O'Dowd, Irene
Loading...
Biography
Irene O’Dowd is a Researcher in Digital Learning at Hibernia College. She is responsible for coordinating research activity in the College's Digital Learning Department, where she formerly held the role of Learning Designer. Irene has over 20 years’ experience in digital learning in commercial and academic sectors, and has Masters degrees in education and international relations.
20 results
Publication Search Results
Now showing 1 - 10 of 20
Publication Building a Community of Practice for Academic Integrity Workshop(2023) Casey, Elva; O'Dowd, Irene; Byrne, AnnThis workshop was delivered at the second annual HECA research conference held in DBS Dublin on November 14th, 2023. The presentation outlined the establishment of a community of practice (CoP) for academic Integrity at Hibernia College. Participants were invited to discuss setting up a CoP within their own organisations.Publication Digital literacy for all: Reflections on creating a short course in digital literacy(2024) Byrne, Ann; O'Dowd, Irene; Davey, EmberlyIn 2023, a small team at Hibernia College, composed of library staff and the digital learning department researcher, took the initiative to develop an online asynchronous digital literacy course for the college and wider community. This poster will address the rationale, process and outcomes of developing the digital literacy course. The availability of the course as an OER will be discussed, highlighting our interest in contributing to digital citizenship and the SDGs. The poster will also highlight some possible future directions that could develop and build on the work done to date. The poster was presented at the CILIP Ireland/LAI Annual Joint Conference held in Newry, from Wednesday 24th April to Thursday 25th April 2024. It was also presented at the ILTA EdTech Conference held in Sligo, from 30th May to 31st May 2024. It won Best Poster at the CONUL Conference held in Belfast, from Wednesday 29th May - Thursday 30th May 2024.Publication Comma chameleons: lessons learned from studying engagement with an online academic writing toolkit(2019) O'Dowd, IreneThe Academic Writing Toolkit is an online resource that was developed to provide students with accessible and timely guidance on key aspects of academic writing in Hibernia College's blended-learning ITE programmes. Available to students and faculty via the College's Moodle VLE and designed for asynchronous delivery, the Toolkit provides guidance on 'technical' writing skills such as referencing, grammar, formatting and style as well as on specialised areas as reflective writing, assessment writing and dissertation writing. The design was informed by a 'bite-size' ethos to encourage continuous, formative and self-motivated use over time. However, patterns of student engagement with the first iteration suggested that, following an initial peak of activity, there was little evidence of students returning to the Toolkit for help on key topics at crucial points in their programmes. This paper will discuss how the Toolkit's content and positioning evolved in response to, firstly, findings from the initial engagement study and, secondly, increased awareness of the Toolkit's potential among College faculty. Findings from an inferential analysis of learning analytics data collected from activity logs for pre- and post-update iterations will be discussed. The results of the analysis, combined with survey feedback on students' use experience, will inform an evaluation of the impact, if any, of specific design and dissemination enhancements on Toolkit engagement. It is hoped that these findings will provide insights into ways in which instructional design and faculty support considerations can help promote quality engagement with resources of this type, particularly for distance learners.Publication HECA Research Conference 2023: Sharing an Open Research Landscape(Dublin Business School, 2024) O'Dowd, Irene; Byrne, Ann; Butler Neff, Linda; O'Sullivan, Patricia; Browne, Andrew; Zorzi, Debora; O'Connor, Noel; McKenna, Robert; Haugh, Trevor; Finkbeiner, Kristin; Ni Bhraonain, Dimphne; King, Ann; HECA Research Conference CommitteeThis paper provides a succinct overview of HECA's second annual research conference, held at DBS on November 14th 2023.Publication If You Build It, They Might or Might Not Come: How We Became Repository Detectorists(2023-06-20) O'Dowd, Irene; Byrne, Ann; Davey, EmberlyDeveloping faculty and staff engagement with a new open-access institutional repository (IR) is a challenge often underestimated during IR implementation projects. The idea that “if you build it, they will come” does not reflect the reality of establishing a successful IR in a third-level institution (Ferreira et al., 2008). Factors that hinder the adoption of open-access IRs are many and varied, and a multi-pronged approach is required both to gain an understanding of these factors and develop a strategy to address them (Narayan and Luca, 2017; Tmava, 2022). For those involved in IR implementation projects, having surmounted the considerable hurdles of securing approval and funding for an IR and then developing the platform, the need for the development of such a strategy often comes as quite a surprise. However, it is arguably the most important part of ensuring a successful IR implementation. In this presentation, the genesis and continuing evolution our own IR engagement strategy will be reflected upon and our learnings shared for the benefit of those at a similar or earlier stage of the open-access IR journey. Crucial to our professional journey has been the process of replacing the hubristic “if you build it” metaphor with one suggesting a more incremental and infinitely less glamorous approach to the problem. Inspired by a popular television series (Crook, 2014-2022), we reflect on the role of IR administrators less as architects and more as detectorists. Informed by the reflective model of Experience, Reflection, Action (Jasper, 