Driving Digital Transformation in Education through the SETU Digital Education Conference (DEC)

SETU’s Digital Education Conference (DEC) has become a national platform for dialogue, co-creation, and knowledge exchange. DEC enables educators, students, researchers, policymakers, industry stakeholders to integrate innovations such as AI (Artificial Intelligence), Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Immersive Technologies (XR/VR/AR) into teaching, learning and assessment, supporting constructive and sustainable use of disruptive educational technologies. DEC is student-centred, emphasising active student engagement and governance. To date, DEC has engaged 350+ delegates, influenced institutional and national digital education strategies (e.g. Immersive Learning Recommendations to Government), developed educational modules and fostered 15+ multi-sector collaborations resulting in co-authored publications and research. Collaborations extend across Irish, European and International HEIs. DEC attracts strong political engagement and outputs include government policy briefs and working group papers. Conference facilitators contributed to Ireland’s 3rd SDG implementation plan, an OECD report, three national government led education policy working groups and political debates on AI, UDL, and sustainability.

SATLE priority area: Digital Transformation

Context and needs addressed

Rapid technological changes and the diversification of learner needs requires higher education institutions to adopt more inclusive, engaging, adaptive, and evidence-informed teaching strategies as evidenced in recent reports[1] and policies[2]. This initiative, SETU Digital Education Conference (DEC) was established to showcase Digital Transformation across Education in Ireland, aligned with SETU Strategy (Obj 4, 5, Action 13.4), underpinned global UN SDGs (SDG4,11) and across our partner universities MTU, ATU, TUD, TUS, DKIT, TCD, UCC, DCU, ETB’s, Youth, Primary, Post-Primary, Lifelong learning agencies and industry stakeholders, which has now grown with involvement from US, China and Europe in DEC community. Furthermore DEC provides an opportunity to engage in new formal and informal collaborations, networks and meet new people and ideas in our teaching, learning and research ecosystem.

Educators often lack the structured support and cutting-edge insights necessary to integrate innovations such as Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Immersive Technologies into their teaching and learning. DEC addresses this challenge through a sustainable national platform for dialogue, co-creation, and knowledge exchange, which allows educators, researchers, policymakers, and industry partners to respond proactively to these educational disruptors. DEC emerged as educators needed a platform to share results, output, experiences and contexts from emerging research and practitioner instruments like NF SATLE, GrowthHub, EUAs, NTUTORR and as a bridge for some pracademics into SFI, Research Ireland and EU Horizon Europe instruments hence its success and ongoing momentum for addressing the need within this community, our teachers, lecturers, tutors, PhD scholars, industry and policy-makers are working together to realise an informed evidence-based education future to meet the ongoing global challenges such as arrival technologies and political instability.

Since 2023, the SETU Digital Education Conference (DEC), delivered by the Faculty of Education and Lifelong Learning and South East Education Research Lab (SeerLab), has become a national focal point for digital education, research and practice. The conference has engaged over 350 delegates from academia, industry, and broader society, influenced institutional and national digital education strategies, and built strong research–industry-social enterprise collaborations with partners including SOLAS, ALL, ETBs, Sunlife, Sanofi, Advance HE, Foróige, Brickfield Education Labs, EIRMERSIVE, PEStech, Better Examinations, Entire, NTUTORR, and HEA/National Forum for Teaching and Learning. Over 100 research papers and 20+ workshops held. DEC24 was extended to include a doctoral colloquium with DEC25 planned to co-host EdTech Ireland’s first developer conference and a Teacher Networking Evening event to facilitate the convergence of schools and universities.

Regarding the advancement of digital education, DEC/SeerLab has promoted the uptake of innovative technologies through school visits, delivered six research projects and four VR pilots (including applications in entrepreneurship and pitch ideation training), and invested in learning resources such as 25 headsets and supporting infrastructure. The group has presented at over 18 conferences (including e.g. Generative AI and Academic Integrity Conference, Mary Immaculate College, 2024) and contributed to policy networks, advisory committees, and forums such as the Department of Education Working Group on Education Research and Futures (with the IUA) and the Civil Service Research Network (CSRN).

The conference has attracted strong political engagement, with speakers including Marc O’Cathasaigh TD, Grace O’Sullivan MEP and an event launch by Dara Calleary TD. By showcasing research, enabling co-designed innovations, and fostering communities of practice, DEC has enhanced educator professional development, improved teaching quality, and elevated SETU’s national and international profile as a leader in digital education.

“A fantastic event at South East Technological University… the conference illuminated us with topics such as AI, future healthcare, and sustainability in education”

‘The day was filled with reflections and insightful dialogue about the dreaded but exciting PhD journey. There’s something comforting about knowing I’m not alone’.

Since its launch in 2023, DEC has transformed Ireland’s digital education landscape by bridging research, policy, and practice. It responds to a fragmented approach to educational innovation and provides a national forum for inclusive, digitally transformative teaching and learning. Some challenges such as accessibility for input from Primary and Post-Primary educators has been designed into DEC25 evening event for teachers so that EdTech developers and tertiary lecturers and educators can collaborate with all stakeholders.

