The following are details of the sessions held together with links to the relevant resources:
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Monday, 10th January 2022 |
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09:30-15:30 |
Identifying Students with Dyscalculia Presented By:
Seminar Description This one-day course was designed for education professionals who work closely with those who have dyscalculia either in a teaching or supporting role or those who wish to develop their own knowledge and understanding of the area. The one-day course had a particular focus on identifying dyscalculia in learners in a post 16 setting. By the end of the one-day course, participants got an understanding of:
Organised By:
Funded By:
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Tuesday, 11th January 2022 |
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10:00-11:30 |
Learning Communities 2022: Update on established and emerging LCs in MTU Facilitated By:
Seminar Description Learning communities provide a space and a structure for people to align around a shared goal. Effective communities are both aspirational and practical. They connect people, organisations, and systems that are eager to learn and work across boundaries, all the while holding members accountable to a common agenda, metrics, and outcomes. These communities enable participants to share results and learn from each other, thereby improving their ability to achieve rapid yet significant progress. Over the last three years, the TLU have initiated and supported over 30 learning communities across MTU. This seminar provided a short update from each of our learning communities which highlighted their successes and challenges. The session was also useful to those wishing to learn more about the benefits of initiating or joining learning communities in MTU. |
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13:30-16:30 |
Plotting your UDL Journey: getting started and moving forward A Seminar Funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Presented by
Seminar Description In this online seminar, we were joined by Prof Jo Rushworth, National Teaching Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry in the School of Allied Health Sciences, De Montfort University, and by Dr Amanda Bastoni, Educational Research Scientist at CAST. Prof Jo Rushworth drew on her experience as a UDL champion for her School as she outlined a range of options and starting points for colleagues who are starting out on their Universal Design journey. This work focussed on providing students with flexible learning resources, flexible ways to engage with their learning and flexible ways to demonstrate knowledge and skills, that impacted both learning and teaching and institutional policy. In an interactive presentation, Jo told us about how the UDL guidelines were brought to life and implemented across DMU and led us in a discussion of early steps toward achieving UDL compliance in teaching practice and of options for continuing development and enhancement. Jo’s work on co-creation with students was among the highlights from her case study. Expanding on some key themes from Jo’s presentation, Dr Amanda Bastoni’s workshop introduced the concept of co-design and (using the UDL framework) highlighted how educators can increase creativity, collaboration, and learning in their classroom by designing learning with their students. In the workshop, we covered the why and how of co-design, including stories from the field, resources, and strategies educators can use immediately - in any learning environment. Those who participated in this seminar learned how to:
Organised by:
View Part 1: UDL-ifying a university and its people View Part 2: Universal Design for Learning Co-Designing Your Classroom Link to Prof Rushworth's padlet |
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Wednesday, 12th January 2022 |
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10:00-11:00 |
Developing an Ethos of Authentic Assessment A Seminar Funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Presented By:
Seminar Description Authentic assessment is a means of providing assessment opportunities which are like tasks in the ‘real world’. Students are asked to thoughtfully apply their acquired skills to a new situation or environment. Assessments are considered authentic if they are realistic, require judgement and innovation and assess students’ ability to effectively use their knowledge or skills to complete a task. This seminar presented the experiences from the Marketing discipline at Munster Technological University in developing a comprehensive approach to the use of authentic assessment as a means of fostering student engagement and developing collaboration with businesses. Adopting the perspective of a "work in progress" the presentation challenged participants around the ongoing reliance on terminal examination and similar mechanisms, while also reflecting the realities of delivering complicated assessment mechanisms with large-sized student groups. Those who participated in this seminar:
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| 11:30-13:00 |
Working on Work Placement Facilitated by:
Seminar Description Established in June 2020, those involved in organising and facilitating work placement in MTU Cork set about forming a learning community to collectively work towards improving the work placement experience for all key stakeholders, i.e., students, staff, employers and the institute. This learning community has gone from strength to strength and is now university wide with in excess of 90 members, including those from the MTU Kerry campus. They have put together a steering group as follows to represent various placement programmes across the college.
This session was effectively a meeting of the MTU Work Placement Learning Community, but those involved in, or interested in becoming involved in, work placement were also encouraged to come along to gain insights into the work of this highly successful learning community. |
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Thursday, 13th January 2022 |
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09:00-12:30 |
Active Learning to Engage Students and Enhance Learning A Seminar Funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Presented By:
Guest Speaker
Seminar Description This seminar was split into three with the first part of the seminar exploring “10 Ideas on how to Enhance Interaction and Student Engagement in your Teaching”. It selected examples that highlight the importance of student engagement in learning. Active learning strategies, suitable to a range of different learning environments, online, blended, and face-to-face were explored, with consideration given to different group sizes. These 10 ideas and practical tips were provided alongside a collaborative discussion amongst attendees, where best practice were shared. Munster Technological University are active members of the Active Learning Network (ALN) which is a group of people from around the world (over 35 institutions represented) who share an interest in active approaches to learning. In the second part of the seminar, participants were introduced to the work of the ALN and shown how to connect with the Network. In the third and final part of the seminar, participants were introduced to the “Be ACTIVE” Framework, a new and exploratory framework focusing on Active Learning. Participants had an opportunity to actively engage in the development of a plan to implement active learning in their individual context using this framework. The framework empowered participants to plan strategies that work for them in their context to get the most out of students and develop a structured overall approach to active learning. Those who participated in this seminar:
View Part 1: 10 Ideas on how to Enhance Interaction and Student Engagement in your Teaching View Part 2: Introduction to the Active Learning Network View Part 3: The 'Be ACTIVE' Framework |
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15:00-16:00 |
Managing Intellectual Property (IP) and the National IP Protocol Presented By
Seminar Description Intellectual Property, also known as IP, is any intangible asset consisting of knowledge and ideas. Like any form of physical property, IP is owned, and it can be bought and sold. It can also be rented out through a process of licensing that can result in significant commercial and financial benefits for individuals, research groups and the organisations employing them. MTU and the research it generates is obliged to meet the requirements of the National IP Protocol (Ireland's framework for research commercialisation) as well as the MTU IP Policy. This talk summarised the key requirements of these policies as well as the importance of keeping a good lab notebook. |
