Tús Maith is a series of seminars/workshops/information sessions that we run at the start of each academic year that should be of interest to staff, both new and more experienced, to help get the current academic year off to a good start.
Schedule for 2025/26
The following was the schedule of workshops for the 2025/26 academic year including links to recordings and resources:
Tús Maith: Tips for Planning and Managing the Academic Year
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2025, 10:00 - 11:00 Mode: Online DescriptionProfessor Jim O’Mahony discussed tips for planning and managing the academic year. The start of a new academic year can bring lots of opportunities and challenges. Balancing the many competing tasks and workload requirements can sometimes be difficult to manage which is why it can be helpful to consider alternative approaches. This session examined useful systems of practice and habits in an academic setting and how these can impact positively on time management. It also introduced and explored how simple AI technologies can be used to improve administrative and time dependent tasks. Presented By:
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Building Brave Spaces in the Classroom
Tuesday,September 2nd, 2025, 14:00 - 15:00 Mode: Online DescriptionColleagues from AnSEO – The Student Engagement Office shared insights from their Le Chéile collaborative work and explored how it can help foster ‘brave spaces’ in teaching and learning. A brave space is a learning setting that promotes open, honest conversations, especially on difficult subjects, by encouraging participants to embrace discomfort and consider diverse viewpoints. The goal is not to avoid discomfort but to recognise it as an integral part of the learning process. The AnSEO team shared lessons learned from their work, along with insights from the relevant research literature, to support the development of brave spaces within the classroom and across programmes. Learn more about Le ChéileLe Chéile offers resources and activities that enable and encourage staff and students to engage and work together, listening to and understanding each other’s perspectives on teaching, learning, assessment and student engagement (TLASE). These include:
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My Professional Development: TLASE CPD Opportunities in Semester 1 2025/26
Wednesday, September 3rd, 2025, 10:00 - 11:00 Mode: Online DescriptionEach academic year, the Teaching and Learning Unit (TLU) offer an important range of relevant, useful and accessible formal continuing professional development opportunities related to teaching, learning, assessment and student engagement (TLASE) to MTU staff as follows:
These offerings provide staff with opportunities to reflect on and identify potential changes to their practice with the ultimate aim of providing an enhanced teaching, learning, assessment and student engagement experience for both themselves and students. The purpose of this session was to provide more information about each of the above programmes and to provide participants with an opportunity to hear from previous participants in terms of what they learned and how it has impacted on their practice. Presented By:
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MTU Ready: Arrival Check-in for First-Year Success
Wednesday, September 4th, 2025, 14:00 - 15:00 Mode: Online DescriptionIn recent years, a growing body of academic research and practitioner insights has shown that self-assessment toolkits are valuable for incoming first-year students. These tools offer a structured way for students to evaluate their learning, identify areas for improvement, and set goals for development. Additionally, they provide real-time data on the incoming cohort, enabling academic departments to tailor induction activities to meet the cohort’s specific needs, proving more effective than relying solely on demographic data or information from previous cohorts. MTU Ready, hosted by our technology partner Potential.ly, who also manage the EDGE and Staff Development Portal, is an arrival check-in that asks first-year students ten questions to assess academic readiness, social and community integration, support systems, practical day-to-day preparedness, and overall preparedness. Based on their responses, students receive a personalised report with individualised feedback and signposting to relevant support services within MTU. This seminar explored the development of MTU Ready, insights from our pilot, and future directions for supporting student transitions. Presented By:
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Reflect On and Enhance Your Teaching with TPI
Thursday, September 4th, 2024, 10:00 - 11:00 Mode: Online DescriptionJoin Dr Shane O’Mahony for a guided demonstration of how to complete the Teaching Perspectives Inventory (TPI), followed by an in-depth discussion of the resulting report and how these insights can inform and enrich your reflective teaching practice. Participants explored the five core teaching perspectives (Transmission, Apprenticeship, Developmental, Nurturing, and Social Reform) through interactive discussions grounded in real-world classroom case studies. The session also offered practical strategies for integrating multiple teaching perspectives to foster a more inclusive, effective, and responsive learning environment. Finally, we explored how the TPI can serve as a shared language for reflective teaching – an invaluable asset when applying for fellowships, or engaging in teaching-related continuous professional development (CPD). What is TPI?The Teaching Perspectives Inventory (TPI) is an evidence-based reflective questionnaire designed to help educators uncover their underlying beliefs, values, and actions related to their teaching practice. Developed in the 1990s by Pratt and Collins, the TPI emerged from extensive research into how educators conceptualize teaching and learning, providing a framework to better understand the diversity of teaching approaches. The TPI has now been taken by over 500,000 educators across five continents and has been supported by research in diverse socio-cultural contexts. By understanding your own teaching perspective, as well as those of your colleagues, you can foster greater self-awareness, deepen reflective practice, and adapt teaching strategies to better meet the diverse needs of learners. Presented By:
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Active Learning in Action: Engaging Students Through Active Learning
Thursday, September 4th, 2025, 14:00 - 15:00 Mode: In-person, Seminar Room, Melbourn Building DescriptionJoin Sinead Huskisson, Lecturer in the Department of Management & Enterprise and part of the TLU team to explore how active learning can enhance student engagement in Higher Education. In this interactive session — colleagues, became the students! We used active learning techniques to understand elements of curriculum design. This was timely for anyone redesigning modules and programmes as part of Faculty Enhancement Review. In addition, the techniques used are transferable so that you can apply them to promoting student engagement in your own lectures. Sinead was joined by Gosia Borowska, Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Biological Sciences. Gosia gave some examples of how she has adopted active learning techniques in her teaching context. Presented By:
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Rethinking Assessment: Overassessment & Clarifying AI Expectations
Friday, September 5th, 2025, 10:00 - 12:00 Mode: Hybrid – Online and In-person (Seminar Room, Melbourn Building) DescriptionSession 1: 10:00 – 11:00 · Overassessment Session 2: 11:00 – 12:00 · Gen AI & Assessment — How to Communicate Clearly with Students The MTU working group on generative artificial intelligence has prepared a Canvas resource with detailed instructions around this scale as well as a series of prewritten assessment briefs for some of the more common assessment types in academia. This session provided comprehensive information and guidance around the benefits of adopting this scale for your students and gave clear examples of how to modify and tailor these briefs for your specific discipline. Finally, this session gave a general overview of some of the major developments in the field of generative artificial intelligence and how it relates to education today. *Chaired by Jim O’Mahony (TLU) and Darragh Coakley (TEL) Presented By:
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