A retrospective of the project timeline at NUI Galway, led by Kate Molloy.

With the EDTL project coming to a finish this year, it’s important that we share the hard work that has been carried out tirelessly behind the scenes on the project. NUI Galway project lead Kate Molloy has been hard at work since 2019 working on the EDTL project.

Coming to end in September, project leads from each partner university have been hard at work creating EDTL project timelines, outlining the events and achievements of their respective institutions towards the EDTL. Kate Molloy, the project lead at NUI Galway has been compiling a timeline of events at NUI Galway.

2019

In July 2019, Kate was appointed as the EDTL project lead for NUI Galway, where she is based in CELT as a Learning Technologist. She set about gauging the staff’s self-assessed digital competency by hosting a series of focus groups along with colleague Iain Mac Labhrainn, using the European Digital Competence Framework for Educators (DigCompEdu).

Following the first series of focus groups, Kate’s work then shifted to gathering digital resources that could be compiled and structured into workshops that focused on topics such as interactive multimedia, podcasting, video and learning design. This led to a large number of academic staff participating and going on to earn the Getting Started with Personal and Professional Digital Capacity badge, which will be featured later in the newsletter.

2020

2020 was a busier year for Kate, with the launch of a new workshop series focused on digital resources in February, followed by a series of EDTL-oriented projects such as the Inclusive Learning at NUI Galway project, funded by the National Forum. February also saw Kate attend UCC to deliver a DigCompEdu self-assessment workshop alongside Sharon Flynn.

March saw the launch of Blackboard Ally across campus, a tool that makes digital content more accessible, as well as providing high-level feedback regarding the accessibility of digital content. The launch of Blackboard Ally was brought forward to March in order to accommodate the COVID lockdown and remote learning measures that were introduced at the time. A series of intensive, hands-on how-to-use workshops were held to get staff familiarised with using Ally ran from May to August.

As well as running a series of workshops throughout the summer to prepare staff for a year of online and blended learning, Kate also collaborated with EDTL colleagues to develop the EDTL Approach in response to COVID-19. The Consider Your Content and Activities pillar was also created at the same time alongside colleagues from DCU and UL.

With a very different return to campus in September, an online resource created by the local EDTL team, including newly hired student intern Lauren Muldowney was developed and shared with students. Within the first month of its launch there were over 7,000 engagements. September also saw rollout of a campus-wide online version of the National Forum’s Universal Design in Teaching and Learning, which Kate co-curated with the help of the Inclusive Learning team at NUI Galway. Kate issued 30 UDL badges for course participants in December, offering extra feedback and support on the redesign of the participants teaching.

2021

2021 saw the project at NUIG revert to its original objectives, focusing particularly on students’ digital
skills and their digital learning environment, with a timeline extension to be completed in September
2022.

A level 9 module in Learning Technologies was offered in semester two by Kate, with six participants earning the GSPPDC digital badge as part of their project work.

April saw Kate work closely with the Inclusive Learning team to organise the Inclusive Learning in Higher Education symposium at NUI Galway, with the EDTL team hosting a panel discussion at the event which was held virtually over two days. The Inclusive Learning team also contributed to a month-long AHEAD conference in April, delivering three presentations over the course of the month. Kate joined the organising committee for the OERxDomains conference, facilitating a workshop and presenting on the EDTL project at the event.

In May, EDTL intern Lauren Muldowney produced an exam support guide for students. Lauren continued to assist Kate with projects and module launches before completing her internship in September.

In November, the Getting Started with Personal and Professional Digital Capacity open course was
launched nationally with over 80 participants across the country. Kate joined the course as a
facilitator along with the other course creators. Kate also facilitated the local rollout of the UDL badge
for Shannon College of Hotel Management in November, in-line with the EDTL project goals.

2022

In January, following the success of the Getting Started with Personal and Professional Digital Capacity course, facilitator training was completed with 12 new facilitators across Irish higher and further education. The UDL short course was once again rolled out across NUIG campus, as it was done in 2020 and 2021.

February saw Kate’s and Ulster University’s Clare Thomson’s chapter, ‘Humanising Learning Design with Digital Pragmatism’, accepted to the Higher Education for Good collections.

With plenty of work carried out between March and April, Kate delivered a CESI conference keynote, as well as presenting alongside the EDTL team at OER Conference, ‘An Open Approach to Educators’ Digital Capacity: Lessons Learned from the Cross-Institutional Development and Delivery of an Open Course’. Kate ended April by organising a panel presentation as part of Open Scholarships Week with members of the EDTL and NUIG staff.

In May, Kate oversaw the launch of the GSPPDC course nationally for a second time, with more than 80 participants and support from previous and new facilitators, a number of which were participants in 2021. Kate was invited to Ulster University to deliver a talk, ‘Inclusive Digital Learning at NUI Galway with Blackboard Ally’.

If you’d like to read the comprehensive list of events and publications to date associated with the EDTL project, you can click here.

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