All Ireland Society for Higher Education
| Name: | O'Brien , Frances |
|---|---|
| Email: | frances.obrien@dit.ie |
| Institution: | Dublin Institute of Technology |
Rooney, Pauline, pauline.rooney@dit.ie
At the moment, Ireland's third-level education sector has one of the lowest levels of e-learning in Europe, ironic in a country that is also one of the leading producers of e-learning materials. Furthermore, within the education sector in particular, e-learning is still in its infancy but its implementation is effecting huge changes within third-level institutions in Ireland. These changes can be broken down into the three main categories `technological change', `pedagogical change' and' cultural change'. It must be realised that the approaches taken to address these issues will affect directly whether or not the initiative is accepted and reaches its full potential. However, the author wishes to stress the importance of addressing cultural change in particular as it is often the one area that is over overlooked while much time and effort is put into facilitating technological and pedagogical change. The purpose of this paper is to focus on `cultural change' and detail how it has been addressed in the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT). The establishment of the Learning Technology Team and their role in implementing e-learning, through the use of WebCT, will be outlined; the strategies they followed to facilitate culture change will be detailed, how WebCT is being implemented successfully within with Institute demonstrated; and finally the team's hopes and plans for the future illustrated. This session will be of interest to those currently at the initial stages of the e-learning implementation process in their own place of work, and those looking for some fresh ideas.
(Abstract ref: #20.)