[1] 2025 Horizon Report (https://library.educause.edu/-/media/files/library/2025/5/2025hrteachinglearning.pdf), https://education.ec.europa.eu/focus-topics/digital-education/action-plan/content-framework, https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/digcompedu/digcompedu-framework_en (areas 1 and 3),https://www.teachingandlearning.ie/resource/national-professional-development-framework-domains/ (digital transformation strand and domain 5)

[2] National Digital Strategy for Tertiary Education (2022–2030), Digital Strategy for schools -2027, Digital Ireland Framework, Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027, OECD, Adult Literacy for Life, and the Teaching and Learning Strategy 2024–2030, UNESCO ESD Framework to 2030

Strategic alignment with national policies

DEC is a response to a volatile digital ecosystem that both embraces and challenges our education landscape and society, the emergence of GenAI is an example of a conduit to accessing knowledge in a different way but it emerged without boundaries, rules, legislation and most importantly for educators and students, without guidance on acceptable adoption and potential limitations, in relation to academic integrity, digital literacy, equality and sustainability. The impact can be seen in the ongoing response of government, HEI’s and citizens in their practical adoption and policies that are currently mesmerizing our feeds and lives. The interpretation and response to mobilizing and implementing digital change at scale is overwhelming and yet we can see the potential in productivity, the risk of cognitive offloading and the general confusion rather than consensus in its adoption. Training for digital transformation, disruption and building confidence of educators, students, citizens and policy-makers is ongoing with the National Forum a leading light in facilitating digital badges that meet the needs of educators. DEC has been instrumental in navigating jargon, policy, resources by and for our community, leveraging previous funded initiatives such as GenAI National hub, collaborating with projects such as ENITRE European Digital Innovation Hub among others to grasp the critical elements of legislation such as EU AI Act and its impact on HE, as a community we are enabled to navigate changes and ensure compliance aligned to our National and local education strategies and policies, our beliefs and values.

DEC initially sought to align to our University strategy (e.g. Obj 4, 5, Action 13.4), underpinned global UN SDGs (SDG4,11), national policy (e.g. ESD) and guidelines and European regulation (see footnote above), in the interim period new guidelines continue to emerge such as Guidelines for the Responsible Use of AI in the Public Service, AI Resources, AI in HE HEA Guidelines and resources and Department of Education and Youth “Guidance on Artificial Intelligence in Schools”. Our community within DEC is strong in its mobilization to critically review, interpret and adjust teaching, learning and assessment in our current contexts and to share and learn from multiple sources and emerging challenges.

Digital adoption and the needs of our learners is moving steadily toward inclusive, engaging, adaptive, and evidence-informed teaching strategies as evidenced in recent reports[1] and policies[2].

DEC provides a safe experiential approach to evaluations and adoptions, disclosure in relation to the pro’s and con’s of digital transformation and the guidance and maturity levels required to ensure that our society and citizens can navigate our dynamic environment.

[1] 2025 Horizon Report (https://library.educause.edu/-/media/files/library/2025/5/2025hrteachinglearning.pdf), https://education.ec.europa.eu/focus-topics/digital-education/action-plan/content-framework, https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/digcompedu/digcompedu-framework_en (areas 1 and 3),https://www.teachingandlearning.ie/resource/national-professional-development-framework-domains/ (digital transformation strand and domain 5)

[2] National Digital Strategy for Tertiary Education (2022–2030), Digital Strategy for schools -2027, Digital Ireland Framework, Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027, OECD, Adult Literacy for Life, and the Teaching and Learning Strategy 2024–2030

Innovation

DEC from the outset aimed to foster a sense of experiential learning for its community, guiding participants to be explorative and open to failure in a supportive environment. DEC asked participants for expressions of interest to lead workshops from the community resulting in over 12 workshops and 2 student panel discussions and industry/government panel discussions.

Our DEC student panel members are invited as committee members in subsequent iterations, previous keynote speakers are invited back as guests and we include student ambassadors during our events. We initiated a doctoral colloquium in 2024 on the day prior to the main conference this attracted 35 PhD scholars and was hugely successful co-created with lecturers, supervisors, students in a working group and extended in planning for 2025. As a result we have been designing new areas of support for masters and PhD students with our Graduate support office this included the release of the GRAD support package launched at DEC24 and inclusion of our Academic Integrity office in planning for 2025 (AI for assessment and research). The following image details some of the workshops co-created, this multi-layer approach to knowledge creation and knowledge sharing ensures that what may be happening on the ground in Foróige’s use of virtual reality (VR) gamification can be shared with undergraduate and post graduate skill acquisition using VR and vice versa (e.g during DEC23 we purchased new licenses for Virtual Speech now an integral part of our teaching toolkit).

