DCU – Page 25 – Digital Learning Dispatches

The following Networking Event on Wednesday 16^th July may be of interest to people and institutions currently thinking about developing proposals for the new Fund for Building Digital Capacity. Importantly this event is independent from any of the initiatives that have been undertaken by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning to promote the funding call.

Networking Event Invitation

This is an open invitation to people from third level institutions that are considering submitting proposals to the recently announced Call for Proposals to the Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund for Building Digital Capacity in Irish Higher Education. In this inaugural call, €2 million is available for applications that follow a collaborative approach focused around the relevant actionable steps. Submissions are due by 5^th September 2014.

More information about the Fund is available from the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning Website. There is a link to a recorded webinar with some useful slides explaining the Call for Proposals, although it would appear there may be an issue with the sound.

In response to the Call for Proposals, the National Institute for Digital Learning (NIDL) will be hosting a Networking Event on Wednesday 16^th July from 1:00pm to 4:00pm in room Q303/304 at the DCU Business School.

The purpose of this event is to help identify and discuss potential proposals and broker collaboration between partner institutions. During the meeting we will review the scope of the fund and selection criteria, with the aim of better understanding the requirements for successful applications. The NIDL will outline some of the digital learning initiatives that it has identified as potentially suitable for developing as formal submissions. There will also be an opportunity to brainstorm other projects that might help build digital capacity for higher education in Ireland, and for people from other institutions to share their initial ideas about potential submissions.

In summary, the Networking Event has three intended outcomes: (i) to help participants understand the types of projects that appear to fit the selection criteria: (ii) to identify potential project proposals and help tease out their focus, methodology, deliverables, and so on; and (iii) to assist people and institutions to connect with suitable collaborative partners.

Please do not hesitate to contact Professor Mark Brown if you have any comments and/or questions in advance of the meeting. We may record and/or stream the event for those who cannot attend but at this stage our preference is to host people in person so that we can ‘workshop’ potential projects.

For catering purposes, and further instructions on the venue, please register your interest in attending the event by emailing:

madeleine.patton@dcu.ie

PS We apologise for the short notice but with the summer break we decided that it was important to get discussions underway as soon as possible so there is enough time to prepare collaborative funding submissions.

This week we hosted Professor Grainne Conole who earlier in the year was formally appointed as an Adjunct Professor within the NIDL. A highlight of Grainne’s visit was the half-day workshop she facilitated to an invited group of DCU and linked College staff on the topic of learning design. Drawing on her recent book Designing for Learning in an Open World, and more specifically the 7Cs Framework, Grainne explained key differences between the field of Learning Design and more traditional conceptions of Instructional Design.

She then explained a number of innovative ways of helping academic staff to articulate the design process in order to better realise the affordances and opportunities available through new digital technologies. This was productive line of discussion which generated lots of good ideas. As an outcome of the workshop the NIDL team is already planning when to schedule a design challenge for staff. We are also looking forward to working with Grainne again in her new role in the National Institute.