Webinar: Developing Enabling Policies for Digital and Open Teaching & Learning

Policies related to digital teaching, learning and assessment, which had been developed in a different context, were suddenly road-tested by whole institutional communities in recent months. Topics such as lecture recordings, data protection, data privacy, copyright, intellectual property rights and digital wellbeing are relevant to all engaged in digital and open teaching and learning. This webinar shares guidance and resources on the development of enabling policies for digital and open teaching and learning to underpin enhanced practice.

Webinar: What is the Future for the Assessment of Learning through Final Examinations? Part 2

Building on the Part 1 on 06 May 2021, this webinar continues the national conversation about the future for the assessment of learning through final examinations. In this webinar, we share a range of examples showcasing alternative assessments to exams. We explore the theme of assessment for engagement, and hear perspectives from students and staff, senior managers and other stakeholders. We consider the implications of continuing with final exams, and in particular online exams which require proctoring.

Webinar: What is the Future for the Assessment of Learning through Final Examinations? Part 1

Few areas of teaching and learning were more under the spotlight in recent months than assessment. Across institutional communities, the experience of selecting and designing alternative assessments had a number of impacts on attitudes and intentions for the future. This webinar shared and debated a range of perspectives from students, staff, senior managers and other stakeholders on assessment of learning through a final examination.

Webinar: Building a Shared Understanding of Agile Curricula. Part 1

The concept of agile curricula has come to prominence in recent years, not least through the HEA’s recent Human Capital Initiative Pillar 3, which is set to see an investment of €197 million over the 5-year period, 2020 to 2024. Aligning with the significant related work on which institutions are now embarking, this webinar begins a national conversation on how we understand the concept of an agile curriculum and what can be learned and shared across related projects and initiatives at national level.

Resource: Using OER and OEP for Teaching and Learning

‘Using Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Educational Practices (OEP) for Teaching and Learning’ is a National Forum open resource developed in partnership with colleagues across the Irish higher education sector. As such, this space reflects our collaborative commitment to developing critical open education capabilities for positive individual, institutional, sectoral and societal change.

Webinar: Using OER and OEP for Teaching and Learning

The potential benefits of using open educational resources and practices (OER and OEP) in higher education include improving access, furthering equity and enhancing teaching, learning and assessment. The National Forum supports the use of OER and OEP in a range of ways (see www.teachingandlearning.ie/open). This webinar will be helpful to staff across the sector who are interested in further exploring and supporting the use of OER and OEP in their own contexts.

Webinar: The INDEx Survey: A Challenging and Rewarding Journey

On 25 November 2020, the National Forum hosted a webinar ‘Implementing the INDEx Survey: National and international collaboration, and looking to the future’. The webinar was chaired by Oliver Janoschka, director of Hochshulforum Digitalisierung (HFD). Terry Maguire and Catherine Cronin described key lessons learned by the National Forum after the implementation of the INDEx Survey in 2019-20 (as described in the recent briefing paper). An esteemed panel of guest speakers, Georgi Dimitrov (European Commission), Christien Bok (SURF) and Florian Rampelt (HFD), reflected on these lessons in a broader European digital education context, particularly in relation to the recently published Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027.

Work-based Assessment: Getting to Grips with Policies and Practices

This event builds on learning from conversations that have taken place during and around the series’ preceding webinars and provides an opportunity to consider actions for sectoral change. It draws together international and national experts, key resources, case studies and uses a series of interactive approaches to interrogate this topic across the range of different work-based learning contexts.

Webinar: Data Literacy, Privacy and Protection in Higher Education

At this event, key INDEx findings in relation to data privacy and data protection, informed by close to 30,000 students and staff who teach from across Irish higher education, are summarised and then explored with respect to teaching and learning, institutional policies, digital and data literacies, and student-staff partnership. Considering the importance of institutions’ GDPR obligations and concerns about personal data privacy more broadly, it is important to ensure students’ data privacy and protection, to communicate clearly to the institutional community regarding related protective measures that are in place, and to support both staff and students with the necessary knowledge and resources. With just half of students agreeing that their institution protected their data privacy, fewer than a third agreeing that they were informed about how their personal data was stored and used, and half of all staff who teach agreeing that they were informed about their responsibilities with regard to managing learner data securely, the INDEx findings suggest that additional work is required on this issue.