CUTIE Project Meeting in Galway, Ireland
A hundred welcomes (or as we say in the west of Ireland, “céad míle fáilte”) from the University of Galway’s Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, located on the west coast of Ireland looking out towards the Atlantic.
On the 19th to the 21st of May, 2025, we had the pleasure of welcoming our European Erasmus+ partners and collaborators for the fourth CUTIE project meeting, this time held in Ireland. Representatives from all partner institutions, including the University of Akureyri in Iceland, the University of Zagreb in Croatia, AGH University of Krakow in Poland, the University of Murcia in Spain, the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, and GTN Solutions from Austria converged on the Galway campus in unprecedented sunny weather.
Together the group discussed our respective project work involving student partnerships in higher education, especially their role in supporting educators to develop digital competencies.
A new emphasis over this course of this project has been Generative AI (GenAI). Since 2022, Artificial Intelligence has rapidly emerged as a disruptive force this, as HEIs and educators look to continue to understand the evolving role of technology in physical and digital learning spaces. Much of this change is new and contested. Notably, partner institutions have responded in varied ways to academic integrity challenges posted by AI, with two already having formal AI policies in place, as of these last few months. Similar to disruptive external events, such as COVID, this Erasmus+ project has proved invaluable as experiences, policy and strategic insights were exchanged.
The team shared their innovative work in engaging partnership projects with students, using creative approaches such as:
- Using personas and scenarios within workshops,
- Supporting student-led responses to ethical and effective AI use,
- Conducting large-scale institutional surveys, and
- Developing and deploying chatbots to support students in tracking their academic progress across modules.
Following this central theme of collective responses through partnership and collaboration, the project partners welcomed an opportunity to learn more about the collective intelligence work of Dr Michael Hogan within the School of Psychology at the University. This conceptual and methodological approach provided inspiration, as partners reflected on how it compares with their own signature pedagogies and the cultural- historical context of their teaching and HEIs.
The final work package considers the importance of leadership in supporting and nurturing educators’ digital competencies. To this end, the University of Galway is leading an open course - to be launched in the coming months - developed by all project partners and hosted within the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Ireland’s open course platform.
This work package sparked meaningful discussion, empathising the need for leaders within HEIs to support those working with them in developing the knowledge, skills and attitudes essential for teaching in a digital age, as outlined within the EU DigcompEdu framework.
We hope to share more information on how to sign up to take part in the near future. Join us on this journey towards enhancing your own digital competency - whether as a senior leader at your higher education institution, or someone leading innovation within in your local school or college.
Stay tuned for updates and registration details. Whether you are leading digital transformation or supporting your colleagues to develop their own digital teaching competencies, we invite you to take part.