Creation of a Digital Academic Champion team and the impact on teaching practice and student engagement, supported by the DigitalEd.ie higher education project in Ireland.

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Brief Abstract

In 2019, GMIT along with higher education partners IT Sligo and LYIT in Ireland were awarded a Higher Education Authority (HEA) Innovation and Transformation award to build digital capabilities in the Connacht-Ulster Alliance (CUA) institutes. The project is called iNOTE and it provides opportunities to transform the higher education experience in the CUA institutes (2019-2022). GMIT Teaching and Learning Office is leading the development of DigitalEd.ie knowledge platform (i.e., Work Package 2 of the iNOTE project) and this involved creating a Digital Academic Champion team (25) representing each discipline across three higher education sites.

The Digital Academic Champion is a mentor and guide, to help support colleagues develop their digital teaching and learning skills, and engagement with the DigitalEd.ie resources and online professional development courses available. The impact of the champion mentoring network established is wide ranging, from a local and institutional perspective, and it is providing an opportunity for digital transformation, as we move forward in becoming a new Technological University in Ireland.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Dr Carina Ginty, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology

Carina is working in Higher Education for 16+ years and she leads the development of teaching, learning and assessment across five GMIT campuses and 14 academic departments in the West of Ireland. Her role involves managing the teaching and learning office team, leading a variety of strategic higher education projects, designing curriculum and postgraduate teaching development courses, chairing an institute student leadership programme, co-ordinating the implementation of the GMIT Learning, Teaching and Assessment (LTA) strategy, and representing GMIT on various national and international LTA development organisations. She collaborates with all disciplines, developing innovative teaching practices and engaging student learning experiences. Carina has led a variety of higher education projects for GMIT and higher education partners in Ireland and internationally on: the professional development of teaching; student leadership and engagement; assessment; digital capabilities and leadership; digital learning; mentoring; community engagement; recognition of prior learning; e-Portfolios; transitions, retention and the first-year experience. She is currently leading the CUA iNOTE-DigitalEd project for GMIT and this involves building digital capabilities across three institutes in Galway-Mayo, Sligo and Letterkenny and collaborating with academic departments and professional services, on the development of a digital education knowledge platform at https://DigitalEd.ie. Carina is also a co-lead on the HigherEd 4.0 project with the CUA and this project will oversee the establishment of a Careers and Recognised Prior Learning Assessment Centre for the West and North-West of Ireland. Carina’s teaching and learning portfolio is available at: https://carinaginty.weebly.com

Extended Abstract

In 2019, GMIT along with higher education partners IT Sligo and LYIT in Ireland were awarded a Higher Education Authority (HEA) Innovation and Transformation award to build digital capabilities in the Connacht-Ulster Alliance (CUA) institutes. The project is called iNOTE and it provides opportunities to transform the higher education experience in the CUA institutes (2019-2022). GMIT Teaching and Learning Office is leading the development of DigitalEd.ie knowledge platform (i.e., Work Package 2 of the iNOTE project) and this involved creating a Digital Academic Champion team (25) representing each discipline across three higher education sites.

The Digital Academic Champion is a mentor and guide, to help support colleagues develop their digital teaching and learning skills, and engagement with the DigitalEd.ie resources and online professional development courses available. The impact of the champion mentoring network established is wide ranging, from a local and institutional perspective, and it is providing an opportunity for digital transformation, as we move forward in becoming a new Technological University in Ireland.

The session will explore: establishing the champion team and lessons learned; exemplars of online course outputs produced; reflections from the experience; the peer evaluation role the champions played in developing DigitalEd.ie; the mentoring and learning support role at a local discipline level; and how they are supporting the development of a culture of digital transformation for the new Technological University emerging in Ireland.