NDLR

NDLR Fest 2nd May 2012 - 6th Annual Showcase of Irish Digital Teaching & Learning Resources

Left to Right Back Row: Muiris O’Connor (HEA), Prof. Eamonn McQuade (NDLR), Sean Sherlock TD, Prof. Martin Curley, Vice President for Intel Corporation, Pat O’Connor, HEA.
Left to Right Front Row: Aisling Dundon (UL), Catherine Bruen (TCD).

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The National Digital Learning Resources service hosted yesterday, in Croke Park, featured a showcase of open and free digital learning resources created across all subject disciplines in the Irish HE sector. The NDLR Fest 2012 was attended by over 250 higher education academics with a significant number virtually attending through the live iphone and web streaming of the event.

The National Digital Learning Resources service is a HEA funded national service, coordinated through the Academic Practice & eLearning at Trinity College and involves all HEA funded higher education Institutions in Ireland. The premise of which is to foster the use, reuse and development of open digital learning resources amongst the academic community in Ireland.  The NDLR repository currently hosts over 26,000 open education resources and supports the development of new resources through an annual funding initiative.
 
Sean Sherlock TD, Minister of State, Department of Enterprise, Jobs & Innovation and Department of Education & Skills with responsibility for Research & Innovation speaking at the NDLR Fest 2012: Annual Showcase of Digital Learning Resources in Croke Park Conference Centre today said “Ireland is on the threshold of a digital age.  With a growing international Open Education policy agenda the government needs to strongly embrace this arena”.
 
Pat O’Connor, Head of ICT in the HEA also spoke about the changing needs of the students of tomorrow and the shift towards visual learning.  The Minister added that students today are used to accessing knowledge at their finger tips.  If we can find a way to break down the silos of knowledge there will be a beneficial qualitative impact for society at large. Muiris O’Connor, Principle Officer of Policy and Planning spoke about the HEA’s vision for the forthcoming National Academy for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning which will be launched in June 2012.
 
Keynote speaker at the event, Professor Martin Curley, recently appointed Vice President of Intel Labs, spoke about the forces shaping learning and that learning today “is less about the sage on the stage and more about the guy on the side”. Professor Curley went on to say that the “rate of advancement in technological innovation is outpacing education and that our Higher Education is behind the curve of technology”.
 
The Open digital agenda encompassing issues such as Open Access, Digital Innovation and Technologies, Open Source and Future Digital Directions is one that has a growing impact on a wide range of issues in research and higher education.  Open Education Resources have great transformative potential in Higher Education and the NDLR is playing a role in promoting awareness and providing support amongst the higher education community in Ireland.

NDLR Research Symposium 26th September 2012 - Evaluating the Impact of digital resources in higher education.

Since 2009 the NDLR annual call for funding under the Learning Innovation Community Supported (LInCS) projects initiative has enabled and supported the development of innovative high quality teaching and learning digital resources.  Over the last 12 months the number of users and downloads of resources from the repository has increased in line with the number of quality resources being deposited in the NDLR repository. However, more research needs to be done on how these resources are being used and reused and the impact they are having in the classroom.
The NDLR would like to invite the academic community in Ireland to submit papers and presentations on the following themes:

• Faculty evaluation of digital resources in the classroom
• Innovative uses of digital resources in the classroom
• Institutional support of digital resource use
• Reuse or repurposing of resources
• Student evaluation of digital resources
• Student attitudes and perceptions of digital resources
• Do digital resources enhance the learning experience?

This is an open research symposium for all research on the use of digital resources in teaching and learning and not just NDLR resources.

All papers will be peer reviewed and if your paper is accepted you must be available to present it at the NDLR Symposium which is taking place on the 26th of September 2012, venue TBA. Proceedings from the Symposium will be published along with papers presented. We also intend to select some of the best papers for publication.

Visit www.NDLR.ie for further information

NDLR Background

The challenges involved in developing digital learning content can sometimes be a barrier to the successful application of learning technology and blended Learning. Therefore the National Digital Learning Resources (NDLR) service has been established as an Irish sectoral initiative (supported by HEA) to make high quality digital material in Irish colleges freely available for educators, students and self-learners to use and reuse for teaching, learning and research.

A key impact of the online NDLR service is to support greater collaboration in developing and sharing of digital teaching resources and associated teaching experience across all subject disciplines and communities of academics and to promote good practice use and re-use of existing resources.

By being empowered by the support of communities of academics, staff from different disciplines can share effort and expertise as they raise the bar collectively for how they support their students learning, embed research in their teaching and potentially embracing partnerships with research and industry, both in Ireland and Internationally.

Read more about the NDLR (PDF)