Research Symposium and Doctoral Workshop on Digital Learning

In November, the National Institute for Digital Learning (NIDL) in partnership with the Institute of Education successfully hosted ‘The Next Generation: Digital Learning Research Symposium’. This full-day Research Symposium, held in The Helix, attracted almost 200 participants and was formally supported by the Education Studies Association Ireland (ESAI) and the Irish Learning Technologies Association (ILTA). The event, opened by DCU’s President, Brian MacCraith, was structured to address five broad questions:

• What do we know from the research literature?
• What research is currently being conducted, particularly in the Irish context?
• Who else is conducting research in my area and how does it relate to my own work?
• Where are the gaps and methodological weaknesses in the current research literature?
• What are likely to be the future questions, challenges and possibilities in digital learning research?

The Symposium was also live streamed with videos of the three keynote presentations along with a copy of the written proceedings and Twitter stream available from the symposium website.

The following day a half-day Doctoral Workshop in the area of Digital Learning was hosted on the St Patrick’s Campus. The workshop attracted over 30 participants. Research being undertaken by DCU staff in the area of Digital Learning figured prominently in both events, with a collation of scholarly outputs for 2016 available online.

Following the success of these research focused events another Research Symposium and Doctoral Workshop is planned for later in 2017. Please contact Professor Mark Brown, Director, National Institute for Digital Learning, if you would like further information.