Enhancing Student Engagement and Belonging through Collaborative Partnership is a Higher Education Authority report prepared by a UCD research team led by Professor Barbara Dooley. The resource provides an evidence-informed framework for strengthening student belonging across Irish higher education institutions. Drawing on staff interviews, Healthy Campus survey responses, and analysis of Healthy Campus and NStEP case studies, it identifies practical approaches to improving student engagement, wellbeing and inclusion.
The report frames belonging as a multidimensional and co-constructed experience shaped by social, academic, personal and environmental factors. It highlights that student belonging is affected not only by relationships and participation, but also by structural issues such as housing, commuting, financial pressure, campus spaces, timetable design and access to supports.
The resource is particularly useful for staff and student partners working on Healthy Campus, student success, student engagement, access, inclusion, mental health promotion, orientation, peer support, student partnership and campus development initiatives.
This OER explores the use of Inspiration Mind Mapping software to support student learning through demonstrations and training sessions with Applied Social Care and LSAD students.
This Pressbook features an interactive tool that helps you plan and structure your essay step by step. The book provides a clear starting point to reduce stress, prevent overwhelm, and support different learning preferences through examples, , quick guides, and PowerPoint videos with voiceover. This resource is a living document.
Purpose of the MTU Student Guidelines
Supports Academic Integrity Principles and MTU’s Academic Integrity Policy by:
1. Explaining what academic integrity is.
2. Helping students avoid bad decisions during assessments.
3. Outlines and signposts supports available across MTU
This guideline document seeks to support the implementation of MTU policies and procedures which underpin Academic Integrity and help to address the implications of Generative Artificial Intelligence on assessment practices.
Short-form video interviews with MTU Business Information Systems graduates showcasing diverse career paths, designed to support professional identity development. These TikTok-style exemplars help students connect personal values with authentic career journeys, achieving 62,539+ views across social media platforms.
A foundational resource covering essential Microsoft 365 applications (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Teams, OneDrive) used throughout academic and professional contexts. Covers basic functionality, collaboration features, and cloud storage management. The primary intended audience is university students.
A self-study resource addressing healthy relationships with digital technology, addressing digital addiction, privacy concerns, work-life balance, and digital identity management. Includes scenarios exploring real wellbeing challenges. Emphasises positive and negative impacts of digital participation. The primary audience is university students.
An interactive resource on effective digital communication across synchronous and asynchronous platforms, netiquette principles, formal vs. informal contexts, and platform-specific communication norms. The primary intended audience is university students.
A self-paced resource teaching video planning (pre-production), recording (production), editing (post-production), and ethical considerations for academic video use. Covers accessibility in video (captions, descriptions), equipment options, and practical workflows suited to diverse contexts. The primary intended audience is students.
A 45-minute comprehensive foundational lesson on digital accessibility principles, inclusive content creation, and available assistive technologies at university level. Collaboration with Educational Assistive Technology Centre, UL, launched for Global Accessibility Awareness Day. The primary intended audience is students.
A foundational, interactive guide to spreadsheet essentials covering data entry, formatting, basic formulas, functions, and chart creation. Features keyboard navigation, accessibility options, and read-aloud functionality for inclusive learning. Designed for beginners and those seeking a refresher. The primary intended audience is students.
Practical self-paced lesson introducing effective prompt writing techniques for students new to genAI tools. Covers prompt structure, iteration, critical evaluation of output, and ethical considerations. Teaches effective genAI communication techniques. Primary intended audience is university students.
This discussion paper explores how student success in higher education is understood, defined and supported in contemporary Irish and international contexts. It brings together international research, national policy and insights from student focus groups conducted in Ireland in 2025 to examine success beyond traditional metrics such as retention, progression and completion.
The paper presents a holistic and relational view of student success, foregrounding belonging, mattering, agency and wellbeing alongside academic and outcomes-based measures. It situates student success as simultaneously student-defined, institution-enabled and outcomes-oriented, and considers the implications of this framing for teaching, learning, policy and system-level practice.
This report presents findings from the HEA Student Success Survey 2025, capturing how students across Ireland define, experience and achieve success in higher education. Based on responses from over 3,400 students across publicly funded higher education institutions, it provides a national, student-centred perspective on success.
