This paper outlines research by lecturers in SETU towards empowering partnership of educators and students to implement and evaluate media and technology-based assessment for an undergraduate Media and post graduate Education programme.

We advocate that the critical ingredients to Digital Transformation journey in Tertiary education is an alignment with UNESCO’s ESD with its innovative pedagogical approach and trans-disciplinary nature. We believe to empower and include the students in design results in increased student satisfaction and success and a sense of community, this is supported by the literature. (Dzubian et al, 2018, R Ní Bheoláin, R Lowney, F O'Riordan, 2020). We have taken measures to redesign a module/ curriculum in each programme (Media/Education) to demonstrate the integration of Digital skills and digital competences.

This research will feed into policy for teaching and learning in SETU and the sustainability of educational resources in Ireland. We present emerging practice in relation to using GenAI for education and research, designing and redesigning curriculum and assessments and exploring new modules, their design approach and justification analysis.

Digital transformation encompasses knowledge sharing, socio- technical barriers and enablers in HEIs, existing and emerging issues with compatibility, integration, dependencies of systems and people to deliver content and knowledge to all students equally without privilege or exclusion. As teaching and learning quality standards become more complicated, we are cognisant of the significant shift in awareness, knowledge, skills and competencies of links with digital literacies within educated cohorts of teachers, lecturers and facilitators so that they can empower students as partners in teaching and learning for critical and higher order thinking and learning. We present our research which illustrates enhanced media and digital competency, greater Student Engagement and critical thinking skills.

We recommend that educationalists need to embrace agility and change at HE to administer and deliver curriculum using non-standard applications. In order to provide evidence to develop HE policy in this space we present the our (re-)design of modules to meet learning outcomes through adopting technology. There are tensions in global societal research discourses about emerging technologies such as AI and scant social scientific research on societal attitudes towards AI; its value and limitations in education, fears and emotions about AI technology which requires redress. Without adequate guidance or policy lecturers advocating for the use of EdTech and AI in the classroom are challenged to demonstrate understanding the socio-cultural legitimacy of AI in Irish society.

Known to help with student learning (Flink et al., 2019), immersive learning environments (ILEs) are learning situations that are constructed using a variety of techniques and software tools, including game-based learning, simulation-based learning and virtual 3D worlds. ILEs are distinguished from other learning methods by their ability to simulate realistic scenarios and environments that give learners the opportunity to practice skills and interact with other learners on theirown terms by engaging their optimum learning style. Applying adaptive learning techniques can further accentuate the teacher or lecturers toolkit and increate the potential to be inclusive, flexible, personalised and engaging for students(Holmes et al., 2019).