Transforming Learning, Teaching and Assessment with N-TUTORR at Atlantic Technological University ATU, Ireland

Dr Carina Ginty, ATU Lead, N-TUTORR Transforming Learning, Atlantic Technological University

N-TUTORR: The National Technological University Transformation for Recovery and Resilience (N-TUTORR) programme

Introduction to ATU, Ireland

Atlantic Technological University (ATU) is one of the largest multi-campus universities in Ireland, serving a diverse group of learners, staff, communities and organisations from the west and north-west region and further afield. ATU includes eight campuses in the West and Northwest of Ireland with 22,000+ students including 40+ nationalities. The university offers a rich combination of academic and research excellence, quality of life and opportunity – all of which can be experienced in the most beautiful part of Ireland.

ATU (www.atu.ie) has the critical mass and academic depth to attract, educate, nurture and retain talent in the west, north-west and cross-border region. The university collaborative approach ensures that ATU deliver practice-orientated study, and research that seeks to address the major challenges facing society and the world. ATU are dedicated to enabling sustainable economic, social and cultural development; connected to the region and with a mindset that reaches far beyond it.

About the N-TUTORR Programme, Transforming Learning at ATU

Ireland’s technological sector, combining five new technological universities and two institutes of technology, have formed a partnership to develop and deliver on the National Technological University Transformation for Recovery and Resilience (N-TUTORR) programme in 2023 and 2024. This national programme, which is EU funded (38 million euro) and overseen by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) Ireland, utilises the national scale and scope of the technological university sector to deliver a best-practice suite of initiatives and opportunities for the learner, for staff development and supported by necessary enabling technologies.

The N-TUTORR programme is designed to transform learning, teaching and assessment by focussing on transforming the student experience and developing the capabilities of all staff to address a sustainable pedagogical and learning environment with particular focus on digital transformation, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

N-TUTORR is a national programme of work and is designed to enable and leverage digital transformations to achieve sustainable and long-lasting change in the higher education student experience. The programme is structured around three streams (see Figure 1) and includes 9 work packages and 5 themes (see Figure 2). ATU and partner institutes are implementing a wide range of transformative innovations focused on student empowerment, building staff capabilities and transforming the digital learning environment.

Dr Carina Ginty, the University Lead for N-TUTORR and TU sector co-lead for Stream 1 explains “ATU aims to implement and utilise digital technologies and platforms in a manner which will enable and empower students and staff to enhance and develop the higher education experience.  N-TUTORR is a really ambitious national programme of work involving 7 partner institutes across Ireland. It is a unique collaboration across the sector that is driving change and innovation across all technological universities and institutes of technology under three streams that is empowering students to become change agents, building staff capabilities and enhancing our digital ecosystem”.

Figure 1: N-TUTORR Streams and Project Design

Figure 2: N-TUTORR Streams, Sector Leads and Work Packages.

Stream 1: Transforming the Student Experience through learner empowerment. Stand out initiatives in Stream 1 established to date include:

• The Student Champion Programme offers students the opportunity to learn and develop skills in one of the key priority areas (Academic Integrity, Digital Transformation, Equality, Diversity & Inclusion, Education for Sustainability, Universal Design for Learning) in addition to developing leadership, collaboration and communication skills.

• The development of a Student Digital Backpack (SDB), an online platform in the form of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) for students across the Technological University (TU) sector to sign up to complete short non-accredited courses and gain digital badges. The platform development is led by ATU for the sector. The platform will provide students with additional skills to complement their existing programmes of study.

• A Partners in Innovation Fellowship Programme provides an opportunity for students and staff to collaborate on small scale enhancement projects that will have an immediate impact on the student experience within ATU. The projects may focus on a specific module, programme, or discipline to include a particular campus or institute wide. Across the N-TUTORR partners 130 fellowship projects are underway (28 are running in ATU). The fellowship catalogue and directory of innovation projects grouped by institute and theme is available at this link.

• An ATU Assessment Hackathon in September involving 130 staff and students developed 20 assessment briefs. A ‘big ideas toolkit’ is now in development and will be available as an open education resource later this year.

Stream 2: Transforming Learning, Teaching and Assessment by Developing Staff Capabilities. In Stream 2 key achievements to date include:

• N-TUTORR curriculum framework guiding principles, a teaching and learning digital toolkit and supporting workshops to aid programme design. The resources suite spans 6 themes covering: digital transformation in teaching and learning; universal design for learning; equality diversity & inclusion; education for sustainability; academic integrity and assessment; and employability. ATU expects to rollout the curriculum framework resources and toolkit in 2024 across 9 campuses in ATU from Galway, Mayo, Sligo and Donegal with the support of the N-TUTORR academic champions and teaching and learning leaders in the university.

• A Masterclass Series covering a wide range of themes in learning, teaching and assessment enhancement.

Stream 3: Enabling Digital Ecosystems to transform Learning, Teaching and Assessment. Under Stream 3, ATU is focusing on a range of digital transformation initiatives, sample projects include:

• Digital campus enhancements that will upgrade several lecture theatres and meeting spaces across 9 campuses to support hybrid delivery of classes, all staff meetings, faculty collaborations.

• A Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) project to move from three VLE’s to one ATU VLE by 2025.

• Investment in video conferencing facilities.

• The development of a customer relationship management system.

• The design of a MyATUStudent App to support retention and student engagement.

Digitisation of the exam management systems and processes.

Digital Transformation