Public comment

• Which of the above-mentioned tasks of internal quality management are sufficiently accomplished in your organisation?

In my organisation we have an internal intranet system that employees can access that accurately describes all the requirements that are needed in order to fufil the role on which you are assigned and the processes in what is required. We are also provided with a printed checklist that we can use to make sure we have all the required paperwork in order. I myself look after the Local Moodle system and I have created a Exam paperwork class only available to trainers that they can download softcopies direct from our local Moodle system. The webiste & learner handbook also provides the leaner's with an overview on how the process works and their responsibilites within the organisation. The organisation also provides yearly peer to peer evaluations with collegues as part of our internal self-assessments areas of improvement and suggestions for changes to the teaching methods discussed where needed. During all areas of this process we have detailed and accurate paperwork that is stored in soft copy and printed copy on all areas of the training assessment & portfolio stages and the internal & external evaluation that is monitored and checked everytime by the curriculum department's TSO.

• Where is there room for further action?

While the system that we have in our organisation works very well it can be improved with more emphasis on new upcoming technologies with regards to the paper trails. From my own personal experience the hard copies of paper work and sometimes duplication of paper work (i.e. same forms filled out for multiple module course assessments) could in my opinion be much more streamlined. Some forms could be combined into one to reduce this duplication. The over reliance on hard copies could in my opinion be changed to incorporate editable PDF's for example to cut down on the overreliance of paper. Student's could sign with a digital signature for exams and portfolios for example.

• Which benefits from internal quality management can be seen in your organisation?

The benefits that can be seen from our internal quality management system are vast and have wide reacing implications. These included:

1. Fair & consistent assesment of leaners
2. Standards adhered to in terms of training quality
3. All staff made aware of roles & responsibilities in regards to training standards (inc Full Time, Part Time & contract staff)
4. Easy access to required documentation thorugh the Moodle System & intranet
5. Regular checks and evaluations on paperwork and delivery of course outcomes
6. Peer Evaluations & External Validation leading to corrections is any areas in need of improvement.
7. Assessment and evaluation can result in upskilling or retraining if needed to facilitate persnoal progressional develepment.
8. Assessments and required material for course completion is regularlly discussed with stakeholders i.e. Employeer's consulted with regards to apprenticeship.

• How are quality management and quality culture interlinked in your organisation?

The quaility management clearly communicates the continuous evaluations and the quality objectives through the TSO. The paperwork and data collection constantly monitors the teaching effectiveness and learning outcomes. The quality culture is communicated down from management and curriculum and provides a professional quality orientated approach to the instructors interactions with peers and learner's. We are actively encouraged to participate in regular meetings with the TSO as instructors of particular areas to provide feedback as a group and areas that we can improve.

1. Which of the above-mentioned tasks of internal quality management are sufficiently accomplished in your organisation?

In our organisation most of the above mentioned tasks are accomplished; however, there still are ares for the improvement. Description of our operational processes and and the individual responsibilities for the management and control of each operation can be found in our internal QA handbook.

We still have to work on the self-assessment task. Our college is small and we do not have the HR department who could collect and evaluate information in different departments. We are very good, however, in collecting feedbacks from our students which help us a lot to find areas for the improvement in teaching and learning.

We held Academic Quality Committee meetings quite often due to our future re-engagement process with QQI. We are currently in process of reviewing and upgrading all our QA policies and procedures. The Academic Quality Committee also looks after the existing programmes review process, new programmes development, policy on staff development, lecturers contracts, attendance management, review of Lerner Feedback, appointment of External Examiners and many others.

We store all the important documents in paper and electronic version. For instance, as the Senior Exams Officer, I am responsible for storing all students records related to their examinations and assessments, copies of the provisional and final results, all QQI submission records including Internal Verification and External Authentication reports for all FET programmes and minutes from the Exam Board and the External Examiners reports for HET programmes, copies of certificates and many others.

We are currently trying to improve our internal communication system as there are some breaks in the communication flow between the departments which sometimes cause a lot of unnecessary problems.

1. Where is there room for further action?

As I have already mentioned we have still a few areas where we should improve like our internal communication and self-assessment process. We are currently trying to sort out these problems.

1. Which benefits from internal quality management can be seen in your organisation?

The following benefits from internal quality management can be seen in my organisation:

• fair and consistent learners assessment;
• clear policies and procedures well known to all staff members from the Staff Handbook
• clear policies and procedures well known to all students from the Student Handbook
• very good attendance system developed to follow the GNIB requirements for International Students (about 80% of our students)
• We review the assessments for all our programmes often in order to facilitate suggestions for improvement from our teaching staff;
• We often ask for very detailed feedback from our External Authenticators or Examiners, which help us to improve the areas where we are weaker
• easy access to teaching and learning materials through Moodle
• new staff development programme - we try encourage our staff to up-skill themselves - for instance, we have launched the Master in Teaching programme for our staff with the cooperation with Letterkenny Institute of Technology;

1. How are quality management and quality culture interlinked in your organisation?

All our QA policies and procedures are included in staff handbook. We are organising staff training once a year and also individual trainings for all new arrivals. It is not always easy especially that most of our teaching staff is part-time and sometimes there is not enough time for training. We constantly ask our students and teachers for a feedback on the areas where we should improve. I have already mentioned that we still are in process of improving our self-assessment and evaluation system. We are trying to put in place some more formal way for this, but in the meantime, we visit our classrooms and talk with our teachers and students on weekly basis. This helps us to monitor on ongoing basis where the changes should be made and also encourage our staff to be more active in process of improving the quality of their teaching. Similar actions are taken in relation to our administrative staff.