After nearly 18 months, we look forward to welcoming our students back on campus and indeed many of our colleagues. As part of this planned return, we will be sending out a weekly update which will cover a number of topics related to the Academic year. We hope they are of benefit to you during your preparation for the start of term.These updates will also be hosted on staff.dbs.ie to allow ease of access for review.

Safety of staff and students is our top priority. We are following all government guidelines and will keep up to date with any developments. We promote the uptake of vaccinations, but will not request details from staff or students to confirm they are vaccinated. We have put in place many measures to help stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus and we ask everyone to take personal responsibility to minimise its spread. There are sanitising stations across all campus buildings; we require facemasks to be worn in class and all public spaces; common areas will have seated-only areas and numbers will be capped. People must not congregate in large groups within DBS buildings or outside. When in corridors or common areas it is important to follow directional signs and to keep moving as quickly as possible to your destination.

With the return of more students and staff to campus, we have updated our COVID-19 safety measures. These include:

• Masks to be worn at all times on campus, including in all classrooms.

• Capacity remains reduced, with the exception of computer labs, where air purification systems will be installed.

• Continued use of online delivery/hybrid to assist with reducing capacity.

• Hand sanitisation systems will continue to be maintained throughout the buildings.

• Continued increase in cleaning of buildings.

Further information can be found by visiting:

https://staff.dbs.ie/departments/hr/hr-homepage/staff-information-for-21-22-academic-year

Over the coming weeks, we'll be in touch with you over a number of initiatives especially in relation to Inclusion and Diversity and ways you can get involved.

There are already a number of events, activities, and meet-ups in the diary, with more on the way, so do keep an eye out!

• Lunch & Learn - Held monthly
• Coffee Connect - Held twice a month - Weds 8th Sept 10:30-11:00, HERE
• Exam Board/ Grade Review 
  
  • Tues 14th Sept - INTERNAL Jan-intake (PG) Proceed
  • Mon 20th Sept - EXTERNAL Jan-intake (PG) Proceed
  • Mon 18th Oct - Sept-intake PG Dissertations' (Grad) Internal Board
  • Fri 22nd Oct - Sept-intake PG Dissertations' (Grad) External Board
• PG Dissertation (TMD3) due - Mon 27th Sept
• PG Dissertation (TMD1S) commences - Mon 4th Oct
• National Academic Integrity Week - Mon 18th - Fri 22nd Oct 2021 - Assessment incorporating Student & Staff partnership in upholding academic integrity

There have been some changes to the physical and online learning environment, notably a Moodle upgrade and the introduction of Zoom Rooms. A mix of on demand resources and live training sessions are available to new and returning faculty. 

Moodle 'in your own time:' on demand  staff training page

The staff training page, which is aimed at new faculty and as a refresher for returning faculty, offers a series of lessons:  

1. Getting Started, which covers customising your dashboard, sending announcements, customising activities and resource view and adding content, an activity or a resource Customise your Dashboard.

2. Technologies in the Classroom, which covers a description of the technologies you will find in the classroom and an introduction to zoom rooms.  

3. Live Class Recordings, which covers your DBS Live Block, starting your Live Online class and finding, unhiding and moving your recordings on your Moodle page. ocate your recorded class on your Moodle page.

4. Online Assessments and Exams, which includes a guide to writing online assessments and exams, setting assessment due dates, entering assessment and exam grades, releasing assessment grades and feedback and setting the Ouriginal (not spelt wrong, its the new name for Urkund) Receiver address. 

5. Planning and Design, which covers lesson planning for online and in-class delivery.

6. Modes of Delivery, which covers practical guidance on teaching in hybrid.  

The plan is to add more “in your own time” on demand content to the Moodle training page.  

Zoom Rooms, an enhanced hybrid teaching and learning experience is now available in 17 classrooms/labs across Aungier Street and Castle House.  There are guides and videos showing you how to use zoom rooms available at:

There will be a one hour drop-in training sessions in a Zoom Room with Dave Mackey at the following times/locations: 

Thursday 9 Sept 15:00 - 16:00 AS3.4

Tuesday 14 Sept 11:00 - 12:00  CH3.7

Thursday 16 Sept 15:00 - 16:00 AS3.4

Tuesday 21 Sept  11:00 - 12:00  CH3.7

Thursday 23 Sept 15:00 - 16:00 AS3.4

Dave will demonstrate how to use the Zoom Room system and provide an opportunity for staff to practice themselves. 

Staff Training sessions will be held over the next three weeks, starting the 6th of September, to support you with information and guidance.  In these sessions, we will provide you with a refresh on current edTech resources and explore what has changed or is new in DBS edTech.  We will listen to your questions and try to answer any queries that you have.  If we can't answer your query there and then, we will come back to you with an answer and provide further training if required. 

The timetable is below. Please check the events calendar for zoom links into the live support sessions.  

Further training can be provided to cohorts on specific topics in more detail, available on request to Emma Balfe.

During the past year, we have improved our Net promoter Score (NPS); it now stands at 40. We will continue our NPS survey with learners in September and once per quarter thereafter. The main items Faculty can assist with are as follows:

• Providing timely feedback to assessments. Learners are consistent in their message that they want feedback in a timely manner. If the volume of learners in a class has an impact on when the feedback is given, please set an expectation with learners that it will take a little longer than it would otherwise. Please aim to be as timely as possible.

• Being contactable. Please ensure your hours of availability are on your Moodle pages and set a clear expectation as to how and when you are available outside of class time.

• It is also important to set clear expectations from the start of your module about what learners can expect and what is expected of them.

As per the process for hourly paid faculty, an automated email is sent on the 13th of the month (from academicopstimesheets@dbs.ie) which includes the teaching hours for that month.  Work is still underway on the timetable so changes could very well be made after this date, for example more groups could be added to a programme, groups could be removed from a programme, a programme/module might run due to low student numbers and so on .  What this means to lecturers is that whatever is on the timetable as of the 13th of September, (ie: the date you receive the automated email) this will be the amount you receive in your pay on the 25th of September.  Any changes made to the timetable after the 13th of September will be reconciled the following month.  This is something that usually happens every month anyway, but it’s particularly important to inform you of this for September as it could be on a larger scale given the time of year.  We will try to ensure that there is minimal impact to your pay, but it is important that you know that it is a possibility.

Further information will be coming over the next few weeks relating to:

• PPE and where to get it

• Start/End times of classes

• Managing flow of students through our buildings

• IT updates - New Moodle login, Condeco desk booking and more

Information on Graduation can be found here 

Recent communication to learners can be found here