TLU Resources

"CIT Student Services incorporates: Admissions Careers Counselling Examinations Feedback from staff attending previous TLU workshops and seminars emphasised their need to have a better appreciation of CIT Student Services. Staff want to be better informed so that when encountering students in difficulty they know how to help or to whom to signpost students to. This workshop should be of interest to all academic staff, in particular new and early career academic staff, as it provides an overview of CIT’s Students Services."

The Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) Digital Badge Digital was developed as part of the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (NFETLHE) Open Courses initiative for Professional Development by MTU and MIC.

The TLU has developed the 'Enhancing Teaching Through Interactive Classes to Engage Students (EnTICE)' Digital Badge, as part of the Professional Development Framework of the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

As part of MTU’s commitment to excellence in teaching, learning and research for the benefit of staff, students, industry, and the wider community, MTU is offering staff the opportunity for professional recognition of their contribution to teaching and learning practice and leadership through the Advance HE Fellowship Scheme.

The TLU have consulted with the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) to provide MTU staff with an opportunity to attend an accredited EMCC Foundation Level Course in Coaching and potentially achieve through this programme: - A Global European Quality Award (EQA) Foundation Certificate in Coaching - Their EMCC Individual Professional Coaching Accreditation (EIA) at Foundation level

The TLU have developed a CPD programme entitled ‘EAT-PD: Enabling Academic Transitions through Professional Development' aimed at new and early career academic staff, i.e., staff that have been teaching full-time for three years or less (or some equivalent). This programme enables staff relatively new to teaching to develop their competencies in the classroom. The focus of this programme is to expose staff to a range of research-based teaching strategies that can be used to enhance lectures and support learning.

The TLU has developed the Master of Arts (MA) in Teaching & Learning in Higher Education which aims to equip its graduates with the knowledge, skills and competencies to: - Design, deliver, evaluate and reflect on quality, learner-centred educational programmes - Research key issues in teaching and learning in higher education (HE) - Contribute to the scholarship of teaching and learning.

This ¾ hr workshop, part 3 of a 3 part series, explored resilience coaching. Resilience is not exclusively being able to ‘bounce back’ from adversity, but ra...

"For many of us, we start our teaching careers in higher education being ‘thrown in at the deep end’ being almost immediately immersed in preparing and delivering lectures, creating assessments, running laboratories and tutorials, marking student’s work, etc., without having had the opportunity to learn how to tackle such challenges. While a huge amount of research exists on teaching, learning, assessment and feedback, very few of us, especially in the first weeks of teaching, have the time or energy to invest in getting familiar with this research. The aim of this resource to present some of the most useful and relevant tips, ideas and tactics from the literature to help you cope well with those first few critical elements of your work in teaching in higher education. This resource is based on a resource developed by Prof Phil Race at Leeds Beckett University in 2006, which was subsequently made available as an Open Educational Resource through Creative Commons, and has been revised for Munster Technological University (MTU), with support and guidance from Marese Bermingham (Head, AnSEO – The Student Engagement Office; Head, Teaching and Learning Unit; Head, Arts Office) of MTU Cork Campuses and Prof Sally Brown, Emerita Professor, Leeds Beckett University, Visiting Professor at University of Plymouth, Liverpool John Moores University, Edge Hill University and University of South Wales"

This ¾ hr workshop, part 2 of a 3 part series, explored resilience coaching. Resilience is not exclusively being able to ‘bounce back’ from adversity, but rather a set of tools, exercises, activities that build resilience in a person, enabling them not just to survive, but thrive through the small and big life events.This workshop was not just for coaches or mentors, but for anyone who functions within an environment that requires a deeper level of listening i.e., teachers, lecturers, team leaders, team members, support staff, parents etc.

This ¾ hr workshop, part 1 of a 3 part series, explored resilience coaching. Resilience is not exclusively being able to ‘bounce back’ from adversity, but rather a set of tools, exercises, activities that build resilience in a person, enabling them not just to survive, but thrive through the small and big life events.This workshop was not just for coaches or mentors, but for anyone who functions within an environment that requires a deeper level of listening i.e., teachers, lecturers, team leaders, team members, support staff, parents etc.

This digital badge was developed as part of the National Forum fro the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education's (NFETLHE's) Open Courses for Professional Development by AHEAD and UCD Access & Lifelong Learning. As part of UDL@MTU, a Strategic Alignment of Teaching and Learning Enhancement 2020 (SATLE 2020) project funded by NFETLHE, this badge was delivered in Semester 1 2021/22 by a local group of MTU Facilitators. This badge has now been main-schemed and will be offered within MTU on an annual basis online via Canvas facilitated by Dr Marian Hurley.

