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Promoting Student Success in Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT)

20 July 2022

The Centre for Teaching and Learning (CELT) at Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) was delighted to host ‘Promoting Student Success’ on the 14th of June 2022. This sharing practice event presented and discussed key outcomes from both Data-enabled Student Success: A Framework for DkIT (SATLE 2020) and Embedding Employability at DkIT (SATLE 2019), each of which are funded by the National Forum T&L.



Ronan Bree from the Department of Life and Health Science at DkIT launched the event and provided invaluable context on student success from a national perspective and highlighted superlative projects already completed by the Forum, all of which can be accessed on the National Resource Hub.

Additional initiatives were presented, including the Careers and Employability Service’s AHECS award-winning Embedding Employability Toolkit, CELT’s Making the Most of Moodle Data, and Talk Before You Walk.

Embedding Employability Toolkit

Catherine Staunton, Head of Careers and Employability at DkIT, outlined the Embedding Employment Toolkit, which supports staff in embedding graduate attributes within their programmes through a suite of employability activities and tools. These attributes embody the core abilities and values DkIT agrees its graduates should develop. As demonstrated by Dr Maria Roddy Freyne (Department of Hospitality Studies), graduate attributes can be mapped onto modules using resources developed by the Career and Employability Service.  

Making the Most of Moodle Data

As part of the Data-enabled Student Success project, Dr Jonathan Hodgers debuted a framework for using data to aid student success across the Institute. Moodle is a prime source of student data, which the project team have been keen to promote to staff as part of the Making the Most of Moodle Data initiative. It advocates the use of Moodle features that help staff to better understand student engagement within their modules. Dr Niall Coghlan, Lecturer in the Department of Creative Arts, Media and Music, provided feedback on some of the department staff’s experience using the various features throughout the term. A set of infographics promoting the initiative were showcased at the event and Aidan Garvey (CELT) presented demonstrations of the Moodle features in action.   

For more information on these features, please see visit Making the Most of Moodle Data.

Talk Before You Walk

We also heard from colleagues about their experiences and practices concerning student success and gained insight into other supports and tools that staff have used and developed to this end. Among these, Talk Before You Walk offers guidance to staff and students around students withdrawing, transferring, or deferring. As Linda Murphy (Registrar’s Office) illustrated, taking action at certain ‘checkpoints’ can significantly impact students’ decisions. Dr Moira Maguire (CELT) showed us how insights are drawn from StudentSurvey.ie can be used to inform actions that promote our students’ success.

Dr Philip Scanlon (CELT) brought data itself under the spotlight: its ubiquity, its potential, and its importance to effective decision-making. For any additional details, please feel free to contact the relevant staff members mentioned above. 

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