As a provider of online blended programmes, we elicit regular feedback from students to understand more about their learning experiences and make improvements according to user-centred design principles. Feedback is collected in a variety of formats – such as focus groups, surveys and feedback forms – to inform regular reviews of programme content, and built-in feedback mechanisms and learning analytics are used to monitor students’ experience of the digital learning environment.

However, to date there has been little investigation of students’ experiences specifically within the LMS, resulting in a gap in institutional knowledge regarding how students are interacting with LMS affordances. Of particular interest to us for this project was how students use resources and perform tasks in the LMS and the relative importance of these in helping to achieve their academic goals. We felt that obtaining insights into what students value in our current LMS would not only assist us in improving the current learning environment and aligning it more effectively with students’ needs; it would also enable us to make informed decisions as to future LMS design and select new systems as needed.

To this end, we collated a very short survey to collect information on what tasks and resources students rely on most in the LMS in order to achieve their aims. Adopting an approach informed by the Top Tasks method, a tried and tested user-centred study design chosen for its simplicity and practicality, the survey simply asked students to select five of their top LMS tasks and/or resources from a list. The task list was collated via a series of stakeholder conversations across departments and programmes to ensure a wide perspective on LMS affordances and uses. This presentation discusses findings of the first iteration of this survey and reflects on lessons learned that will assist us in repeating the survey with future cohorts. Insights will be shared regarding the utility of the Top Tasks approach for user-centred design projects in digital learning environments.

In Ireland, Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based violence is a vast and prominent topic that the government is trying to eliminate and diminish as it is significant social issue that affects anyone no matter their gender, social status or community. In response Ireland has developed a solid government support system as well as a strong non-governmental organisation sector. Although, there is a pathway of support for those affected by such violence, there is an evident lack of support for those who provide it.

This was the starting point of our project. We worked with potential students as partners to develop an effective online micro-credential that would inform and help support practitioners with their everyday threat of facing vicarious trauma and burnout, as well as equipping them with useful tools to create their own self-care plans to further minimise the risks of a trauma occurring. This would be a new approach to developing a module as we are directly working with feedback from the targeted student pool.

The project has four stages: Development, Testing, Feedback and Amendments. Firstly, based on peer-reviewed literature and the three National Strategies a trial micro-credential was developed. Then it was tested by DSGBV organisations’ practitioners to test and go through all the content as well as the digital pedagogies such as videos, reflections, quizzes and self-plans. We used a mixed method approach to fully utilise the feedback given by the practitioners. This consisted of an online questionnaire asking them about the content, navigation, design and usefulness of the micro-credential. Afterwards, volunteers were asked to join a one-on-one interview to further discuss the positives and negatives of the micro-credential. The last step is reviewing and applying the feedback from the practitioners to make sure that the micro-credential is fit for them.

By the end of the process, the micro-credential, called Certificate in Managing Vicarious Trauma and Self-care for DSGBV frontline workers, will be offered to practitioners through Dundalk Institute of Technology as part of our suite of micro-credentials. This will follow the Dundalk's Institute of Technology micro-credential policy where the objective is to provide a quality assurance framework for validation and certification of micro-credentials, units of learning that attract less than 10 ECTS credits (DkIT, 2024). Additionally, it will broaden the reach of the RiVeR Project at Dundalk Institute of Technology as their aim is to provide available opportunities for education and training to cohorts that are most in need of further support and education in the area of DSGBV. Building on their successful programme 'Certificate in the Fundamentals of Understanding and Responding to Domestic Abuse' which has been running since 2016 and was the first accredited education programme of its kind in Ireland.

Digital and pedagogical innovation in higher education increasingly depends on professionals whose work sits outside traditional academic leadership structures. Third Space teaching and learning professionals, including instructional designers, learning technologists, and academic or educational developers, play a pivotal role in shaping learning, teaching, and digital transformation, yet are often required to lead change without formal authority. This creates an ongoing misalignment between how leadership is institutionally recognised and how it is enacted in practice.

Using Whitchurch’s (2013) concept of the Third Space as a theoretical lens, leadership in teaching and learning roles is examined as work often characterised by ambiguity, lack of recognition, and reliance on informal influence. While Third Space positioning enables collaboration and innovation across academic, technical, and professional boundaries, it also requires individuals to navigate complex organisational dynamics, actively construct leadership identity, and make their contributions visible within institutional cultures.

Advance HE’s Aurora Women’s Leadership Programme is used as an illustrative case to examine how structured leadership development can support leadership practice in Third Space teaching and learning roles. Aurora’s emphasis on leadership identity, influence, reflective practice, and adaptive leadership is analysed in relation to the realities of Third Space work. This analysis is situated within a wider ecosystem of leadership development and professional recognition facilitated by sector bodies and networks such as Advance HE, SEDA, ALT, and EDEN, which support leadership development through a range of formal programmes, professional frameworks, and communities of practice.

Leadership development for Third Space teaching and learning professionals is most effective when it reflects how leadership is enacted in practice: relationally, incrementally, and across organisational boundaries. Engagement with structured leadership programmes and professional networks is explored as a way of strengthening leadership identity, enhancing influence, and supporting sustainable pedagogical and organisational change in higher education.

References

Gately, L. (2024). Inhabiting the “Third Space” in Higher Education: A case study on how educational technologists navigate this space in an Irish university. Irish Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.22554/ijtel.v8i1.156

Grant, J., & Kennie, T. (2024). The characteristics and career pathways of third-space research professionals in universities: Reflections from practice. Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI). https://www.hepi.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/The-characteristics-and-career-pathways-of-third-space-research-professionals.-Reflections-from-practice.pdf

Thorpe, C., & Partridge, H. (2024). The Third Space in Higher Education: A scoping review. Higher Education Policy. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41307-024-00374-z

Whitchurch, C. (2013). Reconstructing identities in higher education: The rise of “Third Space” professionals. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203098301

Whitchurch, C., and Heaky, G. (2024). The concept of third space as an enabler in complex higher education environments. London Review of Education, 22 (1) 42. https://doi.org/10.14324/LRE.22.1.42

Aurora | Advance HE

The use of digital technologies to support or enhance teaching and learning in formal education (“edtech”) has come to mediate or facilitate almost every educational process - from the delivery of teaching to the management of assessment and feedback to facilitating operational issues and providing analytics.

Edetch is, however, first and foremost a business. The global market for edtech products is forecast to reach $370 billion by 2026 (Statista, 2022). The variance however between edtech and other digital industries, the inviolability of edtech, may not be as clear as is often presented. Features of more exploitative digital industries such as “surveillance dividend”, the surveillance capitalism model of extracting data, as identified by Zubof (2019), Killer Acquisitions" (Cunningham, Ederer, & Ma, 2021), Data driven acquisitions (De Cornière & Taylor, 2024) and Doctorow’s concept of enshittification (Doctorow, 2025) are just some of the more disreputable practices within the edtech industry. The presence and push by Artificial Intelligence (AI) companies and research organisations into education systems represents a further blurring between the bearing of edtech companies and silicon valley entities.

This paper will examine some of the elements surrounding and impinging on some of the darker spaces in the edtech landscape. These include regulations and policy which are often slow to, or unable to, grapple with edtech vendors; the solutionism inherent in the peddling of edtech tools, as identified by Teräs et al. (2020) and Boninger, Molnar and Saldaña (2020); and the phenomena of repurposing unpopular or unprofitable technology as a teaching and learning tool to sell to education authorities. The paper will also examine the role of higher education persons and entities in acquiescing or adopting to these infractions and which elements of formal education structures make them susceptible to these incursions.