N-TUTORR - November 2023

28 November 2023

The ‘Student Digital Backpack’ – Leading out initially with a Focus on the Academic integrity Digital Badge in DkIT

The Student Digital Backpack (SDB) platform has been developed to provide students across the Technological Higher Education Sector with additional skills to complement their existing programmes of study, embedding the N-TUTORR transforming learning themes (e.g., Digital Transformation, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Academic Integrity, Education for Sustainability, Universal Design for Learning, Employability).

The SDB is an online platform in the form of a Virtual Learning Environment for students across the TU/IoT sector to sign up to complete a variety of short, non-accredited courses. In DkIT, to support our students in acquiring training in a critical area for their coursework early in semester 1, the Academic Integrity Digital Badge course was initially embedded on Moodle, and to date 626 DkIT students have completed this course - being awarded their Certificate of Completion, with a Digital Badge soon to be issued. Thanks to Gerry Gallagher and Gareth Morgan for their support here.

Meanwhile, members of the DkIT N-TUTORR team, and two of our N-TUTORR Student Champions joined a national launch of the SDB in Galway earlier this month. Once launched in the coming days, the platform will be accessible for our students at https://mydigitalbackpack.ie . Dr. Moira Maguire is the national Co-Lead on Stream 1 of the N-TUTORR project, and working with the other Stream 1 Co-lead Dr. Carina Ginty at ATU, are responsible for the concept of the SDB, while Angela Magennis, DkIT’s Student Empowerment Co-ordinator, has been supporting its establishment across DkIT in recent months. The team would like to acknowledge the significant contribution made by DkIT’s seven N-TUTORR Student Champions in testing the platform and providing important feedback for its success at a national level.

Linkedin Learning Access and other Training Opportunities

Members of N-TUTORR team at DkIT, Ciara O’Shea, Eugene Stewart and Ronan Bree, have been focusing efforts on launching LinkedIn Learning across DkIT until June 2025. This is very close to going live, so do keep an eye on your e mails in the very near future, where you will receive access details. We look forward to supporting our community in their engagement with this platform over time. This access will complement N-TUTORR’s recent support for staff training via DCM Learning’s DkIT Hub. In addition, from 01 December, the N-TUTORR project will be supporting DkIT in becoming members of AdvanceHE – until July 2026. This membership will provide access to an exciting suite of resources, bespoke consultancy and training opportunities, and discounted access to their internationally recognised Fellowship and Aurora programmes. Once all are launched shortly, you will be able to access each of these platforms here.

N-TUTORR’s ‘Schools Tour’ in DkIT - and Plans for N-TUTORR week.

This month, Ronan Bree and Ciara O’Shea visited and presented to each of DkIT’s four Schools to highlight the project’s progress to date, share outputs from the recent Staff Training Needs Analysis survey, as well as detail opportunities for people to engage with N-TUTORR. One aspect outlined was “N-TUTORR Week”, taking place February 26th-March 1st 2024. Here, the N-TUTORR project will support a week of events taking place nationally across the seven partnering HEIs. As part of this, all DkIT staff and the Students Union have received an e mail (sent 27th Nov), inviting our community to submit an expression of interest to organise and host an event during N-TUTORR week. Events can be in-person, hybrid or online and could take the format of seminars, workshops, hackathons, mini-festivals, etc. This list is not intended to be prescriptive or definitive so as to encourage creativity. So please be sure to submit your expression of interest form before the deadline (5pm on Monday Dec 4th).