Profile Summary:

Laura is a lecturer in Digital and Technology in the School of Business at ATU Galway with a special interest in Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Digital Transformation and Digital Media Technologies. Laura holds substantial experience having worked in IT industry and higher education for the past 20 years.

Laura lectures at undergraduate, postgraduate, and executive levels. Laura received the “Presidents Award for Teaching Excellence” in 2020. The President’s Award for Teaching Excellence recognises and celebrates teaching of a particularly high standard. The award recognises that excellence in teaching can arise in a wide variety of ways.

Laura was a finalist for itag Excellence Awards 2022 for “Digital Woman in Tech Award”. Laura has played a formidable role as a digital mentor in ATU Galway’s online digital strategy for teaching and learning. In doing so she has coordinated and led numerous workshops and seminar series promoting and demonstrating the use of contemporary digital technologies in higher education and teaching and learning.

Laura lectures and supervises on the MSc. in Digital Media and Marketing in ATU. She completed her MSc. in Education and Training Management at DCU and her undergraduate studies BEng. in Digital and Software Systems at GMIT. Laura received her global recognition and certification from CAST, USA for her knowledge and teaching in Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

Laura is one of the core founders of Digital West. Digital West was setup in 2018 to create awareness of “Digital” in the West of Ireland linking businesses (in conjunction with ATU Innovation Hubs) and higher education (ATU Mayo and Galway City) to share experiences, knowledge by hosting a yearly event every January to connect and create our communities together. Digital West themes included: Cybersecurity and Trust (2022), Digital Transformation (2021), Remote Working (2020), Design Thinking (2019) and Digital Trends (2018).

 

A native of Aclare in Co. Sligo.  I started college at GMIT, Mayo studying electronic and computer engineering for three years after I finished school.   Moving on to GMIT, Galway to complete my Bachelor of Eng., in Digital and Software Systems for a further two more years and graduating in 2003.

I moved to Dublin in 2004 to work for Ericsson Education as a Senior Technical Consultant in Dun Laoghaire.  I travelled extensively to many countries globally where I have interfaced with Customers and Ericsson staff on a technical and non-technical basis (IP Networking, Service Delivery of Content and Media and IPTV).  Some countries included Holland (Vodafone), Australia (Telstra), Malaysia (Celcom), Greece (WIND Hellas), Portugal (Optimus), Mexico City, Norway, Sweden, Canada, India, France, and South Africa.

 

 

Sad to leave Ericsson, I changed my job for less travel.  I moved north side to work as Systems Administrator and IT Trainer for the National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI).  I loved my job at NCBI.  It was so rewarding, inspiring and motivating to be part of their story allowing them to become more independent throug the use of Assistive Technologies.  Making a difference in their lives was always special to me.

 

While working with NCBI, I decided to return to college to do a masters part time at DCU.  For my MSc in Education and Training Management at DCU, I carried out an e-Learning action research project where I introduced an online Virtual Learning environment called Moodle to NCBI. I was the sole responsible for the E-Learning environment for the whole life-cycle.

The title of my research project was “How can I improve the use of Moodle for visually impaired users through the use of Assistive Technology?” In 2008, I received a distinction for my work.

I finally returned to the West of Ireland in 2013, where I worked with Compupac IT Solutions in Sligo as an Online lecturer. I lectured MTA (Microsoft Technology Associate) Certification in Networking Fundamentals for SOLAS online.  Created, designed and developed course content for modules, lessons, assignments and quizzes.  Delivered online live lectures as well as creating/editing pre-recorded videos for course content using Camtasia.

 

Since Jan 2016, I am now Lecturering in GMIT.  I lecture in the School of Business in the Enterprise and Technology Department.  Technology landscape is changing so fast and trying to stay on top of these changes is a challenge but I challenge I do love.

My subject matters include:

• Masters Supervision (Digital Media & Marketing – Level 9)
• Data Visualisation for strategic Decision Making (Level 9)
• Universal Design for Learning UDL (Level 9)
• Search Engine Analytics (Level 9)
• Digital Marketing (Level 7&8)
• Marketing Analytics (Level 8)
• Digital Business (Level 7&8)
• Marketing Techniques and Research (Level 6)