On 22^nd November 2012, the Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairi Quinn TD announced the establishment of the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning. The 21 partners of the National Digital Learning Resources (NDLR) service welcome the news.

The NDLR service will be integrated into the Forum, and a new national digital platform established. Users of the service will continue to have access to the NDLR resources to support teaching and learning.

The core service team has been dissolved and so, for the foreseeable future, if you have a query or need support on using the NDLR service: (i) Check the NDLR support area on the website (https://ndlrhelp.zendesk.com/home ) or (ii)  contact your local Institutional Coordinator for assistance.

NDLR have been informed that we cannot proceed with the LInC projects initiative, until it has been considered and agreed by the National Forum for Enhancement of Teaching and Learning Forum.

This situation is terribly disappointing as it means the call for LInC projects 2012 will have to be pulled for the foreseeable future. The situation is regrettable and we fully appreciate the contribution of effort and work that the applicants have made to the process to date. All applications received will be put on file for the National Forum.

We apologise for the inconvenience caused. It's beyond our control at this stage.

All queries to helpdesk@ndlr.ie

The NDLR service is delighted to announce that the annual call for funding has been *reopened*. Funding will be allocated in December 2012 and the project timeframe has been pushed out from January 2012 – June 2013. All applications received to date have been kept on file and will automatically be included in the review process. The deadline for new applications is the 16th November 2012. Click here for more details!

NDLR Supports the National Open Access Policy Statement

The NDLR service is honoured to join over twenty organisations in support of the National Open Access Policy Statement that was launched today by Mr. Sean Sherlock, TD, Minister of State, Department of Enterprise, Jobs & Innovation and Department of Education & Skills with responsibility for Research & Innovation at the Digital Resources Ireland 'Realising the Opportunities of Digital Humanities' event in Croke Park. The NDLR service strongly supports this National Policy Statement and welcome being associated with its launch. Its approach is very much in-line with the NDLR commitment to OER and digital resources within teaching, learning and research. NDLR, with its higher education institutions based network, wishes to continue to contribute to Ireland being at the leading edge of this important field.

The National Open Access Statement was prepared by the National Steering Committee on Open Access Policy. The national principles for an open access policy statement are that open access adds value to research, to the economy and to society and that the outputs from publicly-funded research should be publicly available to researchers, but also to potential users in education, business, charitable and public sectors, and to the general public.

• Click here to download/view the National Open Access Policy Statement
  

The Irish Learning Technology Association (ILTA) invites your participate in a webinar facilitated by Dr Lawrence (Larry) Regan, Director- Instructional Design & Development Continuing and Distance Education/World Campus, Penn State University on Monday October 22 from 3:00 to 4:00 pm on topic of online digital competencies for staff and students.
 
This webinar foregrounds the forthcoming publication launch of a new ILTA Technology-Enhanced Learning online journal towards the end of October which aims to harvest and promote the excellent work done in the TEL area in Ireland. The inaugural first edition of the journal will be themed around Digital Literacies for Life, which follows on from the EdTech2012 conference focus.  We envisage publishing two journal publications per year: Autumn and Spring. More information about the journal will be issued soon.

About the Webinar Topic and our Presenter
Larry’s presentation "COTS Meets QOI: Observations from Online Students and Faculty" will discuss findings and applications arising from the COTS (Competencies for Online Teaching Success) QOI research and will be of relevance to technology-enhanced practitioners and researchers at all levels.
 
Dr. Lawrence C. Ragan directs the design and development of a wide range of faculty development services and systems for Penn State's Academic Outreach. Academic Outreach serves learners via online (the World Campus), Continuing Education, and the video learning network. Dr. Ragan designs and delivers professional development programs, establishes a faculty development learning community, and conducts research including the articulation of strategies to help faculty manage the online workload (SMOW) and the definition of competencies for online teaching success (COTS).  
 
Dr. Ragan has presented internationally on the topics of instructional design, multimedia integration, faculty development programming, and instructional design for distance and blended education. He has served in leadership roles as co-director of the EDUCAUSE Learning Technology Leadership program (2005–06), and is currently co-director of the Penn State/Sloan-C Institute for Emerging Leadership in Online Learning.

How to Participate
The webinar will be facilitated through the IT Sligo Adobe Connect service (with thanks to Brian Mulligan and the NDLR for facilitating). There are 100 places available for live webinar access, which will managed on a first served basis. The webinar will be recorded and archived for future viewing.

Register for this Event here <https://secure-web.cisco.com/auth=11cRmD4whKHqz8kpVlruevKjWrk-3N&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fspreadsheet%2Fviewform%3Fformkey%3DdGlQQTdqU1ZPUG85aV9JOWc1MXFuUlE6MQ>
https://secure-web.cisco.com/auth=11cRmD4whKHqz8kpVlruevKjWrk-3N&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fspreadsheet%2Fviewform%3Fformkey%3DdGlQQTdqU1ZPUG85aV9JOWc1MXFuUlE6MQ
We would appreciate it if you would fill in this Google form for our own records
 
Join the Webinar here <http://secure-web.cisco.com/auth=1105QohjGRHoy4xKxMpdjRq8hUtwub&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsligoit.adobeconnect.com%2Filtawebinars%2F>
http://secure-web.cisco.com/auth=1105QohjGRHoy4xKxMpdjRq8hUtwub&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsligoit.adobeconnect.com%2Filtawebinars%2F <http://secure-web.cisco.com/auth=1105QohjGRHoy4xKxMpdjRq8hUtwub&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsligoit.adobeconnect.com%2Filtawebinars%2F>
 
Login using the Guest option and use your full name (no need for a password). It is recommended that you test your access to that 'meeting room' before the event.   You should have Flash installed on your PC.  Most PCs already have this.  If your PC does not have it installed you will be directed to a page that will help you download Flash.