TLU Resources

"The Teaching and Learning Unit (TLU) and AnSEO - The Student Engagement Office are delighted launched our annual Combined Funding Call to support staff and students who wish to undertake short term projects related to teaching, learning, assessment and student engagement (TLASE) activities. This funding call enables teams of staff and/or students, to develop ideas that might enhance teaching, learning, assessment and student engagement across the student life cycle. The purpose of this session was to provide more information about the funding process itself, describe what supports are available and provide participants with an opportunity to hear from previous recipients in terms of what they achieved and how they felt about the experience and the impact these projects have on staff and students."

Do you wonder if there are better ways of going about your teaching and/or assessment practices? Perhaps you would like to learn more about current thinking and best practice in teaching, learning, technology and assessment in higher education? Maybe you are interested in gaining a Level 9 qualification in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education? If so, you might consider participating in the MA in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education that is offered by the Teaching and Learning Unit. In Semester 1 2023/24, the TLU will be offering the following modules which may be of interest to you: EDUC9043: Teaching and Learning in Higher Education EDUC9046: Curriculum Design & Evaluation EDUC9050: Mentoring in HE EDUC9016: Education Research Proposal This information session provided an overview and introduction to the programme, more detailed information about the programme itself including options to step off with a Level 9 Certificate or Level 9 Postgraduate Diploma and will explain how to apply.

This event shared the changes made to the assessment and feedback mechanisms on placement as part of a pilot project within the School of Business, MTU Cork ...

As part of MTU’s commitment to excel in teaching, research and development work, for the benefit of staff, students, industry and the wider community, MTU is offering staff the opportunity for professional recognition of their teaching practice and leadership.

"The Teaching and Learning Unit (TLU) and AnSEO - The Student Engagement Office are delighted to announce our annual Combined Funding Call to support staff and students who wish to undertake short term projects related to teaching, learning, assessment and student engagement (TLASE) activities. This funding call enables teams, of staff and/or students, to develop ideas that might enhance teaching, learning, assessment and student engagement across the student life cycle. The purpose of this session was to provide more information about the funding process itself, describe what supports are available and provide participants with an opportunity to hear from previous recipients in terms of what they achieved and how they felt about the experience and the impact these projects have had on staff and students."

"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."

"BALI - Building Assessment Literacy Initiative - is a project to develop a suite of resources to support students and staff in the growth of competencies and capabilities in Assessment Literacy (AL). It aims to bring an interdisciplinary approach to the co-creation of these resources, with student-staff partnership at its core. In this session, participants heard about the most recent outcomes of the BALI project, where 3 teams comprised of a mix of staff and students co-created assessment and feedback resources in a partnership-based approach. We got a peek under the bonnet of the partnership-based approach hearing from both the staff and student’s perspective."

In a typically busy academic semester, lecturers and students are naturally focused on delivering and consuming course material and content. Consequently, neither rarely have the time to stop and consider whether the necessary tools are being utilised to promote long term durable learning. Accessing these learning tools is easier than one might think and simple implementable strategies which are backed by decades of research can dramatically improve learning. This interactive session focused on a simple case study which showed how effective the introduction of simple practices can be in facilitating effective learning. Attendees learned how to apply these tools in their own courses and modules and will also got to see what students felt about adopting these new practices.

"Learning communities serve many functions in education. They allow for the sharing of ideas, the standardisation of practices and the presentation of new solutions and insights. They can also enhance teamwork and collaboration, as well as reduce individual workloads within and across departments and schools. In the last 2 years the TLU have supported the creation and development of over 20 Learning Communities across MTU Cork. This session allowed them to share their experiences and gave those interested in developing their own LC an understanding of how the TLU can help support and fund their ideas."

Assessment is probably the most important thing we can do to engage students in their learning. However, not all forms of assessment are created equal! Whilst there are many benefits of using authentic assessment approaches and providing feedback, teaching staff can face challenges in terms of large class sizes and their own constraints around resourcing and time. This session was an interactive workshop for staff which focused on redesigning assessments to make them a more authentic experience for students whilst ensuring they are manageable from a staff perspective. Participants were invited to send any assignment briefs, or past exam questions that they would like help with redesigning so that they are more authentic, prior to the session. A selection of these were then used as “live” cases at the session. Contact bali@cit.ie for more information.

Providing learners with feedback is known to be one of the most impactful things we can do to enhance learning, it can also be very time-consuming. Often it also seems that learners are not acting on that feedback. This session will explore issues with feedback, and ways in which learners can be provided with feedback that are both efficient and effective for us. We will discuss the ‘power of words’ and explore the value of commenting constructively on assignments and assessments.

In this session we will look at ways to structure an exam paper, consider ways to write good quality questions and what a good marking scheme and model answer might look like. Exemplars and examples will be used to explore aspects of what a “good” exam question might look like.

"Designing and managing in-class discussions is more challenging than the pause procedure or minute paper, but there is convincing evidence that collaborative learning works. This session will model an in-class discussion and discuss some of the evidence that supports this strategy."

"The spacing effect refers to the process of spacing a topic that is to be learned over time, rather than teaching the topic in an intensive session. The implication for our modules is that rather than teaching all of LO1 in weeks 1 and 2 (for example) we should consider if it is possible to divide the topic and teach some in week 1 and then revisit (perhaps in greater depth) later on in the semester. The topic is then spaced out over the semester. The available evidence tells us that this is a more effective strategy. This session will explore this strategy in more detail and present some of the evidence that supports this strategy"

"Having students retrieve information from long-term memory on a regular basis, is known to have a positive impact on learning. This is especially true when learners need to put a bit of effort into that retrieval process. Hence providing opportunities for learners to take tests (e.g. computer based multiple choice tests) can be a very effective strategy. This session will examine some of the evidence in favour of testing and discuss options for using this strategy."

Reflective practice is a key skill in many professions including education. but is particularly relevant to students in the context of work placement. We as ...