Centre for Teaching and Learning
Annual Report 2014 / 2015
CTL Annual Report 2014 / 2015
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Teaching and Learning: the two threads that WEAVE together to form the FABRIC of The University. The INTEGRITY of UL is maintained by the excellence in the INTERWEAVING of these FIBRES.
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CTL Annual Report 2014 / 2015
Contents WELCOME MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN 2 WHO WE ARE
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HIGHLIGHTS 6 CTL STAFF 8 STUDENT ENGAGEMENT & SUCCESS 10 LEARNER SUPPORT CENTRES 16 RECOGNITION OF TEACHING EXCELLENCE 24 TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED-LEARNING 26 CPD ACTIVITIES 28 NATIONAL FORUM FOR THE ENHANCEMENT OF TEACHING AND LEARNING 30 RESEARCH AND SCHOLARSHIP 32 CLOSING COMMENTS FROM THE ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT, ACADEMIC
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Message from the Dean d tre n e C In nt e no v d ation Stu
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This past academic year has been another very dynamic one for the Centre for Teaching and Learning, and has been a hive of activity since the publication of UL’s Teaching, Learning and Assessment Strategy, Engaged Learning, in September 2014. It continued in this way right up to the latest National Forum funding applications for digital capacity-building in September 2015. This annual report shares some of the highlights of our year and the very important on-going work that CTL staff have been engaged in around CPD, technology enhanced-learning, and student engagement, as well as the excellent supports 2
CTL Annual Report 2014 / 2015
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provided by our learner centres (ICT, Maths, Peer Support, Science, and Writing). At the end of my second year as Dean of Teaching and Learning, I continue to be struck by the excellent work that goes on through the advice, support, research and innovation that is provided from within a relatively small unit of the University. This is down to the commitment and dedication of the CTL team, for which I thank them most sincerely on your behalf and on my own. This is the first of what we hope will become a series of short annual reports to share the work of the Centre with
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Dr Fiona Farr Dean, Teaching and Learning
ntors e M tions Ref h c r a e lective Practice Collaboration Res the campus community. We endeavour to provide staff with support for teaching and learning, and, in turn, rely on your support for the work that we do. I take this opportunity to thank all the UL teachers who have given their time to work with us over the past year as we supported an unprecedented number of participants on the Specialist Diploma in Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship. The sharing of your insights and expertise with colleagues has impacted individuals and has enhanced the quality of teaching through which they, consequently, engage their students. The commitment to teaching and learning at UL is in a very healthy state. ‘This report aims to be easily
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readable and to share snapshots with you in the following pages. In so doing, we continue to invite further discussion and collaboration with you. We are now very easy to locate in the Graduate Attributes’ Hub in the Millstream Courtyard and welcome on-going and new dialogues around the implementation of our strategic commitments to teaching and learning.
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Who We Are Teaching and Learning: the two threads that WEAVE together to form the FABRIC of The University.
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CTL Annual Report 2014 / 2015
Maura Murphy Manager Teaching and Learning
The Centre for Teaching and Learning exists to encourage and facilitate excellence in teaching and learning within and beyond the University of Limerick.
innovations, the Centre works to provide support, to advise, to recognise and to facilitate all those involved in teaching and learning at UL.
Its role is to encourage scholarship and research in teaching and learning, to help ensure that effective teaching is valued, supported and developed, and to encourage innovation in teaching and learning activities. Enhancing the learning and development experience for both teachers and students is pivotal to the role of the Centre.
The Centre for Teaching and Learning continues to offer an exceptional and extensive range of programmes, workshops and professional development opportunities, which attract considerable engagement and participation by the UL community.
Dedicated to heightening the profile and value of teaching activities, collaboratively engaging in evidence-based research and enabling key teaching
As in previous years, the last academic year has been both extremely busy and productive for CTL and there continues to be significant demands for CTL support and services.
