Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are important infrastructure and digital educational spaces that are widely used. The lecturers’ voices on VLEs and their use were not adequately captured in the #VLEIreland project. Therefore, following the development and piloting of a questionnaire consisting of a common set of questions, lecturers were surveyed across seven Irish higher education institutes. There were 580 responses from staff who use the VLE, with the analysis based upon the 521 valid responses. The findings will explore the VLE features or tools used by lecturers, their attitude to the VLE, and barriers to the use of the VLE and related issues, including that of intellectual property ownership. Lecturers are broadly positive about VLEs, with 7 in 10 of those who use the VLE strongly agreeing that it is helpful. However the adoption and use of VLEs is not without difficulties. In particular, time pressures emerged as barriers to use, limiting the use of VLEs and engagement with training. Despite this, 91% of respondents answered Yes to the question “Are you interested in making more use of online tools in your teaching?” Drawing on the issues highlighted in the findings, this paper will explore the attitudes of lecturers to the VLE and the enablers of, and inhibitors to, their greater engagement with the VLE.

With the rapid increase in the use of smart phones (and other mobile devices), students in Irish and international higher education institutions are increasingly accessing virtual learning environments (VLEs) using their phones via an app or their browser. This brings both welcome flexibility for the students’ digital learning experiences and wider opportunities to support both asynchronous and synchronous learning in innovative ways. However challenges exist, initially regarding the functionality, user interface, reliability and speed of mobile use of the VLE (specifically via a VLE app as well as a phone browser) but also how best to empower students and lecturers to harness the potential benefits. This article explores the 2017 results of the #VLEIreland student survey in one higher education institution, expanded to include questions about student experiences of using a VLE app. Almost all students have smart phones, with the VLE app used by 7 in 10 students surveyed and, despite the many limitations of the VLE app, two-thirds found it useful. Student comments highlighted the benefits of notifications on the student’s phone and the convenience of easy, flexible access to the VLE. Barriers to the use of the VLE app included poor design and working of the app, and limitations of the student’s own phone. A major implication of increasing mobile access is that the VLE design needs to be more responsive for users, that the VLE itself be fully functional and user-friendly on smart phones and the challenges to design, develop and deliver a rich functional VLE app are met. There is potential for flexible mobile access to the VLE outside of class to be complemented by increased in-class use to enrich innovative approaches to engage learners. Increased mobile VLE usage has consequences for how lecturers use the VLE; they need to be conscious of this mobile use when designing, creating and using their VLE course as well as utilising appropriate digital pedagogies.

Virtual learning environments (VLEs) provide the core infrastructure for the digital learning experiences for many students in Irish and international higher education institutions. Hence the student experience and voice offer an important perspective to understand to what extent this proves a strategic choice, and investment of institutional resources and lecturers' time. However, surveys comparing a diversity of institutions at different moments in time offer serious methodological limitations to data analysis. In this paper, results of the #VLEIreland student survey are presented for four Irish higher education institutions, which were surveyed using the common questionnaire with 3,332 student responses in 2011 and 5,170 when the survey was repeated in 2013. To some extent, this allows us to analyse the data while relatively controlling for institutional influences. This snapshot of students' use and perceptions at two points allow for tentative trends to be drawn as to any changing patterns over time. The comparison of results indicate a consistent finding of high frequency of use (with almost half using daily in the more recent findings). The VLE thus provides a stable base for sharing learning resources, managing assignments and student communications. The consistency of the findings indicate a certain maturity of use of the VLE, albeit with a continued emphasis on disseminating notes and other learning resources to students. As the student VLE experience is largely determined by their lecturers' use, a continued emphasis on the development of digital capacity of lecturers (as well as students) is needed.

Physics forms the core of any Materials Science Programme at undergraduate level. Knowing the properties of materials is fundamental to developing and designing new materials and new applications for known materials.“Physical Physics” is a physics education approach which is an innovative and promising instruction model that integrates physical activity with mechanics and material properties. It aims to significantly enhance the learning experience and to illustrate how physics works, while allowing students to be active participants and take ownership of the learning process. It has been successfully piloted with undergraduate students studying mechanics on a Games Development Programme. It is a structured guided learning approach which provides a scaffold for learners to develop their problem solving skills.The objective of having applied physics on a programme is to introduce students to the mathematical world. Today students view the world through smart devices. By incorporating student recorded videos into the laboratory experience the student can visualise the mathematical world. Sitting in a classroom learning about material properties does not easily facilitate an understanding of mathematical equations as mapping to a physical reality. In order to get the students motivated and immersed in the real mathematical and physical world, an approach which makes them think about the cause and effect of actions is used. Incorporating physical action with physics enables students to assimilate knowledge and adopt an action problem solving approach to the physics concept. This is an integrated approach that requires synthesis of information from various sources in order to accomplish the task. As a transferable skill, this will ensure that the material scientists will be visionary in their approach to real life problems.

When developing engaging pedagogical approaches underpinned by the effective use of technology, having students engage with academic material while on social media presents itself as a worthwhile area of investigation. This study predominantly evaluates the effective development and use of a Twitter account specific to concepts and ideas of psychology on a degree in Applied Social Care. Student engagement via Twitter with current research and contemporary debate is assessed, with an exploration of how to effectively use Twitter with undergraduate students and concluding with a reflection on developing a ‘resident’ presence online. The @psycarlow Twitter account was set up in September 2018, to use with groups of students from year 3 and year 4. Following one full academic year, one group of students was surveyed on its usefulness; a second group was surveyed following a year and a half of interacting with the account. Feedback and suggestions from the first group, together with experience gained and reflection by the lecturer, were extremely beneficial in moderating the approach with the second group. Findings indicate that both sets of students identified a number of positive benefits including helping them understand topics discussed in class and giving them a societal view of relevant issues through current research, debates and conversations. The second group had a much stronger identification with positive benefits, the reasons for which are discussed. Students also identified a number of ways in which engagement could be improved, for example by more clearly identifying to students which tweets were relevant to them. Getting to grips with managing the account and directing students to content is initially time consuming but using Twitter has proven a useful and effective way of engaging students, with positive impacts on their learning and digital literacy.