Education Commons^™

Will Second Life Help Me Survive In Italy, Carmela Dell'aria, Susanna Nocchi

Conference Papers

This paper aims at sharing the experience we had in the design and implementation of a short pilot course of Italian in Second Life® (SL). The paper will provide a description of the course mentioning preliminary findings, discussed in relation to the theories adopted by the two researchers. The paper is the result of the course, La Lingua in gioco: dire, fare e giocare in SL, that had a strong focus on the development of Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) and Oral Language Proficiency and was aimed at a group of third-level Irish students of Italian in the Technological University Dublin …

Suitability Review Of Common Synchronous, Live Online-Classroom Tools, Arnold Hensman

Conference Papers

While virtual learning environments (VLEs) such as Moodle and WebCT are now ubiquitous in most higher education institutes, live synchronous virtual classroom software is merely gaining in popularity. The first online meeting tools were tailored towards business requirements for remotely held meetings rather than educational purposes. The recent expansion of virtual classroom tools specific to education has changed this. Such software offers the standard features of streamed voice and video, yet purposely provides an array of additional features specifically designed to conduct classes online. While VLEs work optimally as a compliment to standard courses, Virtual-classrooms such as Adobe Connect Pro …

A Framework For The Comparison Of Virtual Classroom Systems, Daniel Mcsweeney

Conference Papers

The increase in demand for open and distance learning has resulted in many higher education providers investing in virtual classroom systems. These systems can be an essential component in the delivery of flexible and online courses. While many institutions correctly place a greater emphasis on the pedagogical development of flexible courses, poor selection or implementation of virtual classroom software can reduce the pedagogical effectiveness of such courses and in some cases render them unworkable for both lecturing staff and students.

Changes in vendor offerings, the continual evolution of end user technology, developments in mobile devices and improvements in internet infrastructure …

New Trends In Automatic Assessment: Ontology Matching, Maria Mitina, Patricia Magee, John Cardiff

Conference Papers

Instant individual feedback represents a result of assessment which allows for considerable improvements in both teaching and learning. In this paper we present the application of ontology matching techniques in automatic correction of students’ answers for SQL tests, which will provide teachers with instant feedback to facilitate manual correction and marking and which they can pass to the students. Students experience many problems learning SQL due to the necessity to memorise database schemas, unclear feedback from the database engine on the execution of the query, etc. The program environment utilising the described approach is designed to solve the abovementioned problems …

Engaging With Employers In Economic Downturn, Lyndsey El Amoud, Joan Buckley

Conference Papers

There has been an increasing focus on personal transferable skills by universities (Albrecht and Sack 2000). This has led to considerable growth in the number of placement programmes in undergraduate courses in Irish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). As noted by Paisey and Paisey (2009) relatively little research has been carried out in this domain. This paper explores the state of non-clinical placement programmes in third level institutes in Ireland. It presents the results of the first comprehensive survey of placement in Irish. The survey reveals the scale and scope of work placement programmes in undergraduate courses in Ireland. With more …

A Tale Of Two Strategies For Higher Education And Economic Recovery: Ireland And Australia, Ellen Hazelkorn, Vin Massaro

Conference Papers

As Dirk van Damme suggested (van Damme, 2009), the effects of the global financial crisis (GFC) have been manifold and complex and affected countries differently. Australia and Ireland have fared very differently in the GFC so choices will inevitably have been influenced by their relative capacity to spend on higher education. Since 1988 Australia has had a unitary, government-regulated but independent higher education system with block funding from a combination of government allocations and student contributions. In contrast, Ireland retains a government-regulated binary system dependent upon public investment and direct government control of staffing budgets. In recent years, both countries …

Is One Life Enough? Delivering A Module In Second Life, John O'Connor, Claudia Igbrude

Conference Papers

The potential of online virtual environments, such as Second Life for delivering remote learning continues to be debated by academics. It would appear to offer particular opportunities to support remote learning in art & design, where there is a particular requirement for live visual interaction.

The School of Art, Design & Printing at the Technological University Dublin (DIT) received funding to develop a module for undergraduate students to test this theory. A five-credit module (under the European Credit Transfer System) received formal approval from the Institute in 2009 and was delivered as a pilot to academic staff who were interested …

Building A Successful Transatlantic Collaboration In Engineering/Technological Education; Lessons From A Six Year Journey, Donal Mchale, Mark Mcgrath, John Lawlor

Conference Papers

This paper reflects on key learning’s from the first six-years (2004-2010) of the development of a collaborative journey of two trans-Atlantic higher-educational institutions. It describes the progress towards building a sustainable and innovative international educational partnership in Engineering/Technological education between the Technological University Dublin,DublinIrelandandPurdue University,Indiana,USA.

In particular, the paper provides insight into the iterative stages of development of this relationship. It reflects on some of the key challenges and it recognises the critical enablers of success. It focuses on challenges and solutions in the following six important areas

(i) The partnership initiation stage. Key considerations and important enablers of future …

The Enhancement Of Student Learning Through Engagement And Feedback In The Assessment Process, Niall Delaney, Alan O'Donnell

Conference Papers

The Technological University Dublin is one of the largest multi-level higher education providers in Ireland, catering for over 22000 students annually. Under the 1999 Qualifications (Education and Training) Act, DIT became an awarding body in its own right. Programme provision covers apprenticeships, short continuous professional development courses, taught undergraduate and postgraduate, research MPhil and PhDs. The Institute’s traditional mission has always been focused on learning and teaching in the field of advanced technical vocational education and training (TVET), and one of its current agendas is to foster and encourage changes in teaching practice and methodology in order to enhance a …

Development Of A Moodle Vle Plug-In To Support Simultaneous Visualisation Of A Collection Of Multi-Media Sign Language Objects, Brian Nolan

Conference Papers

Using Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) to support blended learning is very common in educational institutes. Delivering learning material in a flexible and semi-structured manner to the learner transforms such systems into powerful eLearning tools. However, the presentation and visualisation of individual or multiple learning objects is mostly dictated by the system and cannot be altered easily. This paper reports on a project between Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and the Institute of Technology Blanchardstown (ITB) that aims to improve the simultaneous visualisation of multiple multimedia objects for deaf learners of ISL. The project was implemented using the Open Source VLE Moodle. …

Technological University Dublin Peer Assisted Learning Initiative, Odette Gabaudan, Maria-José González

Conference Papers

Poster presentation, summary of work on peer assisted learning initiative for international business and languages students.

The Discursive Construction Of ‘Children’ And ‘Rights’ In Irish Early Childhood Policy, Rachel Kiersey, Nóirín Hayes

Conference Papers

This paper explores the construction of knowledge about ‗children‘, ‗rights‘ and ‗ECEC‘ in Irish early childhood policy discourses. This research forms part of a wider thematic research project exploring Irish early childhood policy design from a number of angles; this strand of the research is concerned with ―revealing meaning‖ from Irish ECEC policy texts through a critical discourse analysis study. The theoretical goal of a critical discourse analysis study aims to understand how specific realities have come into being in the policy area; how they are reproduced through policy literature, how language use is an integral facet of social processes, …