SensusAccess is a file conversion tool which uses a simple webform. SensusAccess allows you to convert files into the format which is most accessible and useful to you. This might be lecture notes into an mp3 to listen to on the go, scanned book pages into searchable PDFs to be used with text to speech software, or lecture slides into text to be read and adjusted on an E-Reader. SensusAccess supports text in multiple languages and can be a great resource for language learning - you can even listen along to your readings.

MTU Teaching & Learning Unit

Executive function (EF) describes a set of cognitive processes and mental skills that help an individual plan, monitor, and successfully execute their goals. The “executive functions,” as they’re known, include attentional control, working memory, inhibition, and problem-solving, many of which are thought to originate in the brain’s prefrontal cortex. Many behaviours in which humans engage, such as breathing or stepping out of the way of an oncoming car, occur without conscious thought. Most others, however, rely on executive function. Any process or goal pursuit that requires time management, decision-making, and storing information in one’s memory makes use of executive function to some degree. Since much of college life is process-driven and demands that students set and meet goals, disruptions in executive function can make it challenging for students to succeed. This workshop examined how we, as lecturers, can support executive functions in our students through the way in which we organise our modules on Canvas.

Universal Design for Learning Co-Designing Your Classroom Dr Amanda Bastoni, Educational Research Scientist, CAST 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. Timestamp 0:00 Introduction 9:15 What does it mean to Design Learning? 15:00 Reflect on UDL 19:07 Building Relationships 37:17 Ways to Co-Design your classroom 39:00 Co-Design rubrics 41:28 Reflection on Co-Designing 49:14 Co-Design with peers 54:47 Tools to support Co-Design

UDL-ifying a university and its people Prof Jo Rushworth National Teaching Fellow and Professor of Bioscience Education Dr Jo Rushworth draws on her experience as a UDL champion for her School as she outlins 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 tells us about how the UDL guidelines were brought to life and implemented across DMU and leads 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. Timestamps 0:00 Introduction 4:13 Overview 9:54 Getting started: UDL Champions 12:31 6 UDL ideas: Quick wins and bigger ideas 13:10 Ideas 1 & 2 13:43 Ideas 3 & 4 14:00 Ideas 5 & 6 14:40 Moving forward: Staff UDL guidance & Training 16:51 UDL staff guidance 17:57 UDL self-assessment & development tool 19:16 Flexible study resources 23:05 Flexible ways to learn 27:03 Flexible ways to show learning 30:36 Co-creation 37:03 UDL-ify a module 56:22 Thank you!

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) aims to eliminate barriers in the design of the learning environment to make the curriculum accessible for all. COVID-19 has, if anything, highlighted the need for higher and further education providers to fully embrace UDL principles and practice so as to ensure high-quality education for all students and allow for full active participation by all learners. This session will outline the principles of UDL, examine what these principles look like in action and provide advice on how these principles can be applied, even when at distance or online. In addition, it will demonstrate how, with the correct mindset at the creation stage, we can ensure resources created for students are accessible and how students can be offered flexibility through engagement, representation, action and expression. To conclude, the core tenets of inclusive assessment and feedback practice will be outlined, and how this practice can be developed at programme and individual level will be demonstrated. Drawing on research from the National Forum, UDL and practical case studies as examples, specific assessment methodologies will be examined and consideration will be given as to how these might be transformed, through the lens of universal design, to ensure inclusion of the full student population. Facilitated By: • Dr Lisa Padden, Project Lead - University for All, UCD • Trevor Boland, Digital Media and eLearning Officer, AHEAD (Ireland) • Lorraine Gallagher, Information & Training Officer, AHEAD (Ireland)

In June 2021, a project entitled “UDL@MTU – Towards Embedding UDL Practices and Principles at MTU” received funding under MTU’s allocation of the Strategic Alignment of Teaching & Learning Enhancement Fund 2020. As part of this project, in semester 1 of the 2021/22 academic year, a local MTU iteration of the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education’s (NFETLHE) Digital Badge “Universal Design in Teaching and Learning” was rolled out with twelve colleagues participating from across MTU. In order to complete the badge, participants learnt about Universal Design for Learning (UDL), reflected on their own practice and redesigned some aspects of a teaching activity they were delivering in line with the principles of UDL. They then had to implement and deliver the redesigned activity, collect some feedback from students in terms of their experience of the redesigned activity and submit a short ‘Redesign Activity Report’. Catherine O’Mahony, a lecturer in Tourism in Hospitality, was one of the twelve MTU badge participants.

