David Moloney and Yvonne Hynes, CTL, University of Limerick
Like it or not, digital technologies including Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools like Copilot and ChatGPT, are now part of students’ study, work, and personal lives. To help UL students navigate this world with confidence, critical awareness, and practical digital competence, the Digital Skills team in UL’s Centre for Transformative Learning developed the LevUL Up Digital Skills Hub (DSH) on Brightspace. It is openly accessible to the UL community, comprising the following elements
- A framework-informed introduction,
- Digital skills self-assessment tool,
- Live workshops,
- ‘Digital Essentials’ suite of self-paced resources including quiz assessments.
Using a “plugin” approach, with minimal effort and major advantages, educators can embed the elements directly into modules, linking them to graded coursework. Students benefit from structured opportunities to assess and develop relevant digital competence within their course. Since launch in September 2023, this approach has successfully supported ~2,000 students in 11 undergraduate and postgraduate modules across multiple disciplines. Learner feedback is consistently strong, with 96% of ~235 respondents rating their experience ‘Excellent’ or ‘Good’.
Responding to evolving educational needs, the DSH offers resources such as AI Essentials: Student Guide to GenAI, and a forthcoming Beginners Guide to GenAI Prompting. Beyond modules, these feature in academic programme information pages. Through the HEA SATLE Pathfinder funded ‘AI-LIT@UL’ initiative, UL students will collaborate as co-designers, critically reviewing these resources to ensure ongoing relevance, accessibility, and academic rigour.
DSH self-paced resources are openly licensed (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), allowing adaptation and reuse across the sector.
Further details or collaboration opportunities: Linktree | digitalskills@ul.ie
