Online learning environments generate a large amount of data about how students interact with platforms, resources, and learning activities. However, this information is often spread across multiple institutional systems and rarely brought together in ways that meaningfully support the student experience. This paper introduces the development of a Student Engagement Dashboard designed to bring these engagement signals together and provide a clearer, more holistic picture of how students are participating in digital learning environments.
In 2020, the establishment of an Online Engagement Advisor role marked a strategic shift toward fostering connection and belonging in the virtual public sphere aligning with principles of community in online learning environments (Garrison et at., 2000; Swan, 2002). Since then, a framework for digital community building has been developed incorporating light touch engagement strategies such as emoji based pulse surveys and structured opportunities for peer interaction. These initiatives prioritise student voice, digital wellbeing, and relational presence in online education.
Building on this work, the current project focuses on bringing engagement data from different institutional systems into a single dashboard. Rather than focusing on academic performance or predictive analytics linked to grades, the dashboard highlights non-academic indicators of participation. These include interaction with tuition materials, participation in digital learning spaces, assessment related activity data, and patterns of time spent engaging within the learning environment. The approach is informed by critical perspectives on learning analytics that emphasise ethical responsibility, student agency and transparency (Slade and Prinsloo, 2013). The aim is not to monitor performance but to highlight signals that may indicate opportunities for supportive, student centred engagement with students.

This practitioner paper shares the rationale for the dashboard, key design decisions, and early insights from its development. It also reflects on practical considerations such as ethical data use, transparency with students, and the role of digital learning professionals working with engagement data. Early reflections suggest that bringing together these signals can help identify opportunities for timely outreach and strengthen students’ sense of connection, belonging, and digital wellbeing in online learning environments.

We often describe educational innovation as a strategic process aligned with institutional goals. In practice, it unfolds organically. My PhD began in that space, with a focus on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The study developed into a cross-national exploration of how higher education institutions in Ireland and Britain understood why and how MOOCs were developed and what their future might look like.

I interviewed lecturers, instructional designers and senior leaders navigating the space between institutional ambition and operational reality. Using Constructivist Grounded Theory (Charmaz, 2006), I stayed close to their accounts of negotiation, uncertainty and competing priorities. Rather than consensus, the accounts revealed contradiction. Those tensions shaped the story of MOOCs.

As the dataset grew, so did its volume and complexity. The challenge was to synthesise competing positions without reducing them to tidy themes. Faced with an extensive qualitative dataset, I needed a way to hold contradictions without flattening them. Instead of producing a conventional findings chapter, I developed the analysis through six composite narratives organised around three institutional roles expressed through contrasting positions.

Inspired by how true crime documentaries allow multiple accounts to sit in tension rather than resolving them into a single narrative, the contrast functioned as both a narrative form and an analytic strategy. Presenting the findings through composite narratives and thick description (McElhinney and Kennedy, 2022; Patton, 2015) kept the study grounded in participant accounts while acknowledging my insider position as an instructional designer. This interpretive lens brings into view a perspective central to institutional innovation work yet less frequently foregrounded in research. By presenting findings as character-driven narratives rather than abstract categories, the research makes institutional tensions visible and open to discussion. The conclusion brings these strands together and offers practical recommendations for institutions seeking to align MOOC activity with strategic purpose and internal capacity.

This practitioner presentation is less about MOOCs themselves and more about researching in conditions of uncertainty. It reflects on what happens when institutional voices remain in tension and considers how narrative approaches can help those working in educational innovation engage complexity without prematurely resolving it.

Charmaz, K. (2006) Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis. Sage.

McElhinney, Z. and Kennedy, C. (2022) ‘Enhancing the collective, protecting the personal: The valuable role of composite narratives in medical education research’, Perspectives on Medical Education, 11, pp. 220–227.

Patton, M.Q. (2015) Qualitative research and evaluation methods. 4th edn. Sage.

The National Digital Leadership Network (NDLN) is an initiative originally established under the N-TUTORR programme -- with support from NextGenerationEU funding -- to support digital leadership across Ireland’s Technological Higher Education sector. Formally launched in November 2024, the NDLN provides a forum and platform for collaboration, strategic alignment, and knowledge exchange among digital leaders, policymakers, and practitioners. Now operating beyond the lifetime of the N-TUTORR programme, the network continues to drive a shared vision of values-led, sustainable digital transformation and development.

The NDLN was originally established following extensive sectoral consultation, which highlighted clear needs: more opportunities for collaboration, better recognition of informal digital leadership, and stronger avenues for sharing practice. These discussions also surfaced familiar challenges: limited time and resources, uneven digital capacity across and within institutions, barriers to innovation and mainstreaming, inconsistent support structures and the ongoing impact of merger processes in each of the sector’s technological universities.

A key output of the network to this point has been a series of horizon-scanning strategic reports authored by leading national and international experts. Covering topics such as generative AI, hybrid and post-digital models of learning, data-informed decision-making, academic integrity, and financial sustainability, these reports provide clear actionable insights for higher education leaders navigating change. Further work is underway, including new commissioned reports, follow-up publications, and plans for a national webinar series modelled on MTU’s Generative AI Seminar Series.
This paper outlines the development and impact of the NDLN to date and reflects on its potential role as a support for and driver of digital leadership, equity, and innovation across the technological university sector. It also considers the network’s future direction, arguing for sustained national support and formalised structures to ensure that the NDLN continues to shape a resilient, inclusive, and forward-looking digital future for Irish higher education.