Work-based Assessment (WBA): Exploring Critical Issues and Sharing Solutions

This webinar explores what is understood as WBA in the Irish context, focuses on the shared assessment challenges and opportunities across the different contexts and discusses some key practice insights on WBA before inviting participants to highlight critical issues to probe further.

This WBA webinar is the first in a webinar and national symposium series hosted by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education in partnership with Quality Qualifications Ireland (QQI),

Webinar: Creating and Sharing Open Educational Resources (OER)

A National Forum webinar “Creating and Sharing OER” took place on 28 May 2020. The webinar explored how to share resources that you have developed as open educational resources (OER) in order to facilitate sharing and reuse by others.

Catherine Cronin, Strategic Education Developer at the National Forum, facilitated the webinar and guest speakers Orna Farrell (Dublin City University), Iain MacLaren (National University of Ireland, Galway) and Gearóid O Súilleabháin (Cork Institute of Technology) shared their experiences of creating OER for previous projects funded by the Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund. The speakers discussed the use of Creative Commons licences, factors to consider when choosing a licence, and the advantages of openly licensing resources for reuse and remixing by others.

Irish National Digital Experience (INDEx) Survey Report Launch Event

The National Forum, in partnership with higher education institutions across the country, held an online launch of the INDEx Report on 7 May 2020.

In autumn 2019, as part of the Irish National Digital Experience (INDEx) Survey, 25,484 students and 4,445 staff who teach across 34 Irish higher education institutions shared their digital experiences in order to inform and influence the future enhancement of digital teaching and learning in Irish higher education. The tagline for the INDEx Survey, ‘Let’s see where we are so we can build our future together’, reflected the collaborative and focused intentions behind the Survey.

During a time of great change, the INDEx Survey findings provide a unique record of the digital experiences of a diverse range of students and staff in higher education nationally – an important benchmark for our sector.

Embracing alternative formats, assessment strategies and digital technologies to revitalise practical sessions in Science & Health

A report commissioned by the steering committee of the
“Technology Enhanced Assessment Methods (TEAM) in science & health practical settings”
project entitled:
Embracing alternative formats, assessment strategies and digital technologies to revitalise practical sessions in Science & Health
Author: Ronan T. Bree
Department of Applied Sciences, Dundalk Institute of Technology
Editors: Akinlolu Akande, Dina Brazil, David Doyle, Nuala Harding, Yvonne Kavanagh, Moira Maguire and Anne Mulvihill.

RPL Experience

RPL Experience is an online course developed for higher education staff seeking professional development in RPL assessment skills and in supporting RPL applicants effectively in GMIT, LyIT, and IT Sligo. It provides a comprehensive overview of how RPL works and student journeys and success stories illustrate the process.

National Professional Development Framework: Values

An explanatory video of the five core values underpinning staff engagement with professional development: Inclusivity, Authenticity, Collaboration, Scholarship, Learner-centredness. The values reflect the aims of the PD Framework on empowering and encouraging staff, enhancing the learning experience and contributing to quality in teaching and learning in Irish Higher Education.

Learning Analytics Platform Guide

The information in this guide was submitted directly by interested vendors through a request
for information (RFI) that was issued internationally by the National Forum and HEAnet through
eTenders, the Irish Government’s tendering platform (Reference number: HEAnet_DESSI_
LearningAnalytics18). RFIs are standard business processes, through which suppliers and vendors
are asked to provide information on their products’ capabilities.

Individual vendors were not targeted. Rather, a general request was extended through eTenders,
inviting responses from self-selecting vendors that met a range of criteria, most notably that they
had already worked with HEIs in Europe to provide platforms that enabled analysis of data relating
to student engagement and success.

Vendors were asked to respond to a standardised set of questions relating to:
— User functionality
— Service agreements
— Cost
— Infrastructural and technical specification
— Compatibility with platforms currently in use in Irish HEIs

In total, nine responses were received, all of which are included in this guide. The responses have
not been altered or edited and are presented in the exact format in which they were submitted
directly by the vendors themselves.

Enhancing Programme Approaches to Assessment and Feedback in Irish Higher Education: Case Studies, Commentaries and Tools

This web-based collection contains case studies, commentaries and tools supporting the enhancement of assessment and feedback in Irish higher education programmes. The collection showcases the contribution of 31 staff and two students, from 14 national and five international institutions. The topics explored in this collection highlight the complexity of programme approaches to assessment and feedback, in particular:

– the drivers of programme assessment change
– leading change to programme assessment
– exploring the evidence for what’s going on in programme(s) and
– ideas to enhance changes in programme(s) assessment.

The collection should be valuable to a range of stakeholders in higher education, i.e. academic staff, senior administrators, programme teams, students, quality assurance officers, education developers/technologists, assessment unit staff, etc.