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This report aims to provide a high-level overview of the impact of the 32 Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund projects funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning up to December 2018 and to share lessons learned about achieving, sustaining, capturing and communicating impact in higher education.
The Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund projects 2014-18 represented an investment of circa €4.74m over five years in teaching and learning in Irish higher education. The evidence presented in this report indicates that this investment resulted in enhanced learning experiences, advances in underpinning systems and structures and a culture of enhancement which has developed significantly in the years since 2014. In addition, Ireland’s international reputation as a leader in the area of teaching and learning was reinforced.
This National Forum Insight examines the concept of ‘Agile Curriculum’, emerging in tandem with changing modes of engagement with higher education.
The goal of stimulating and promoting the creative capacity of both students and staff in higher education is at the core of this project. This initiative aims to foster a culture of creativity in higher education, building the capacity of staff so that they have greater awareness about the nature of creativity, how it applies in their particular discipline, and how they can actively cultivate it in their students.
The challenges stemming from our rapidly-changing, and increasingly unscripted world, demand that higher education institutions reflect upon the competencies which students will require in order to thrive in this context. Coupled with traditional discipline-specific knowledge, there is a growing demand for graduates to develop and demonstrate a variety of transversal competencies, among which is creativity; that is, the ability to generate ideas and outputs which are perceived as both novel and valuable within a given context. As such, educators have an important role to play in creating a culture which fosters creativity, including modelling creative practices and behaviours, establishing conditions which promote creativity, and developing students’ belief in their own creative potential. Indeed, this project is based on the principle that everyone has creative potential which can be actively fostered.
Tutors is an professional and intuitive platform for the creation of compelling educational content. It is open source, well documented and now used by upwards of 160 modules at Waterford Institute of Technology. The platform employs the latest thinking in the production of media-rich web content, with a focus on delivering a simple, easy to navigate, elegant and compelling student experience. A central goal of Tutors is to fostering the sense on an online community of learners. These interactions are promoted by a set of non-intrusive measurements (we call TutorsTime) which help students and educators understand the use of the student’s time on a module.
A book chapter was also published as part of the initiative, which can be found here https://reader.tutors.dev/#/talk/wit-hdip-comp-sci-showcase.netlify.app/unit-3/talk-1-course-philosophy/course-philosophy.pdf
This new interdisciplinary 10 ECTS module for PhD students responds to an identified need for careers and employability support and was developed with industry partners. It supports PhD students with career planning, critical reflection and decision-making, enabling them to establish networks and build readiness for future careers in academia and/or industry. The module is in three streams (Careers, Skills and Work-based Learning) and features many innovative aspects:
– a blended learning design and 5 ECTS module option to give a flexible learning experience
– 5 interactive online sessions which build student employability skills
– 4 face-to-face sessions to enhance collaboration and engagement
– An online Skills Audit which helps students to critically reflect on, develop and articulate the skillset developed during their PhD and an Interview Practice Exercise to apply their interview skills to a role-play scenario
– a work-based learning experience that creates real value for industry partners and offers students valuable learning experiences that are not readily available elsewhere
A range of supporting activities enhance the student experience by encouraging shared and self-directed learning: online journaling and discussion boards; podcasts; videos; skills webinars and industry events. A new Industry Mentoring Programme (IMPART) was designed to complement the module.
