Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is a Digital Backpack?
My Digital Backpack is an online platform in the form of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) for students and staff across the Technological University (TU) sector to sign up to complete short non-accredited courses. The platform, developed by N-TUTORR, is a user-friendly, self–directed learning interface and includes a badge award on completion of a short course. My Digital Backpack will provide learners across the TU sector with additional skills to complement their existing programmes of study, embed the N-TUTORR project themes (e.g., Digital Transformation, Employability, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Academic Integrity, Education for Sustainability, Universal Design for Learning) and support the project deliverables of the N-TUTORR programme.
2. What is a Digital Badge?
Digital Badges offer a way to communicate your achievements, strengths or skills and promote lifelong learning that goes beyond the classroom and showcases accomplishments that otherwise may have been hidden. They are usually used online, but you can also use them on your CV to differentiate yourself from other students.
3. What Digital Badges should I undertake in My Digital Backpack?
Digital Badges are earned by engaging with My Digital Backpack and focus on a range of teaching and learning themes to include Digital Transformation, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Academic Integrity, Education for Sustainability, Universal Design for Learning, and Employability. Students and staff are welcome to participate in any short courses on the platform at their own discretion.
4. Do I need to undertake the Digital Badges in any particular sequence?
Learners are invited to engage with the Digital Skills Discovery course as a first step in self-assessing your digital capabilities to determine your digital skills level by finding out where your strengths and weaknesses are and get targeted suggestions for appropriate training and courses. The self-assessment takes approximately 20 minutes to complete and, once completed, you are provided with a summary report of your skills level. You can then claim your Digital Badge for this course and engage with additional short courses on My Digital Backpack.
5. How long should I expect it to take to undertake each Digital Badge?
Most Digital Badges within My Digital Backpack take 1 to 3 hours to complete.
6. Who will award my Digital Badges and how will my Digital Badges be awarded?
Once you complete a course on My Digital Backpack, you will be directed to Open Badge Factory to claim your badge. Please note, you will need to create an account on Open Badge Factory for your first visit to the site to claim your Digital Badges.
7. How long is my Digital Badge valid for?
Digital Badges issued under My Digital Backpack do not expire provided you have created an account with Open Badge Factory to house your badges.
8. What information do I need to submit when registering on My Digital Backpack (personal email address etc.)?
When you engage with My Digital Backpack for the first time, you will be asked to login with your username (your college email address) and password.
9. How will my data be protected?
N-TUTORR is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Privacy Statement sets out how we, as a Data Controller, collect, use, process and disclose the personal data (“Data”) that we collect from you, or that you provide to us, on our website www.thea.ie (“Site”). This Privacy Statement should be read in conjunction with our Cookie Policy. Please read the following carefully to understand our use of your Data.
Information we may collect from you
We only collect Data about you on the Site which you volunteer when you email us or by using our online Contact Us or other forms; or if you report a problem with our Site. When you contact us, we may keep a record of that correspondence. We also collect Data automatically when you navigate through our Site, as explained in our Cookie Policy.
We may collect and process the following data about you:
- your name;
- your phone number;
- your email address;
- your address;
- information that you provide by filling in forms on our Site;
- the time and date of your visit;
- your IP address;
- your browser type; and
- your referring URL
Unless subscribing to a service, the provision of your Data is not a statutory or contractual requirement, and you may refuse to disclose same.
Uses made of your data
We may use your Data where necessary for our legitimate business interests, including to:
- improve the content of our Site and the services we offer;
- ensure the Site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;
- compile statistical data on the use of our Site;
- allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so; and
- notify you about changes to our service.
We make no attempt to identify individual visitors, or to associate the technical details we collect with any individual, unless required to disclose such information by law. We may use your Data to comply with any legal obligations.
We will store your personal Data only for as long as necessary for the purposes of providing access to our Site and related services to you; as required by law, and for the exercise or defence of any legal claims.
Disclosure of your information
We will not disclose your Data to third parties unless you have consented to this disclosure or unless the third party is required to fulfil a request you have made or contract that you have entered into. Where appropriate, Data may also be processed by our service providers in which case we will take steps to ensure that the processing complies with applicable data protection and confidentiality laws. We will also disclose your Data if we believe in good faith that we are required to disclose it in order to comply with any applicable law, a summons, a search warrant, a court or regulatory order or other statutory or legal requirement.
We may provide Non-Personal Data to third parties, where such information is combined with similar information of other users of our Site. For example, we might inform third parties regarding the number of unique users who visit our Site, the demographic breakdown of our community users of our Site or the activities that visitors to our Site engage in while on our Site. The third parties to whom we may provide this information may include web developers, server providers, providers of advertising services (including website tracking services), commercial partners, sponsors, licensees, researchers and other similar parties.
Links to other sites
Our Site may, from time to time, contain links to and from other websites. If you follow a link to any of those websites, please note that those websites have their own privacy policies and we do not accept any responsibility or liability for those policies. Please check those policies before you submit any Data to those websites.
Your rights
You may request access to, rectification, erasure or restriction of your Data, or object to the processing of your Data or Data portability at any time. Fill in the form here and we will respond to your request in writing, or orally if requested, as soon as practicable and in any event within one month of receipt of your request. We may request proof of identification to verify your request. All requests should be addressed to info@thea.ie.
You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commissioner if you are unhappy with how we are processing your Data.
Security and where we store your personal data
We are committed to protecting the security of your Data. We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your Data from unauthorised access and use. As effective as modern security practices are, no physical or electronic security system is entirely secure. We cannot guarantee the complete security of our database, nor can we guarantee that information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to us over the Internet. We have implemented strict internal guidelines to ensure that your privacy is safeguarded at every level of our organisation. We will continue to update policies and implement additional security features as new technologies become available. Where we have given you a password which enables you to access certain parts of our Site, you are responsible for keeping that password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.
Although we will do our best to protect your Data, we cannot guarantee the security of your Data transmitted to our Site. Any transmission of Data is at your own risk. Once we receive your Data, we will use appropriate security measures to seek to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure.
Changes to this Privacy Statement
We reserve the right to change this Privacy Statement from time to time at our sole discretion. If we make any changes, we will post those changes here and update the “Last Updated” date at the bottom of this Privacy Statement. Your continued use of this Site after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check this Statement periodically for updates.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns regarding how your Data is processed via this Site, please contact us at info@thea.ie. All requests will be dealt with promptly and efficiently.
10. How can I share my Digital Badge on other media platforms?
A key aspect of Digital Badges is that they are easily shared across various platforms. For example, you could add your badges to an e-Portfolio, to your LinkedIn profile, or to any social networking site that you like!
Because the digital badges work off an 'open' standard, badge earners are fully in control of what happens to the badge once it is claimed. There are many outlets for the badges, the badge earner can publicise that they have obtained the badge through LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc., but also as a URL that can be copied and pasted into an email or electronic job application. When the reader (sometimes termed the 'consumer') then clicks on the link, they are brought to a webpage which displays the badge and the meta-data associated with it. That webpage will also verify that the badge was issued by My Digital Backpack.