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MATHEMATICS LEARNER CENTRE
Highlights
This year the MLC had the highest number of attendances at semester 2 support tutorials (872) since 2011/2012. Many of the attendances this year were by students who used the service every week.
TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED-LEARNING EdTech2015, the largest annual national event around technology enhancedlearning was hosted by UL, bringing over 120 presentations.
PEER SUPPORT LEARNING CENTRE Analysis of all PSLG programmes offered by the PSLC showed that those who engaged with PSLG performed significantly better (about 25% higher average QPV) than those who did not.
CPD INITIATIVES ICT LEARNING CENTRE Student engagement and teaching excellence continue to be key themes across both the Conversations in the Consortium and Teaching in Higher Education series, in addition to the high level of participation in the UL peer observation network.
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577 individual students availed of our learning support during the year, with data showing a 26% higher progression rate for those students who engage with our services.
AICUR 2015 What set this conference apart from many other academic conferences was that the primary content was delivered by undergraduate student presenters from across all the disciplines.
REGIONAL WRITING CENTRE Development of Writing Across the Curriculum which aims to engage faculty to integrate writing into their curricula in innovative ways in order to develop articulate graduates.
TEACHING EXCELLENCE AWARDS The Shannon Consortium Regional Teaching Excellence award was awarded to Dr Diarmaid Lane. The UL Teaching Excellence Awards were awarded to Dr Elaine Riordan (Small Group) and Dr Elaine Doyle (Large Group).
NEW CERTIFICATE IN TEACHING, LEARNING AND SCHOLARSHIP This new award was developed for, and delivered to, the instructors in the Garda College, Templemore, with the first cohort graduating in August 2015.
SCIENCE LEARNER CENTRE A study showed that first year chemistry students who participate in the SLC Drop-in service are less likely to fail and have around 7% higher average grades than nonparticipants.
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CTL Staff
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Dr Fiona Farr
DEAN, TEACHING AND LEARNING Dr Fiona Farr’s background is English language teacher education, which she has been involved in at undergraduate and postgraduate levels for more than 15 years. She is a member of the Centre for Applied Language Studies (CALS), and the Inter-Varietal Applied Corpus Studies (IVACS) Research Group. Her own 2011 book, The Discourse of Teaching Practice Feedback: An investigation of spoken and written modes (Routledge), is an applied corpus-based examination of spoken language as it is used in 3rd level language teacher education contexts.
Maura Murphy MANAGER
Maura Murphy works closely with faculty members, heads of departments and other key groups, to champion and support excellence, innovation and enhancements in teaching and learning activities within UL and throughout the sector. She is a qualified MBTI and Firo-B Practitioner and regularly presents learning styles, active learning and critical thinking workshops to students across the Shannon Consortium. She is Course Director for the Specialist Diploma in Teaching, Learning and Scholarship and manages UL’S First Seven Weeks Programme. She is co-author of ‘How to be a Student’ and The Ultimate Study Skills Handbook, both published by the Open University Press.
Dr Mary Fitzpatrick
REGIONAL TEACHING AND LEARNING ADVOCATE Dr Mary Fitzpatrick (SFSEDA, MCIPD) works closely with faculty in promoting teaching excellence through continuous professional development initiatives such as reflective practice, feedback and evaluation, peer observation and the pursuit of teaching excellence awards. She is Course Director of the Certificate in Teaching, Learning and Scholarship and leads three modules on the programme. She is an elected member of both Educational Developers in Ireland Network (EDIN) and Staff and Educational Developers Association (SEDA) Executive Committees. Her research interests lie within learning and development, with a particular focus on the efficacy of professional development activities, the student experience in teaching and learning, and the role of learning and development at work. She has extensive HRD consultancy experience within both the private and public sector.