The report explores students’ definitions of success, the supports and enablers that help them thrive, and the barriers that can hinder progress. It highlights the relational and holistic nature of student success, encompassing academic achievement alongside well-being, belonging, personal growth and future readiness.
This poster offers educators an overview of designing a syllabus on the Canvas learning management system that supports personalised learning pathways. It highlights (1) a gamified pedagogy grounded in gaming principles and (2) adaptive learning strategies using MasteryPaths.
In 2018, the Glucksman Library at the University of Limerick launched Leganto, a reading list management tool designed to streamline access to academic resources for students. Leganto ensures equitable access to academic content, helping students engage with reliable sources and easing their transition into university-level study.
This toolkit draws on our experiences facilitating a SATLE-funded community-engaged learning project that brought students of the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (UCC) together with people in Cork seeking international protection for a series of three wellbeing and creativity workshops.
The HEA Education for Sustainable Development Spotlight Series 2025: Case Studies Compendium brings together 115 case studies from higher education institutions across Ireland. It showcases how universities and colleges are integrating sustainability and the UN Sustainable Development Goals into teaching, research, curriculum design, assessment practices and community engagement. It offers a comprehensive picture of national ESD activity and provides an accessible resource for educators and policymakers seeking examples of practice-based innovation.
A collection of case studies of evidence-informed interventions implemented by higher education institutions in Ireland to support student retention and progression across the undergraduate lifecycle. These exemplars are presented here as a national evidence base of student progression initiatives.
This OER provides a practical Grammar translation and TBLT toolkit for Mandarin teaching, including 15 lesson plans and 50+ task kits. It helps educators in low-time contexts enhance students’ oral proficiency and plurilingual awareness through ready-to-use, adaptable resources.
In 2024/25 research was undertaken in higher education institutions in Ireland to explore commuter students’ experiences and to consider changes that would improve their experiences and outcomes. It addressed the questions: i. How does being a commuter student impact on student experiences and outcomes in higher education institutions in Ireland? ii. How can higher education institutions improve the experience and outcomes of commuter students? The study combined a semi-structured review and thematic analysis of the websites of the seven higher education institutions (HEIs) in Ireland, with two online ‘town hall focus groups’ (THFGs) involving 33 participants: six staff and 27 students, eight of whom were trained as facilitators and ‘jurors’ to reflect on the evidence heard. The THFGs addressed the key research questions, collecting individual responses via an online form; small groups discussed the topics and then a commuter student facilitator reported key points from their discussion into the main room. Commuter students generally found the experience of commuting to be quite negative, with few advantages. Furthermore, they felt their on-campus experience is not designed to facilitate their engagement. Students find that the organisation and delivery of the academic experience does not accommodate their needs, and they have few opportunities to engage with the wider student experience.
In Ireland around 40% of students remain in the family home – with their parents, partner or children – while participating in higher education (HE) and commute to their higher education institution (HEI). In 2024-25, the Technological Higher Education Association, now the Technological Universities Association (TUA) and the N-TUTORR Student Empowerment project leadership team, worked in partnership with Professor Liz Thomas, University of York. This resulted in an innovative project to explore commuter students’ experiences in Irish HEIs, and to consider changes that would improve the experience and outcomes for commuter students.
This Irish study builds on qualitative research undertaken in the UK (Thomas & Jones 2017). This found that commuter students are poorly defined, but self-identified commuters experienced commuting to be more tiring, stressful, and expensive than they imagined. They also reported lower engagement in some elements of the academic experience, and in the enhancement and social domains. Available secondary evidence finds that commuter student status is often correlated with not only poorer engagement but also lower outcomes, such as continuation, completion, attainment, and progression to graduate employment.
The study reported here addressed the following two questions:
i. How does being a commuter student impact on student experiences and outcomes in technological HEIs in Ireland
ii. How can technological HEIs improve the experience and outcomes of commuter students?
