CIT Teaching & Learning Unit

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Foireann Aistrithe (Team Transitions) aimed to support the transition to MTU and foster a sense of belonging within the Nutrition and Health Science (NHS) programme by enabling staff-student partnerships. This project was designed to build on existing successful transitions projects within the Department of Biological Sciences (that involved collaboration with AnSEO - The Student Engagement Office) by allowing students in later years to partner with staff members to instigate new Transitions initiatives for first-year year students. A total of four student-staff partnership projects were created around four key areas;

the production of a course-specific booklet
creating visual material for display in corridors
producing a range of course-specific videos and
reinstating the MTU Nutrition Society.

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How did the project work towards its aims?

Due to the nature of this project, the exact tasks weren’t defined at the outset, as we were reliant on input from staff and students to form what the workplan might look like, but the main focus was around supporting the Transition to MTU and promoting engagement and retention of our first-year students.

The first step was to form the team for Foireann Aistrithe. All NHS students were invited to participate as were all Departmental staff. A team of 13 was formed; 7 staff (both academic and support) and 6 students. We created problem statements to reflect commonly identified issues among first-year students, which were presented to the team and solutions to these problem statements were sought.

4 projects were prioritised and staff and students opted to work on projects they felt they could contribute most to. We divided into 4 subgroups to work on these projects. Overall, the following was completed: a range of course-specific videos (7 in total) was developed, a course-specific noticeboard was installed in the main building on campus and the MTU Nutrition Society was re-activated.

Project Dissemination

7 videos have been created, with graduate and final year perspectives of the Nutrition and Health Science programme. A course-specific notice board has been installed in the main building.

How might this project develop over the next 2 - 5 years?

Resources developed will be implemented in the 2022-2023 academic year.

The course-specific noticeboard will be contributed to and maintained by undergraduate students in the Nutrition and Health Science programme.

The video resources will likely need updating in future years, in line with any programme changes. Should this be required, further funding will be sought. The Nutrition Society, while supported by academic staff, will be run independently by members.