As part of the UDL@MTU project, 12 colleagues from across MTU participated in a local MTU-wide rollout of the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning’s Universal Design in Teaching and Learning Digital Badge and were awarded their badges, To complete this badge, participants are required to complete a redesign activity where they take an element of their own practice and apply UDL principles to redesign it and make it more accessible. We have developed a podcast series, where we showcase some of the excellent practice demonstrated by these colleagues while completing the above badge, which we will be releasing over the coming months:

Are you involved in new programme development and about to starting to create new modules? Or are involved in programmatic review and revising some existing modules? If so, the following is a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Module Guide developed by our colleague Ann Toebes, Curriculum Development Facilitator, provides suggestions for how UDL can be embedded in the curriculum via the module descriptor.

Executive function (EF) describes a set of cognitive processes and mental skills that help an individual plan, monitor, and successfully execute their goals. The “executive functions,” as they’re known, include attentional control, working memory, inhibition, and problem-solving, many of which are thought to originate in the brain’s prefrontal cortex. Many behaviours in which humans engage, such as breathing or stepping out of the way of an oncoming car, occur without conscious thought. Most others, however, rely on executive function. Any process or goal pursuit that requires time management, decision-making, and storing information in one’s memory makes use of executive function to some degree. Since much of college life is process-driven and demands that students set and meet goals, disruptions in executive function can make it challenging for students to succeed. To support executive functions in students, we developed a prototype accessible Canvas Template to help you organise your module on Canvas.

Do you wonder is there anything you can do from UDL perspective when you’re setting up your modules on Canvas? If so, you might find the following checklist useful:

MTU Teaching & Learning Unit

Are you putting together a slide deck for teaching purposes? You might consider using one of MTU’s new branded accessible templates! You can access these templates very easily. When you are creating a new PowerPoint presentation, you will see a new tab called Munster Technological University. Here you will find 6 possible templates - 3 black and grey and 3 colour that you can use to ensure that your slide decks are accessible. In each case, there is: - An accessible and sustainable version where the MTU logo only appears on the title slide - An accessible version with the MTU logo in the top RHS for those who might be creating a recording with Screencast-o-matic - An accessible version with the MTU logo in the top LHS for those who might be creating a recording with Zoom

A common misperception in the higher education sector is that UDL is somehow tied to accessibility efforts on behalf of students with learning challenges, especially those who identify as having disabilities. However, nothing could be further from the truth what’s good for students with disability is good for all students. However, today’s higher education institutions are dealing with an increasingly diverse student body consisting of students with different needs, educational backgrounds, attention spans, interests, language abilities and cultural backgrounds all of whom can benefit from UDL approaches. But is the MTU student body really that diverse?

Research has shown that mindfulness can alter the physical structure of our brains and if practiced regularly can increase those parts of the brain that deal with attention and processing sensory input (Sara Lazar - Harvard Medical School). This ¾ hr workshop briefly explored some coaching and mentoring techniques using a mindful approach as well as the use of some specific mindfulness tools. This workshop was not just for coaches or mentors, but for anyone who functions within an environment that requires a deeper level of listening i.e., teachers, lecturers, team leaders, team members, support staff, parents etc.

This ¾ hr workshop briefly explored some coaching and mentoring techniques for working across cultures. In this workshop, we looked largely at the work of Jenny Plaister-Ten and her exploration of the impact of cross-cultural coaching for coaches. We broadly explored the Kaleidoscope model as a tool to ‘enable the coach to take a systems perspective’ when coaching or mentoring across cultures. This workshop was not just for coaches or mentors, but for anyone who functions within an environment that requires a deeper level of listening i.e., teachers, lecturers, team leaders, team members, support staff, parents etc.

'Integrating wellbeing and student engagement: A coaching approach' This ¾ hr talk briefly explores how the inclusion of wellbeing elements can positively contribute to student engagement.

Explore what is meant by ‘deep listening’, where ‘people can think with rigour, imagination, courage and grace. This ¾ hr workshop briefly explores the coaching partnership that focuses on ‘deep listening’, where ‘people can think with rigor, imagination, courage and grace.’ (Kline, 2010). The content is based on Nancy Kline’s ‘Time to Think’ and ‘More Time to Think’ and discusses the 10 components for enabling a ‘thinking environment’ e.g., appreciation, encouragement, attention, feeling. This workshop is not just for coaches or mentors, but for anyone who functions within an environment that requires a deeper level of listening i.e., teachers, lecturers, team leaders, team members, support staff, parents etc. By the end of this workshop, participants will have a broader understanding of what it means to: 1. Be in the listening environment with authentic presence 2. Remain focused, observant, empathetic and responsive to the other party 3. Demonstrate curiosity during the listening and coaching process 4. Manage one’s emotions to stay present with the other party 5. Interrupt the other party because of certain assumptions 6. Harness the power of gratitude in a way that is useful and empowering for both parties 7. Use incisive questioning to enable deep thinking in other party. This workshop forms part of the Being a Better Coach and Mentor series and is eligible for Continued Professional Development credit contributing to a Coach/Mentor/Supervisor EMCC Global Individual Accreditation.