The study combined a semi-structured review and thematic analysis of the websites of the seven technological HEIs in Ireland, with two online ‘town hall focus groups’ (THFGs) involving 33 participants: six staff and 27 students, eight of whom were trained as facilitators and ‘jurors’ to reflect on the evidence heard. The THFGs addressed the key research questions, collecting individual responses via an online form; small groups discussed the topics and then a commuter student facilitator reported key points from their discussion into the main room. Ethical approval was secured from the University of York and participating HEIs.
In 2024/25 research was undertaken in higher education institutions in Ireland to explore commuter students’ experiences and to consider changes that would improve their experiences and outcomes. It addressed the questions: i. How does being a commuter student impact on student experiences and outcomes in higher education institutions in Ireland? ii. How can higher education institutions improve the experience and outcomes of commuter students? The study combined a semi-structured review and thematic analysis of the websites of the seven higher education institutions (HEIs) in Ireland, with two online ‘town hall focus groups’ (THFGs) involving 33 participants: six staff and 27 students, eight of whom were trained as facilitators and ‘jurors’ to reflect on the evidence heard. The THFGs addressed the key research questions, collecting individual responses via an online form; small groups discussed the topics and then a commuter student facilitator reported key points from their discussion into the main room.
In 2024/25 research was undertaken in higher education institutions in Ireland to explore commuter students’ experiences and to consider changes that would improve their experiences and outcomes. It addressed the questions: i. How does being a commuter student impact on student experiences and outcomes in higher education institutions in Ireland? ii. How can higher education institutions improve the experience and outcomes of commuter students? The study combined a semi-structured review and thematic analysis of the websites of the seven higher education institutions (HEIs) in Ireland, with two online ‘town hall focus groups’ (THFGs) involving 33 participants: six staff and 27 students, eight of whom were trained as facilitators and ‘jurors’ to reflect on the evidence heard. The THFGs addressed the key research questions, collecting individual responses via an online form; small groups discussed the topics and then a commuter student facilitator reported key points from their discussion into the main room. Commuter students generally found the experience of commuting to be quite negative, with few advantages. Furthermore, they felt their on-campus experience is not designed to facilitate their engagement. Students find that the organisation and delivery of the academic experience does not accommodate their needs, and they have few opportunities to engage with the wider student experience.
In 2024/25 research was undertaken in higher education institutions in Ireland to explore commuter students’ experiences and to consider changes that would improve their experiences and outcomes. It addressed the questions: i. How does being a commuter student impact on student experiences and outcomes in higher education institutions in Ireland? ii. How can higher education institutions improve the experience and outcomes of commuter students? The study combined a semi-structured review and thematic analysis of the websites of the seven higher education institutions (HEIs) in Ireland, with two online ‘town hall focus groups’ (THFGs) involving 33 participants: six staff and 27 students, eight of whom were trained as facilitators and ‘jurors’ to reflect on the evidence heard. The THFGs addressed the key research questions, collecting individual responses via an online form; small groups discussed the topics and then a commuter student facilitator reported key points from their discussion into the main room.
The resource is a template for surveying students about their timetabling experiences. The survey was deployed in MTU, but the template is free to be copied and adapted as needed.
This toolkit is designed to provide educators in Higher Education with practical, adaptable tools and strategies for fostering sustainable wellbeing in their teaching through curriculum, assessment and pedagogy.
The report – Generative AI in Higher Education Teaching and Learning: Sectoral Perspectives – was commissioned as part of the Higher Education Authority’s evidence-led approach to policy development.
The report captures the views of staff, students, and leaders across the Irish higher education system on the opportunities and challenges posed by artificial intelligence.
It brings together insights from ten thematic focus groups and a leadership summit, involving over 80 participants from across Ireland’s higher education institutions, alongside student representatives and sectoral stakeholders.
Generative AI Guidance Microsite provides resources and guidance to staff and students on the appropriate use of Generative AI in teaching and learning at MIC.
This report presents the findings and recommendations of the 2025 Expert Group review of the Irish National Framework for Student Success in Higher Education. Commissioned by the HEA, it explores how the framework and accompanying toolkit have been engaged with across the sector and outlines a renewed vision for student success that is inclusive, strategic, and evidence-informed.
