"This one-day course was designed for education professionals who work closely with those who have dyscalculia either in a teaching or supporting role or those who wish to develop their own knowledge and understanding of the area. The one-day course had a particular focus on identifying dyscalculia in learners in a post 16 setting. By the end of the one-day course, participants got an understanding of:
What is Dyscalculia?
How is dyscalculia different from maths learning difficulties?
How can dyscalculia and maths learning difficulties be identified in Post 16 learners?
What is maths anxiety?
What is good practice in supporting learners with dyscalculia?
"
"This one-day course was designed for education professionals who work closely with those who have dyscalculia either in a teaching or supporting role or those who wish to develop their own knowledge and understanding of the area. The one-day course had a particular focus on identifying dyscalculia in learners in a post 16 setting. By the end of the one-day course, participants got an understanding of:
What is Dyscalculia?
How is dyscalculia different from maths learning difficulties?
How can dyscalculia and maths learning difficulties be identified in Post 16 learners?
What is maths anxiety?
What is good practice in supporting learners with dyscalculia?
"
UDL@MTU - Universal Design for Learning: From Zero to Superhero
In this seminar, we outlined the principles of UDL focusing on the why, how and what of learning. We shared with you our experiences of completing the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education’s (NFETLHE’s) UDL Digital Badge which we completed during the 2020-21 academic year. We provided an insight into what was involved and how it has impacted our thinking and practice in MTU.
"The Academic Success Coaching team at MTU hosted a workshop on the value and applications of coaching approaches in Higher Education. Equally of interest to Academic and to Professional, Management and Support staff at MTU, the workshop provided an overview of the uniqueness of coaching approaches and how they can enrich teaching, supervision, and mentoring scenarios.
We were joined by Dr Jill Andreanoff, a leading coaching scholar and practitioner, who shared her wealth of experience on the value of using a coaching approach in Higher Education settings. Dr Andreanoff facilitated a short interactive session exploring both mentoring and coaching, giving practical examples of how these approaches can be adopted."
"The Academic Success Coaching team at MTU hosted a workshop on the value and applications of coaching approaches in Higher Education. Equally of interest to Academic and to Professional, Management and Support staff at MTU, the workshop provided an overview of the uniqueness of coaching approaches and how they can enrich teaching, supervision, and mentoring scenarios.
We were joined by Dr Jill Andreanoff, a leading coaching scholar and practitioner, who shared her wealth of experience on the value of using a coaching approach in Higher Education settings. Dr Andreanoff facilitated a short interactive session exploring both mentoring and coaching, giving practical examples of how these approaches can be adopted."
Developing Engineering Competencies in Industry for Undergraduates
"This seminar presents an innovative approach to enhancing engineering competencies through the parallel delivery of a capstone project and professional work placement elements in the final year of an undergraduate programme.
Nationally, it is recognised that engineering students require more development of skills to be “culturally fit” engineering professionals. In order to achieve this, a longer placement was incorporated into MTU Cork’s Chemical Engineering programme with this industrial interface being leveraged to identify capstone projects, hosted in industry, for students to complete in parallel with their placement. Thereby providing students with more industrial exposure and developing more “culturally fit” employable graduates with general and transferrable skills as well as the necessary engineering knowledge. Since the adoption of these industrially hosted modules a repeated review process, facilitated by MTU Cork's AnSEO – The Student Engagement Office, has allowed “fine-tuning” of the approach and provided an improved student experience. This review process creates a constructive environment in which individual student voices can be heard alongside those of faculty.
MTU Cork has created an enhanced experiential learning experience for its final year students and provided a vehicle to pilot methods for student-staff collaboration supporting the shared refinement of both placement and the capstone project. The benefit to industry is a structured longer placement (in line with international policy) to develop “culturally-fit” graduates. The impact on student success is notaView ble in that in excess of 90% employment levels have been observed in the graduate classes of 2018 and 2019. The student voice of their experiences substantiates the experiential and structured learning of these students"
Developing Engineering Competencies in Industry for Undergraduates
"This seminar presents an innovative approach to enhancing engineering competencies through the parallel delivery of a capstone project and professional work placement elements in the final year of an undergraduate programme.
Nationally, it is recognised that engineering students require more development of skills to be “culturally fit” engineering professionals. In order to achieve this, a longer placement was incorporated into MTU Cork’s Chemical Engineering programme with this industrial interface being leveraged to identify capstone projects, hosted in industry, for students to complete in parallel with their placement. Thereby providing students with more industrial exposure and developing more “culturally fit” employable graduates with general and transferrable skills as well as the necessary engineering knowledge. Since the adoption of these industrially hosted modules a repeated review process, facilitated by MTU Cork's AnSEO – The Student Engagement Office, has allowed “fine-tuning” of the approach and provided an improved student experience. This review process creates a constructive environment in which individual student voices can be heard alongside those of faculty.
MTU Cork has created an enhanced experiential learning experience for its final year students and provided a vehicle to pilot methods for student-staff collaboration supporting the shared refinement of both placement and the capstone project. The benefit to industry is a structured longer placement (in line with international policy) to develop “culturally-fit” graduates. The impact on student success is notaView ble in that in excess of 90% employment levels have been observed in the graduate classes of 2018 and 2019. The student voice of their experiences substantiates the experiential and structured learning of these students"
Work Placement - An Innovative Approach to Developing & Enhancing Core Practitioner Competencies
Work placement is, at this stage, a mandatory element of many programmes within CIT and as such poses many challenges for those involved in the process, i.e. staff, students and potential employers.
Since 1983, CIT’s Department of Process Energy and Transport Engineering has been offering the B. Eng. in Chemical & Biopharmaceutical Engineering, a full-time programme delivered over four academic years producing approximately 25 graduates annually, but in recent years this has increased to over 30.
This programme predominately covers core chemical engineering and specific needs of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors but continues to ensure that graduates will meet the needs of traditional chemical industries, be equipped to travel globally and are able to guide the pharma sector as it transitions from traditional batch operation to continuous operation.The philosophy of the programme is to produce broadly educated, professional engineers, who have gained a thorough grounding in fundamentals, an understanding of the state of the art, a keen sense of application, an awareness of the impact on society of their decisions, and an ability to develop as new technologies emerge and as they encounter new problems and opportunities.
This programme is subject to internal re-approval every 5 years, involving external experts and is externally accredited by professional bodies such as Engineers Ireland, nationally, and the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), internationally, to Master Level Meng (Level 9). To date, this programme has provided in excess of 750 graduates, the majority of whom work in Ireland, in the biopharmaceutical/pharmaceutical industry with many having risen to senior appointments.
In this seminar, our colleagues from the Department of Process Energy and Transport Engineering gave an overview of how their industrial work placement module, worth 15 ECTS credits, which runs from the end of the third academic year to the end of the first semester of the award year, evolved and how it can enhance engineering competencies and therefore have a significant impact on the career paths of their graduating engineers. They shared best practise based on their research, carried out with the assistance of CIT’s AnSEO – The Student Engagement Office, and experience for the delivery of the professional work placement from execution, mentoring and assessment of same.
Those attending this seminar gained a clear understanding of:
• How the delivery of industrial hosted modules within engineering third level institutes can be improved
• How an enhanced experiential learning experience can be created for final year students
• How key industrial partnerships can be fortified by developing “culturally fit” graduates