Abstract:

Ireland’s technological sector, combining five new technological universities and two institutes of technology, formed a partnership to develop and deliver on the National Technological University Transformation for Recovery and Resilience (N-TUTORR) programme from 2022-2025. This programme, was EU funded (40 million euro) and overseen by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) Ireland, it utilised 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.

N-TUTORR Transforming Learning, a national programme of work, was designed to enable and leverage digital transformations to achieve sustainable and long-lasting change in the higher education student experience. The project was structured as 4 streams delivering 12+ work packages across 6 themes. The Student Empowerment Stream transformed the student experience through learner empowerment. Key work packages included: the development of a technological university sector ‘Digital Backpack’ (see MyDigitalBackpack.ie) co-created with 100 national student champions; the creation of a digital and sustainable futures student competency framework named AREA including digital and AI competency self-assessment; establishing a student champion team of 100; creating a students as partners in innovation and change fellowship programme including 175 national projects with 35 situated in ATU. Initiatives under this work stream covered academic integrity, universal design for learning, equality diversity and inclusion, digital transformation in teaching and learning, employability, and education for sustainable developement.

This paper will share outputs and learnings from the national student empowerment program and the impact on students and staff across 9 ATU campuses in the West and North West of Ireland.

Keywords:

Digital Learning, Student Empowerment, Digital Skills, Sustainable Development Goals, Student Partnership, Digital Innovation.