Dr Angélica Rísquez
TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED-LEARNING ADVOCATE Dr Angélica Rísquez (FSEDA) has over thirteen years experience in educational development and a PhD in Educational Technology. She is the Course Director for the Specialist Diploma in Teaching, Learning and Scholarship, and leads two modules on it. Angelica represents CTL on the newly formed Technology Enhanced-learning Unit (TELU). She is Vice-Chair of the Educational Developers Network in Ireland (EDIN), and a member of the steering committee of the Irish Learning Technology Association (ILTA) and SEDA. Angelica has published extensively in high impact journals and other relevant publications. Her research interests include virtual learning environments, e-plagiarism prevention, and open educational resources.
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Karen McGrath
SENIOR ADMINISTRATOR, CTL Karen is a CEDR accredited mediator having spent 5 years as Manager of Dispute Resolution Services for CEDR in the UK. Karen returned to Ireland in 2004 and joined UL where she has worked in supporting roles in both the Marketing and Procurement Sections before joining CTL in 2009. Two of Karens key areas of responsibility include coordinating the First Seven Weeks programme and managing the Student Evaluation of Teaching surveys (SETs).
Victoria Kelly
SENIOR ADMINISTRATOR, CTL Vicky has over 15 years’ experience working in many departments within the University of Limerick. She has also worked in both the UK and Australia for a period of time in office managerial roles. Her love of UL, however, always brought her back to the University of Limerick. Vicky is currently a Senior Administrator in the Centre for Teaching and Learning. Her role is to provide a high quality level of administrative support to both the Dean and Manager of CTL. She also assists and manages many events such as conferences, workshops and seminars that take place in the Centre.
Dr Íde O’Sullivan
REGIONAL WRITING CENTRE EDUCATION DEVELOPER -CONSULTANT IN WRITING AND WRITING PEDAGOGY Íde is involved in the design, delivery and evaluation of writing-support interventions, including the development of a Writing Across the Curriculum programme at UL, grounding writing centre initiatives in good practice and sound theory. Íde also works with faculty on the development of their professional writing for publication. Íde is a founding member and co-chair of the Irish Network for the Enhancement of Writing (INEW), a network of educators who wish to actively enhance their own writing and to help learners to do likewise.
Lawrence Cleary
RESEARCH OFFICER, REGIONAL WRITING CENTRE Lawrence assists staff and students with their efforts to become better writers. Alongside his colleague, Íde O’Sullivan, Lawrence designs, facilitates, and evaluates writing support initiatives in UL and throughout the Shannon region. Lawrence also works to develop tutors and tutor training and to advance faculty development of student writing and research.
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Student Engagement & Success
1: The First Seven Weeks 2: All-Ireland Conference of Undergraduate Research 3: UL’s Student Academic Advisor System 4: On-line resource to help with first year transition 5: The Threshold Concepts Project
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FIRST SEVEN WEEKS PROGRAMME The First Seven Weeks is an initiative at the University of Limerick designed to provide strong, enhanced, and targeted support to students during the very early weeks of their time as UL students. Recognising that successful early adjustment is linked to subsequent success, we provide a range of information, target our resources, and interact with our new students, in ways that make them know we care about them and are interested in their successful adjustment. Each of the first seven weeks has its own theme designed to focus students’ attention on the various issues that we know are important for settling in and thriving as a higher education student.
Week 1 Welcome, setting in & find your way around Week 2 Study skilly & time management Week 3 Meet your advisor Week 4 Health & wellbeing Week 5 Learner support centres Week 6 Civic engagement & volunteering awareness Week 7 Critical thinking & longer term planning
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All-Ireland Conference of Undergraduate Research (AICUR) a shared DESIRE to PARTICIPATE in, and share their research PASSIONS, using the AICUR as their platform
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The second AICUR (All-Ireland Conference of Undergraduate Research) was held in the University of Limerick on Thursday, 9th April, in the Kemmy Business School. It was a venture of collaboration between the Faculties, Students and the Centre for Teaching and Learning, under the leadership of the Dean of Teaching and Learning, Dr Fiona Farr.
