NCI secures Enterprise Ireland funding for e-learning technology lab

National College of Ireland to make its mark on e-learning research

What motivates people to continue to learn? What are the best intervention strategies to maintain a students’ motivation? Can text messaging be used as a means to encourage students to seek help for depression? Evaluation of new technologies for the collaboration of groups in e-learning in Adaptive Learning Spaces. What is the best mix for blended learning in small medium enterprises? These are some of the research questions and areas that researchers in the National College of Ireland, Dublin (NCI) are addressing.  

NCI has recently been awarded funding from Enterprise Ireland, research equipment grant, for the development of an e-learning usability lab. The purchase of this equipment will enable the research group to undertake further applied research in e-learning. The Usability Lab will be a place where learners and teachers are studied interacting with e-learning resources in order to evaluate such factors as quality of engagement, learning gain, efficiency, effectiveness and usability.

In line with their mission of encouraging life long learning and the development of each students potential while taking account of the National policy to develop Ireland’s knowledge economy, NCI are researching how students learn and the best methods of delivery. These projects will influence and build on their current teaching practises and methods of course delivery. The outcomes of the research projects have wide ranging applications generally and for the continual growth of existing online programmes developed by the College namely KESP and Know IT. KESP (the Knowledge Economy Skills Passport) is an online programme developed for those in the workplace, while Know IT, is an introductory course for students with little or no computer experience, both funded by FÁS.