This GenAI Learning Hub was developed with students, for students, to support the responsible and effective use of generative AI. Topics are divided across three main sections to aid understanding of GenAI before use, during use, and in relation to assessment. While aimed at students, this resource will be useful to anyone using GenAI.
This paper describes the foundational principles and design details of the student-staff partnership initiative launched by the Co-creating Inclusive and Equitable Teaching & Learning project, led by Dr. Anna Santucci and situated within the Centre for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL) at University College Cork (UCC).
Cognitive Bias Lab is an interactive platform designed to help learners explore and practice recognizing cognitive biases. Through simulations, quizzes, and role-play scenarios, it supports critical thinking, decision-making skills, and classroom discussions in psychology, education, and media literacy.
This e-book reports on a SATLE-funded project to explore the use of immersive technologies in Higher Education. It includes case studies, practical guidance and a brief review of the literature on immersive learning from the project team. It is intended for those considering using VR in their teaching, and for those who support learning.
This playlist showcases real-world insights from BIS graduates, students, and employers, highlighting career paths, work placement experiences, and industry connections. Designed for prospective and current students, it offers an authentic look at how MTU’s BIS programme supports career development and professional growth.
This resource captures key insights from a full-day workshop held on 8 May 2025, hosted by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and led by internationally recognised expert Dr Alison Cook-Sather. The event focused on the transformative potential of authentic student-staff partnerships as a strategic approach to advancing student engagement, success, and institutional effectiveness.
Attended by academic staff, institutional leaders, student success professionals, and sector partners from across Ireland, the workshop featured a combination of keynote presentations, lightning talks, and interactive sessions. Through real-world examples and hands-on activities, participants explored how to build meaningful, inclusive, and sustainable collaboration between students and staff.
For the full event schedule and a complete list of lightning talk contributors to this slide deck, visit the workshop schedule.
This report critically examines how the demographic and socio-economic composition of the current and near-future post-compulsory student community intersect with technological, pedagogical, and governance challenges in higher education.
Author
Peter Bryant is a Professor of Business Education and Associate Dean (Education) at the University of Sydney Business School, Australia. He is an award-winning academic with international expertise in designing and delivering successful strategic educational change in both business and social sciences institutions in Australia and the UK. He has thirty years of teaching and research experience in both the UK and Australia at both vocational and higher education levels, in the areas of higher education strategy, educational innovation, online learning and creative industries management.
Commissioned by the N-TUTORR National Digital Leadership Network.
Two modules are available on this page one for educators and one for mentors to learn how to engage in mentoring sessions with students. The page also has access to the Community Mentoring Handbook (for mentors), Mentee Toolkit (for second-level students taking part in sessions) and the Adult Ed Handbook(for adult learners taking part in sessions).
This document provides a summary of the book “MÉTODO DE LOS RELOJES. GRAMÁTICA DESCRIPTIVA DEL ESPAÑOL” authored by Manuel Perez Saiz, which serves as the foundation for the UCC Spanish grammar course.
This Toolkit was created by students at University College Dublin, for students, to break down sustainability in a way that’s simple and easy to understand. Climate change is something that affects all of us—no matter what you’re studying, where you’re from, or what you do. It’s here, and it’s impacting our world—but many of us aren’t sure what we can do about it.
The purpose of this toolkit is a starting point for what students need to learn about living more sustainably on and off campus. We hope it’ll inspire students to take small steps that make a big impact, and they can do it all at their own pace. You can access the Moodle page to view the Toolkit. There are also Zip files of the SCORM packages used to create the Toolkit (Part 1 and Part 2) that can be downloaded and imported into a Virtual Learning Environment.
• Part 1: Climate Change → Watch short Youtube videos followed by a little quiz to brush up on your sustainability knowledge.
• Part 2: What Can You Do? → Find tips and tricks to incorporate sustainability into your day-to-day life, this is a resource tool to help you get started!
