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This page provides an overview of some pedagogical and instructional design principles and frameworks that can help to underpin effective digital teaching and learning. The resources provide some background to the importance of digital learning professional development in Trinity and the wider context of European Union initiatives related to digital skills.
Frameworks and Models
This section provides some example models and frameworks to help with embedding digital learning in the curricula and developing individuals' digital competences.
The European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu) is a scientifically-sound framework describing what it means for educators to be digitally competent. It was developed by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), on behalf of the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG EAC). The framework provides a general reference framework to support the development of educator-specific digital competences in Europe.
The Centre for Academic Practice document below provides an overview to help you to understand the different elements of the framework.
Digital technologies can enhance and enrich teaching, learning and assessment across the disciplines. Digital approaches can also enable flexibility, responding to changes in student demographics. In an increasingly digitised society, it is generally recognised that our students should also be equipped with the digital literacies that they will need for work, learning and life.
In order to embed digital teaching, learning and assessment approaches within the curricula, it is imperative that educators are competent in integrating and utilising relevant digital technologies and pedagogies. Professional development is key: as set out in the EU ‘Digital Action Plan 2021-27', educators ‘should have access to ongoing opportunities for professional learning and development tailored to their needs and their discipline’. The framework below provides an institutional approach for Trinity to build digital pedagogic capacity at personal, disciplinary and organisational levels.
Professional Development Framework for Digital, Teaching, Learning & Assessment
Gateway to Digital Assessment is National Forum-funded project which aims to develop a shared understanding of digital assessment between Trinity staff and students.
With a focus on pedagogy, Gateway contains a wealth of resources for staff and students including:
For Staff:
- Research-informed pedagogical approaches to the design and facilitation of digital assessment.
- Resources on a wide range of digital assessment types.
- Voices from the disciplines: staff experiences of designing digital assessments.
- Student perspectives on their experience of digital assessment approaches.
- Examples of digital assessment in practice.
For Students:
- Focus on assessment literacy, helping students to understand the nature and purposes of assessment.
- Resources on different digital assessment types—written for students, by students.
- Real-life examples of digital assessment in the disciplines.
- Key considerations when preparing for digital assessment/exams.
- Student perspectives on their experience of digital assessment approaches.
You can find the resources created for the Gateway project incorporated into our Assessment pages.
Module Design Resources
This section provides some practical guides and resources to help you in the design of your module's synchronous and asynchronous elements.
To help support the principles of Universal Design for Learning, we recommend that Blackboard modules have a consistent design standard for their structure, content, resources, communication tools and assessment practices. The importance of school-level and university-wide templates and standards in enhancing the learning experience for students has long been recognised in the literature.
Our LMS Recommendations page provides a framework for this when planning and developing your Blackboard modules.
Creating a ‘social presence’ online requires distinct scaffolding but can play a key role in student engagement and motivation when in an online environment. Our one-pager document below provides an overview of some best practices when trying to create an engaging online community for your students.
In a synchronous (real-time) teaching context, a lecturer can use virtual classroom technologies such as Collaborate to interact with students in real-time. Asynchronous teaching might involve students engaging with videos recordings (e.g. Panopto) or Discussions within Blackboard at different times than the lecturer.
The document below provides some benefits, challenges and practice implications for both synchronous and asynchronous teaching.
Teaching Online: Balancing Synchronous & Asynchronous Teaching
In Trinity, Collaborate is used for live online teaching. Collaborate is a virtual classroom within your Blackboard module that is designed to support synchronous teaching, facilitating real-time communication between students and teaching staff. You can use Collaborate Ultra to support your ‘real-time’ live teaching in hybrid/blended or online teaching.
The guide below provides some tips on preparing for live online teaching. For instructions on how to add Collaborate to your Blackboard module and configure its settings, please check IT Services' guides (available in the Help section after you log in to Blackboard).
The resource below outlines four potential pathways that academics and those supporting teaching and learning at Trinity might use as they adapt lectures and large-group teaching for online and hybrid learning environments.
In the next section, we will provide an overview of some best practices when designing your content for digital learning. The section is intended to help you get started with the practical elements of digital teaching in terms of developing your Blackboard module and creating accessible and inclusive content.