (1).jpg The kickoff meeting was such a well planned event with valuable learning for all around culture as well as pedagogical practices. The learning was interspersed with a very festive kickoff dinner and sociable lunches. According to Lisa and Mark the Vietnamese food deserves a blog post to itself but suffice it to say they report it was delicious and plentiful!

Feedback from the first three days together was very positive and the DCU team looks forward to our next meeting in Finland in September, as we move from the preparation phase to a new vision of education for all.

The Teaching Enhancement Unit (TEU) in the NIDL is one of four university partners working on an Erasmus+ INTEGRITY project (funded under KA2 strand). The project partners are involved in developing a resource toolkit to support academics to design assessment tasks which actively encourages Academic Integrity. The suite of resources can be found on the TEU INTEGRITY project website.

In an effort to advance this work, on Thursday 21st February 2019 the TEU hosted a National Forum funded seminar in the beautiful Solas Room in DCU’s new Student Centre known as the “U”. The seminar was facilitated by Professor Phil Newton, Director of Learning and Teaching at Swansea University. Phil led a very interactive and industrious session. Drawing on his own research, and the Academic Integrity Principles developed as part of the INTEGRITY project, he encouraged participants to explore how they might design assessments to promote academic integrity. In particular, the groups discussed how students can be involved in this endeavour, recognising that integrity is an essential life skill necessary for them, the industry they enter, and society in general.