This report discusses the views of final year students and graduates who attended a TCD led, multi-institutional one-day workshop on what student success means to them, and what they identified as the facilitators of and barriers to achieving that success. The findings were based on the analysis of four types of inputs for the seminar: written submissions by students on the theme prior to the seminar, student talks, a panel discussion and workshop discussions on the day of the seminar. In order to have a framework to discuss the concept at the seminar, a thematic analysis was performed on the written submissions which students submitted prior to the seminar. Three broad categories of success were identified: academic, personal and social. While initially academic success features predominantly, as students progress through their studies, they develop a more holistic perspective where personal and social success become increasingly important to them. Student success is a broad concept. It is different for and personal to each student and changes with the student’s journey from initial entry to college through to graduation.
Conference posting using the game of snakes and ladders as a metaphor for the students as partners approach to research as presented the 2023 ISSOTL (International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning) conference.
Y. Mormul, J. Przybyszewski, A. Nakoud and P. Cuffe, “Reliance on Artificial Intelligence Tools May Displace Research Skills Acquisition Within Engineering Doctoral Programmes: Examples and Implications”, presented at IEEE International Conference on IT in Higher Education and Training, Paris, France, November 2024
This online tutorial introduces the fundamentals of Generative AI and LLMs, explaining their functionality, capabilities, and limitations. It explores key applications, ethical considerations, and practical examples, providing learners with a foundational understanding of how these technologies impact education and creativity.
Dr Ruth Hally received SATLE funding in 2023 to Document and Develop Community-engaged Learning (CEL) in the curriculum. She worked with four lecturers across UCC’s four Colleges to support them to embed CEL in existing modules. This video highlights work done with the UCC School of Applied Psychology.
Publication created by our 2024 summer interns in DkIT.
Stepping out in Dundalk! This book will be a useful resource for our cohort international students someone useful tips on life on and off campus.
This comprehensive, interactive and user-friendly online dashboard maps UCD infrastructure, activities and initiatives that have a sustainability remit, to raise awareness and promote sustainable practices on campus.
Digital Skills for Success in the Workplace is a five-unit, self-paced online course which equips learners with key digital literacy skills that are essential to study and work in rapidly evolving online environments.
Publication created by our 2024 summer interns in DkIT.
Giving power back to class reps! This book will be a useful resource for all our student reps to use as a guide and for training purposes also.
This self-directed resource has been designed to help students navigate and understand the basics of GenAI. Exploring the resource at their own pace will give students an opportunity to focus on understanding some fundamental GenAI concepts, while also considering the pros and cons of using GenAI in their studies.
Gerry Duffy, internationally renowned runner, writer, keynote speaker, working with global brands on high performance, leadership, strategy, and people performance, works through a session on ‘How to achieve what you want – and why you should’ as part of the FYMMO programme in IADT.
This project website enables students to champion the core values of academic integrity among their peers. These values comprise honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility and courage, values to be cultivated in association with an ethos of compassion and concern.
We are delighted to welcome you to ‘You can UDL it!’ This collection brings together case studies from educators across DkIT, who have successfully implemented Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in their own practice. UDL provides a framework for making learning, teaching and assessment more inclusive, and helps to support all our learners.
This series of videos presents an abstract from the Croí process where individuals are guided to define their personal (or core) and professional values, and to identify actions they can take that will help them to develop a career that better aligns their personal and professional values and lives.
DoubleSpace is a student-run online undergraduate journal for English literature that showcases the academic excellence of students enrolled on undergraduate English modules in UCC.
This project website aims to support students and teaching staff in UCD College of Arts and Humanities in navigating teaching, learning and assessment in the context of new developments in generative AI (e.g. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google Gemini).
Curricular approaches to well-being are important and impactful, as universal supports for all students. This OER is a padlet of resources and talks from the April 2024 jointly hosted UCC and MTU seminar on this critical area for teaching and learning enhancement in Irish higher education.
This report has been prepared for circulation across the Green-Campus Network, Higher Education Authority and the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. It can also act as a resource for individuals who are interested in ESD and sustainability.
This collection of resources explain how Mahara can be use in practical terms as an e-portfolio. The resources are a collection of staff and student facing guides.
Future proof your curriculum by embedding sustainability into your teaching practice or further integrating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into your curriculum. The SDG digital toolkit project will give you concise actionable resources to achieve this result while providing insights into the underpinning theories.
