Dr. Áine Furlong

Languages, Hospitality and Tourism

Two (or three) cards for learning: a Moodle interface for 21st century pedagogies.

Interface is key to transforming the user into an engaged learner. The learner is not just as a consumer of digital objects but is a cognitively and socially connected individual; hence the digital objects must convey coherence and connectedness within and beyond the module itself. The interface is built around two or three dialogically related/connected cards. Moodle is used as a dynamic and productive repository – an analogy would be the difference between a dormant bank account and a high yield investment account.

Dr. Siobhan Drohan

Department of Computing and Mathematics

Development of interactive and non-interactive online resources for first year programming students.

There is a need to implement technology enhanced learning (TEL) into our current delivery as our computing students are entering college technically saavy and they spend increasing amounts of time online. Through the provision of TEL resources, we would hope to improve the student engagement in the delivered materials and also improve retention in computing programmes. We plan to record the non-interactive materials during live lectures and publish the recordings shortly afterwards in Moodle. It is envisaged that student engagement and learning in these lectures will improve as the need to take notes will be virtually eliminated. In the event where a student misses a lecture due to illness, etc., they will be able to take the class by watching the video in their own time.

Frank Conway

School of Business

To Create Short Video Tutorials and Deliver Webinars.

We are witnessing a pivotal shift in the demand for educational content. Both students and educators are increasingly turning to online audio and video content as a source for information to complement their studies/lectures and to reinforce learning outcomes. There is no doubt that the education system is finally opening up to technology and we need to embrace it. As we know, many universities are delivering lectures online and many companies are vying to be the go-to place for academic audio and video content. I currently have a weekly audio economics podcast that has ranked number 1 in the US, the UK and Ireland on iTunes. Lecturers from UCD to Stanford have informed me that they reference and encourage their students to listen to my podcast episodes. The project that I’m submitting this application for will be for the creation of a series of short videos that are engaging, to the point and accessible to both students and educators.

Dr. Catherine Madden

Department of Nursing and Health Care

Online Peer and Self-Assessment: Nursing Students’ attitudes and perceptions.

This project will use technology enhanced learning through online peer and self-assessment to enhance nurse education through the Virtual Moodle Learning Environment. The purpose of the project is to engage year 3 nursing students in an active role in the assessment strategy of a Professional and Patient Safety module. In this way, students will be actively involved in constructing their own learning and adopt new roles examining their peers, one in which they are “brought into the heart of teaching and learning processes and decision-making” (James & Pedder, 2006, p. 28).

Terry O’Brien & Claire Kennedy

Library

Developing re-usable learning objects to improve international students information and research skills.

This project involves developing a re-usable learning object (RLO) – i.e. an interactive online tutorial. Aimed at international students and delivered in a variety of instructional settings – primarily via a flexible self-contained, self-paced, independent model directly accessible by students in their own time. Tutorial will incorporate specific learning activities, assessment, quizzes and evaluation. Initially directed at a specific cohort – international and/or Erasmus students. Beyond project, development of extensive RLO suite - flexible, open and applicable to a wide student range (Springboard, undergraduate interdisciplinary, discipline specific, part-time, lifelong, generic skills, research, taught postgraduates).

Dr. Kathleen Grennan

Deptment of Science

Development of digital resources for blended learning.

The project I propose is to develop a suite of screencast resources to supplement teaching in IT-based undergraduate modules in the Dept. of Science. These would be short instructional videos demonstrating skills in MS Office that students currently learn by attending IT practicals. Examples of these skills include fitting error bars to data points, plotting residuals and fitting trendlines to data sets, all performed in MS Excel. Students who are absent from practicals find it difficult to learn these skills independently, even with supplied with detailed handouts that include screenshots. Being able to view a tutorial video where they can see someone performing these tasks in real-time would be much more valuable alternative. Students with learning difficulties or whose first language isn’t English would be better able to follow these videos rather that written handouts also. In addition, students who want to refresh their memory on how to perform key skills outside of an IT module can use these resources for that purpose.