Our approach is trial and error leveraging theories on social contructivism, scaffolding, models such as Carpe Diem, ABC, CAMIL, VISIEN, CoI model, ensuring adopting of UDL, RPL principles as we navigate inclusion, retention, engagement and success of our students. DEC community is keen to encourage and reward creativity at the level that suits the cohort of students, this may mean inclusion of Padlet, Aithor, NotebookLM, H5P and now VLE extensions such as VictoryXR and Engage (AI/XR) safely in our labs physically on colourful bean bags and virtually in our online classrooms. Students as partners either in assessment or co-creation of curriculum and ideation are values that illuminate from our ethos with ongoing workshops across our partner organsiations evident throughout the period building on the blocks of previous evidence, publications and practice in this area. These innovations and experimental approaches have become the norm in some areas and there are ongoing challenges in other areas, change within our institutional cultures is ongoing but DEC has provided a platform, community and resources whereby our DEC champions feel supported to introduce change, innovation, ideation, creativity in the classroom without penalty and with support nationally. Challenges in procurement, licensing for emerging technologies is tricky and we continue to work collaboratively in initiatives such as Eimersive to advocate for national, regional approaches and policies to alleviate the logistical difficulties to enable equity and equality in teaching, learning and assessment for engaged student success.

Outcomes

Impact

Since its launch in 2023, DEC has transformed Ireland’s digital education landscape by bridging research, policy, and practice. It responds to a fragmented approach to educational innovation and provides a national forum for inclusive, digitally transformative teaching and learning.

DEC has driven educator professional development by showcasing applied research in Universal Design for Learning, AI, immersive learning (VR/AR), and assessment redesign. Attendees include higher education faculty, school educators, policymakers, and EdTech leaders. The inaugural doctoral colloquium engaged over 35 PhD scholars, boosting SETU’s profile and attracting researchers from outside the university. Importantly, DEC is student focused and fosters active student engagement and promotes student governance (e.g. student led panels).

The conference has fostered over 15 industry partnerships (e.g., EdTech Ireland, Eirmersive), leading to successful funding bids, co-authored publications, and collaborative involvement in national proposals such as Research Ireland’s E-AI theme. Dara Calleary TD, Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation, officially launched the Eirmersive network at DEC 2024 where he met with the Irish immersive companies demonstrating at the event, and addressed the audience on the government’s recognition of the Irish immersive technology sector’s importance.

DEC’s policy papers have been presented by Dr Zeta Dooly to Dara Calleary TD and the government. Further policy workshops have influenced debates on responsible AI, UDL policy, and sustainability pedagogy. Collaborations extend across Ireland and Europe (e.g., Trinity College Dublin, TU Dublin, TUS, MTU, ATU, DKIT, EU CONEXUS). The group has presented at over 18 conferences and participated in:

• Government of Ireland, Department of Education:
• Education Research and Futures Working Group member with Department of Education in collaboration with the Irish Universities Association (IUA) 2025
• Evidence for Policy Unit, HEI Research Advocates and Civil Service Research Network (CSRN) 2024
• Appointed by National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) to the Technical Advisory Committee 2024
• Appointed by Government of Ireland, Department of Environment, Climate and Communications to the Sustainable Development Goals National Stakeholder Forum Committee 2024.
• SETU and SeerLab are members of the National Immersive Education Working Group, established by Eirmersive, with the support of Meta.
• Delivered recommendations on Immersive Learning for Education to Dara Calleary TD, Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation, in 2024 at Outreach event in Dublin.

The work of Seerlab and DEC has resulted in the development and integration of technologies into curriculum modules at SETU including ‘Digital Education and Digital Creativity in Classroom’ (part of the Education and Lifelong Learning master’s in education), ‘Management of the Burns Patient’ (Faculty of Nursing module) and modules in the Faculty of Business. Seerlab members have also provided external training on digital education.

Evidence of impact is seen in DEC participant evaluations, uptake of DEC outputs on SETU’s Moodle CPD community, and integration of tools into curricula and learning systems. DEC’s wider reach includes media coverage (Irish Independent, Beat FM), a podcast with H2Learning/ETB.

Overall, DEC has enhanced educator confidence, advanced digital transformation readiness, and aligned education policy across sectors, positioning SETU as a national and international leader in digital education.

We developed an impact report, book of abstracts, poster report, media coverage included National newspaper,  over 100 papers presented.

As a result of DEC we were invited to META’s 1^st Education Summit in the UK in 2024 this has resulted in EduXR25 event and national collaborations such as proposal for digital badge in Immersive Learning using XR. Additionally, we have been invited to present at SunLife and IBM to discuss further research collaborations. We were also recently invited to  represent SETU with a government delegation to the Ivory Coast.

Many PhD scholars have initiated their studies in this area with funding applications and awards significantly increasing over the 3 year period.

Furthermore, we have continued to extend the scope of DEC and it’s community reach and impact, the virtual nature of its community and physical meetups have been integral in supporting a community of stakeholders committed to digital transformation, positive educational disruption adopting standard risk boundaries to facilitate experiential learning at scale. The evidence provided in this application is indicative of its potential, we are already undertaking work to converge knowledge acquisition on sustainability through the use of VR where students can be immersed in understanding climate change and environmental impact. Leveraging our inclusion in the National SDG Stakeholder Forum we share knowledge artefacts with our collaborative partners and disseminate this through our channels and communication stacks. We continue to work locally with primary, post-primary, ETBs and tertiary partners, co-create proposals and collect data to extend knowledge in these areas.