This publication collects the posters shared at the 2023 Learning and Teaching Showcase at University College Cork, 5 December 2023. The posters are grouped into five themes: student engagement, inclusive teaching, academic integrity, digital education and education for sustainable development.
This compendium captures examples of internationalisation of the home curriculum in TUS. It includes cases of internationalised modules; teaching and assessment practices that promote inclusive learning; collaborative learning and teaching projects involving international partners; and co-curricular intercultural competence initiatives.
The Toolkit includes an introduction to generative AI and lexicon of terms, guidelines for ethical use, recommended adjustments to common modes of assessment to mitigate against the potential risk of unethical use, and discipline-specific case studies of good practice that share innovative forms of learning, teaching and/or assessment.
This publication will be a helpful, collaborative resource to all teaching staff at and beyond TUS. It may also generate further ideas for improving practice and enhancing student engagement. This first compendium has led to further publications where ‘pedagogical communities of practice’ continue to share our knowledge.
The Academic Integrity, Academic Misconduct, and Resources pages of the UCC Skills Centre website contain guidance for students on these topics, including a series of short videos, “The Minute Methods: Academic Integrity Skills” that cover a range of topics from the principles of academic integrity to the pitfalls of essay mills.
The 10-dot Matrix is a quick and easy way to assess how well employability is embedded in classroom activities or module assessments. The video explains how to use 10 key criteria (4 graduate attribute criteria and 6 employability criteria), to quantitatively or qualitatively measure employability in your module or programme.
This workbook takes the student on a conceptual journey aiding their understanding of what is meant by the quantitative-qualitative research process in contemporary legal empirical research. Although, of interest to social science students, the particular worked examples relate to how to do research on law, legal policy and review.
This lecture addresses core issues in choosing a research topic for undergraduate and first time researchers to consider. Often final year undergraduate students find this task a difficult one. Step by step the the lecture connects the student to core concepts, pressure points and key readings to foster their idea and focus their decision.
The barriers to peace in terrorist societies can seem senseless to outside observers, and students of psychology and social sciences aim to gain knowledge to understand why. We present a role play exercise in which students take the perspective of terrorists or landowners based on the N. Ireland conflict, to promote their understanding.
Your Brainpower is a free, online, self-paced course, focusing on harnessing the power and potential of adolescent [age 10 – 24 years] brain and behaviour for enhanced learning, wellbeing, and student success in higher education.
Throughout this workbook students are asked to engage with the PCs Graduate Attribute & Mindsets Framework via a suite of activities or exercises. This engagement will provide students with the language of skills and attributes best suited to job application and success.
Via the lens of graduate attribute development this toolkit highlights best examples of employability activities for higher education curriculum. Designed to enhance employability skills development as class activities and module assessments, namely via the Employability Superfoods, lecturers can enhance students’ employability learning with ease.
This resource is a digital toolkit to support students in health and social care professions who are learning clinical and professional competencies through technology (including telepractice and simulation). The toolkit includes interactive resources to support learning and enhance technology-enabled practice education.
This OER investigates the role of digital technology in the acquisition of practical skills in health sciences. While it is commonly accepted that theoretical knowledge can be imparted using technology, how best to use technology to support practical skill acquisition is a growing area which presents many opportunities.
Infographic promoting Moodle’s analytics graphs, which come packaged in a single block and offer a host of statistics and figures on various aspects of students’ Moodle usage
Infographic promoting Moodle’s activity completion feature, which allows the lecturer to assign completion criteria to specific activities and resources within Moodle
Infographic providing information on Moodle’s attendance feature, which allows lecturers to take attendance in Moodle and for individual students to see their own attendance record
Show your students maths at work outside the classroom in Maths Week
This October, show your students how maths is relevant to their everyday lives with I’m a Mathematician!
Connect your students with people working in a diverse range of careers which use maths in this student-led enrichment activity.
Explore more: https://imamathematician.ie
This seminar presented an overview of current policy, research and practice relating to student wellbeing in higher education and how the curriculum can be leveraged to enhance wellbeing. It showcased a range of innovative curricular wellbeing initiatives in UCC and MTU.
