DkIT Shares Prestigious Teaching Excellence and Best Collaboration Awards as part of Virtual Labs Project

27 June 2024

Dundalk Institute of Technology was absolutely delighted to be part of the multi-institutional team that recently received a prestigious HEA and National Forum award for Disciplinary Excellence in Learning, Teaching and Assessment (DELTA) as part of their collaboration on the Human Capital Initiative funded Virtual Labs project. This award follows recent success at the 2024 Education Awards, where the consortium was recognised as the ‘Best Collaboration Project’. Dr Ronan Bree and Dr Bernard Drumm, both from the School of Health & Science, represented DkIT and the wider project team on the DELTA panel evaluation and both recently collected the awards along with members from across the consortium. While Bernard and Ronan have been involved as Academic Leads for the project in Dundalk, they are keen to recognise and acknowledge the wider group of local stakeholders who have been central to this success.

The exciting Virtual Labs project focuses on creating a lab-based curriculum that develops transversal skills and is informed by feedback from a broad spectrum of stakeholders including students, staff, and robust partnerships with international edtech firms and regional enterprises from critical sectors such as Pharmaceutical and Biopharmaceutical. The team’s work is designed to meet the demands of modern students embarking on a future career in STEM and enhancing engagement across various educational levels including level 7, 8, and level 9 programmes. The project’s aim is to impact on students’ experience of science practical learning and has seen significant results. It has brought innovation and transversal skill development to the fore whilst working closely with enterprise partners.

Dr Bernard Drumm notes

“The primary focus of our DkIT team and wider partners in this innovative project has always been on student needs. We wanted to explore how virtual laboratories, digital transformation and online learning could be used not only to implement new educational technologies, but to tangibly affect student engagement, learning, and employability. This DELTA award is a recognition of our student-centred, team-driven project in Dundalk and across our wider consortium, and we look forward to carrying this forward to future cohorts of DkIT learners"

Initiated in 2020, the project is a collaborative initiative among five higher education institutions — including Maynooth University (Lead), Technological University of the Shannon, Dublin City University, University College Cork along with DkIT. Receiving these national and high-profile awards recognise this project’s significant contributions to the bio/chemical sciences education aimed at enhancing blended teaching and learning experiences and is funded through the Higher Education Authority’s HCI Pillar 3 programme.

Dr Alan Wall, Chief Executive Officer at the Higher Education Authority (HEA), praised the project team’s achievements

“Their success in enhancing teaching and learning within the bio/chemical sciences is inspiring and deserves this national recognition. By embracing a truly collaborative approach, the Virtual Labs team exemplifies what can be achieved when institutions work together towards a common goal. Their work aligns with our goals at the HEA, where we aim to bridge the gap between academic learning and industry demands.”

Dr Ronan Bree was keen to highlight the wider team’s input

“Credit to all the institutional teams and the core DkIT academic team Bernard and I are fortunate to be part of – which includes Dr Sinead Loughran, Dr Caoimhin Griffin and Dr Bridget Kelly - as well as our students, colleagues, and enterprise partners. These recent achievements have been years in the making, representing a wonderful team success for everyone associated with the project. They symbolise a strong example of teamwork in action, involving many functional across the colleges including academic, learning and teaching, finance, technical, IT, admin, marketing and senior management (Dr. Edel Healy, Dr. Arjan van Rossum and Dr. Gillian Lambe). This collaborative mindset across the partnership, combined with support from the HCI programme, has truly enabled the impactful success to date”.