“I believe virtually everything I read, and I think that is what makes me more of a selective human than someone who doesn't believe anything.” (David St Hubbins) Approaching life like David St Hubbins from This Is Spinal Tap (1984) was all very well back in the 1980s, but it is a less good idea in today’s internet-dominated interconnected world, where anyone with a phone can publish anything and beam it around the world. Critically assessing the integrity of information has never been more important or more challenging, and to do this successfully requires digital literacy skills. Inspired by global initiatives such as the United Nations SDGs and the European Commission’s DigComp framework, we created an open digital educational resource to help foster digital literacy within our institution and beyond. This project ties in with an ongoing academic integrity project within our institution; it also coincides with the increasing availability of generative artificial intelligence systems that can potentially spread misinformation at scale. In this context, we feel the project is a very timely one. In this paper, we reflect on the process of developing the course, share what we have learned along the way, and indicate future directions for the project.

Developing 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.

Managing an entire college’s continuous assessments using Moodle.

Poster presented at the LAI/CILIP Joint Annual Conference 2023

Hibernia College delivers blended Professional Master in Education (PME) programmes to students across Ireland. Their backgrounds are diverse: some enter the programmes directly from undergraduate studies, others are returning to education after many years working. Some students have difficulty adopting academic writing conventions such as paraphrasing, quoting, citing and referencing. The College added the URKUND text-matching tool to its Moodle-based VLE in 2018. Its intended use is as a formative tool for students to improve their academic writing (Rolfe, 2011). It generates a text-matching report that students scrutinise and they judge for themselves if they have used another’s material in an improper way – by incorrectly paraphrasing, quoting, citing or referencing. They then have an opportunity to amend their assignment and re-upload. Documentation was provided to students upon its introduction, explaining the capabilities, scope and limitations of URKUND and how to use it. This research on the impact of URKUND used a mixed-methods approach. Three student cohorts had the tool available to them when uploading assignments in spring 2018 and were surveyed after their upload deadline passed. The tool was widely-used and well-received but students also held misconceptions about URKUND’s capabilities. Students also had difficulty in making judgements on their assignment as they were unclear if what the report was showing them was ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. To maximise its potential as a formative tool, a continual re-enforcement of URKUND’s capabilities, scope and limitations would appear to be required. Similarly, it would appear students need support in developing skills to interpret the report and to make judgements on their own academic writing.

Poster presented at IFLA WLIC in Dublin 26th to 29th July 2022.

As schools, universities, retail stores and corporations flock to Online and eLearning, there are many compelling arguments to support their decision. Synchronous virtual classroom tools are used to support Online and eLearning interaction to mirror face-to-face learning. Martin (2012) identified that synchronous tools are a relatively new solution to supporting interaction in the virtual classroom. Ward et al. (2010) distinguished a strong, convincing body of literature which shows that synchronous online classrooms, enhanced by two-way audio, allow for real-time oral presentation, discourse, and checks for understanding among tutor and learners. Hrastinski (2008) determined the aural component of the synchronous virtual classroom as offering real time contact between teachers and students, mirroring faceto- face contact. Much of the research to date focuses on synchronous online resources and their link with participation while there is little or no research on the use of a resource to assist with technical issues inhibiting learners from participating. The aim of the study was to address this gap through means of an exploratory case study. The research included investigating, creating and assessing the usefulness of a resource to assist with technological issues impacting learners’ ability to participate. The learners were students undertaking a post graduate qualification at Hibernia College. Data was collected through observations and surveys from 46 students and tutors. This research concluded that audio is particularly important for both knowledge construction and learning but also in creating a social atmosphere. While the technical support resource provided a useful aid to learners in this study, further study will need to be conducted over a prolonged period to investigate the full extent of its usefulness. External factors do effect participation and poses a case for extending Moore’s Theory of Transactional Distance to include external factors similar to Fallon’s (2012) suggestion.

This paper describes the establishment and delivery of a Blended Learning Higher Diploma in Education, being a professional qualification for Primary School teachers in Ireland. This innovative course represents a major departure from the traditional mode of delivery of teaching training in Ireland. A careful analysis of student feedback and examination scores is therefore of crucial importance to inform further development of the course and to contribute to innovation in teacher training both in Ireland and internationally. The two primary modes of course delivery, that is an Entirely Online mode and a Blended Learning mode, were compared in terms of qualitative feedback from the students themselves and quantitative results from the formal assessment procedures. Across a range of questions that covered perceived workload, satisfaction with objectives and learning outcomes and perceived career benefit, the mode of delivery had no effect on student levels of satisfaction with the course. There was a small but significant grade improvement for Blended Learning courses over Entirely Online courses. However, alternative hypotheses make it difficult to attribute this grade increase to the mode of course delivery. The mode of delivery of course content does not affect student satisfaction or the ability of students to perform well in formal assessment. It is therefore concluded that a blended learning educational system that includes online education is a highly appropriate mode for the training of primary school teachers.