Building digital teaching and learning capabilities in the Connacht Ulster Alliance (CUA) with DigitalEd.ie

In 2019, GMIT along with partners IT Sligo and LYIT were awarded a HEA Innovation and Transformation award to build digital capabilities in the Connacht-Ulster Alliance (CUA). 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 (work package 2 of the iNOTE project).

DigitalEd.ie, is a digital teaching and learning knowledge platform. that provides access to professional development pathways and a suite of digital resources, in order to build digital capabilities and pedagogic expertise, so that educators can design, deliver and support flexible and online learning programmes effectively.

This paper will explore: the development journey of DigitalEd.ie; the creation of a digital champions team; designing learning pathways; creating a digital resources directory; staff insights on building their digital teaching and learning capabilities during the pandemic; and a suite of digital capability discovery tools (including a workshop, a digital discovery self-assessment tool, the INDEX survey, a discussion platform survey, and focus groups with digital champions and DigitalEd.ie participants). The suite of discovery tools deployed during the project (2019-2022), is supporting an action research study, that is informing a best practice model for developing digital teaching and learning capabilities in higher education.