2013) and guided by Holliday’s (2017) thinking on the power of metaphor in theory and practice, we present a story of lofty idealism giving way to scuttling skullduggery; of the painful metaphorical journey from building a magnificent baseball stadium to squelching through a muddy field with a metal detector. It is also a story of how we were (almost) desperate enough to dress up in fish onesies and jump into the Liffey.Publication "A little muddled and in need of greater clarity": encouraging formative use of the Academic Writing ToolkitO'Dowd, IreneThe Academic Writing Toolkit is an online resource developed for Hibernia College's blended-learning programmes in initial teacher education, to provide distance-learning students with accessible and timely guidance on improving their academic writing. Available to students and faculty via the Moodle LMS and designed for asynchronous delivery, the Toolkit provides guidance on technical writing skills such as referencing, grammar, formatting and style, as well as on specialised areas as reflective writing, assessment writing and dissertation writing. The design was informed by a chunked or bite-size ethos to encourage continuous, formative and self-motivated use throughout the academic programmes. However, an examination of user engagement patterns in the first year suggested that, contrary to expectations, there was little evidence of students returning to the Toolkit for help on key topics at crucial points in their programmes. This paper will outline how elements of the Toolkit were updated in response to findings from previous research (presented at OOFHEC2018). Findings from a study of engagement with the updated version of the Toolkit (n=334) will be presented, including comparisons of findings from learning analytics data collected from activity logs for pre- and post-redesign iterations. The results of this analysis, combined with survey feedback on students' use experience (n=41), will inform an evaluation of the impact of specific design and dissemination enhancements on Toolkit engagement. In particular, the impact of increased awareness of the Toolkit's potential among College faculty will be discussed. These findings will give practical insights into the roles of instructional design and faculty awareness in creating digital learning tools that meet the unique engagement and support needs of distance learners.Publication Examining engagement with an online toolkit for academic writing in blended-learning initial teacher education programmesO'Dowd, IreneThe Academic Writing Toolkit was developed by Hibernia College in 2017 in response to feedback from both faculty and students of the College’s Primary and Post-Primary ITE masters programmes. This feedback indicated a need for guidance and instruction on academic writing that was both student-teacher focused and distance-learner focused. Designed for asynchronous online delivery, the Toolkit covers standard academic-writing skills such as referencing, grammar, formatting and style. It also provides tailored guidance on reflective writing, assessment writing and dissertation writing from teacher education experts. Such writing practices form a crucial component of teacher formation by fostering skills in reflective practice and critical thinking (Day, 1999; Whitehead, 2000) as well as supporting the development of teacher self-identity as practitioner-researchers (Stenhouse, 1975; Argyris & Schön, 1976). This paper summarises the theory and principles guiding the Toolkit’s design and draws on a study of quantitative and qualitative data to obtain insight into students' usage patterns and their experience of the Toolkit. The study focused on Primary and Post-primary programme cohorts (n=315) and used data derived from a combination of user logs, online surveys (n=52) and student records. Ethical approval for this research was obtained from the College’s Research Ethics Committee. Among the findings from the study were strong preferences expressed by students for instructional modalities that enhance the sense of teaching presence in online content (Garrison et al., 2000) and a scheduling approach that recognises the patterns and workload of distance-learning students.Publication Developing a student-centred approach to academic referencing support for postgraduate distance learners(2022) O'Dowd, Irene; Byrne, AnnPoster presented at IFLA WLIC in Dublin 26th to 29th July 2022.Publication Can a Mobile App Help Create Virtual Learning Spaces and Communities of Practice for Students and Tutors?(2023-06-19) O'Dowd, Irene; Benson, JanetEngagement and collaboration can be challenging in the online learning space, a fact that was highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a leading provider of postgraduate blended-learning programmes, Hibernia College is cognisant of the challenges of creating authentic social-learning opportunities for online learners. In 2020 we launched a collaboration app for students and tutors, leveraging ubiquitous mobile technology to enhance the creation of virtual Communities of Practice (vCoPs) and virtual learning spaces. The platform, developed in partnership with technology company Moxo, provides workspaces and features to encourage online communication and collaboration. The current research project, a collaboration by Hibernia College and Learnovate, explores the impact of the app on students’ and teachers’ collaborative learning practices. Surveys and focus groups were conducted to investigate use of and attitude towards the app and explore whether use of the app had changed over time. Findings indicate that several factors influenced app use, including familiarity, perceived usefulness versus other platforms, and expectations for its use as part of the educational experience. Training on platform use was an important factor for teachers. Further investigation continues, and we anticipate interesting outcomes from a comparative analysis of engagement by different groups over time.