What set it apart from many other academic conferences was that the primary content was delivered by undergraduate student presenters from across all the disciplines. On the day, AICUR attendees were presented with insights into a wide variety of topics: from the effects of oral contraceptive use on psychological and physiological health, to fitness profiling of female GAA players - and many more in between! What transpired on the day was the emergence of a community of hitherto unconnected researchers, brought together by a shared desire to participate in, and share their research passions, using the AICUR as their platform. This included presenters from NUIG, TCD, LIT and other interested institutions. These AICUR participants showed all in attendance the value of undergraduate research in higher education, and, in turn, what it can achieve. Speaker awards on the day went to: Richard Bourke, English and History, UL; Amy Diviney, Applied Languages, UL; Alan O’Reilly, Civil Engineering, UL; Amy Walsh, Arts Joint Honours, UL; Victoria Ward, Social Care, LIT. The AICUR participants were encouraged throughout the conference by the plenary speaker (Prof. Mick Healey, University of Gloucestershire) and panel members (Dr Ross Anderson, Dr Eoin Devereux, Dr Aileen Dillane, Prof. Con Hussey, Prof. Sarah Moore), who shared their own insights into what it means to approach knowledge as a researcher in today’s world. Faculty members from across UL came to the AICUR to show support for the notably high quality of presented research, and many of the sessions were chaired by lecturers eager to see what the AICUR was all about. It is hoped that this sense of community and sharing of knowledge will continue at next year’s AICUR, which is already being planning by the Organising Committee (Dr Naomi Birdthistle, Kemmy Business School; Dr Fiona Farr, Dean of Teaching and Learning (Chair); Mike Forde, UL Students’ Union; Vicky Kelly, Centre for Teaching and Learning; Dr Óscar Mascareñas Garza, Irish World Academy of Music and Dance; Dr Patricia M. McNamara, Education and Health Sciences; Maura Murphy, Centre for Teaching and Learning; Dr Liam Murray, Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; Dr Walter Stanley, Science and Engineering).
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Professor Sarah Moore Associate Vice President, Academic 14
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Closing Comments from the Associate Vice President, Academic The University of Limerick is embarking on an exciting new phase of strategic development. Our new strategic plan, Broadening Horizons, commits to three important high-level priorities: building on our achievements, accentuating our distinctiveness and raising our international profile. It gives me great pride to know that our Centre for Teaching and Learning has a strong role to play in the achievement of all of these important goals. From the very start, the Centre for Teaching and Learning has committed to working for and with the entire campus community in the support of excellence in teaching and learning. The accredited programmes for higher education - teaching and learning, on-going CPD with and for our teaching staff, the focus on technology enhanced learning and innovation, the empowerment of students and teachers in the development of their own competencies, the high-trust, formative and transformative evaluation and enhancement processes and the establishment and championing of discipline- and skill- specific learner support strategies – all combine to provide a strong strategic and academic focus on our core purpose – excellent teaching for impactful learning. It is important that the work of the CTL is linked with developments in higher
education teaching and learning at a national and international level. As the Chair of the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning, it gives me particular pride to witness UL’s engagement and leadership with national level research, innovation and enhancement through the Forum’s work. Similarly, UL’s response to recommendations in the National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030 and those in Europe’s High Level Group on the Modernisation of Higher Education, shows that our institution leads the way when it comes to embracing a culture of excellence and creativity in teaching and learning. It has been another engaging year for the Centre for Teaching and Learning and all of the UL staff who interact with and participate in the development of our excellence culture. The challenges relating to some of our key concerns, such as the maximisation of digital capacity through technology enhanced learning, the issue of student engagement and success and the development of an internationally relevant, broad curriculum, continue to require much work. I look forward to working with the Centre for Teaching and Learning and with all staff at the University of Limerick as we continue to pursue these goals and I congratulate them on their achievements over the past year as detailed in earlier parts of this annual report .
Our INSTITUTION leads the way when it comes to EMBRACING a culture of EXCELLENCE and CREATIVITY in teaching and learning.
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