"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."

"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."

"This seminar was split into three with the first part of the seminar exploring “10 Ideas on how to Enhance Interaction and Student Engagement in your Teaching”. It selected examples that highlight the importance of student engagement in learning. Active learning strategies, suitable to a range of different learning environments, online, blended, and face-to-face were explored, with consideration given to different group sizes. These 10 ideas and practical tips were provided alongside a collaborative discussion amongst attendees, where best practice were shared. Munster Technological University are active members of the Active Learning Network (ALN) which is a group of people from around the world (over 35 institutions represented) who share an interest in active approaches to learning. In the second part of the seminar, participants were introduced to the work of the ALN and shown how to connect with the Network. In the third and final part of the seminar, participants were introduced to the “Be ACTIVE” Framework, a new and exploratory framework focusing on Active Learning. Participants had an opportunity to actively engage in the development of a plan to implement active learning in their individual context using this framework. The framework empowered participants to plan strategies that work for them in their context to get the most out of students and develop a structured overall approach to active learning. Those who participated in this seminar: Discussed practical ways to Enhance Student Interaction in their Teaching Evaluated effective student engagement strategies for their context Described the challenges of student engagement and shared best practice Applied the “Be ACTIVE” Learning Framework and created a structured plan to embed active learning in their own teaching and learning context"

"This seminar was split into three with the first part of the seminar exploring “10 Ideas on how to Enhance Interaction and Student Engagement in your Teaching”. It selected examples that highlight the importance of student engagement in learning. Active learning strategies, suitable to a range of different learning environments, online, blended, and face-to-face were explored, with consideration given to different group sizes. These 10 ideas and practical tips were provided alongside a collaborative discussion amongst attendees, where best practice were shared. Munster Technological University are active members of the Active Learning Network (ALN) which is a group of people from around the world (over 35 institutions represented) who share an interest in active approaches to learning. In the second part of the seminar, participants were introduced to the work of the ALN and shown how to connect with the Network. In the third and final part of the seminar, participants were introduced to the “Be ACTIVE” Framework, a new and exploratory framework focusing on Active Learning. Participants had an opportunity to actively engage in the development of a plan to implement active learning in their individual context using this framework. The framework empowered participants to plan strategies that work for them in their context to get the most out of students and develop a structured overall approach to active learning. Those who participated in this seminar: Discussed practical ways to Enhance Student Interaction in their Teaching Evaluated effective student engagement strategies for their context Described the challenges of student engagement and shared best practice Applied the “Be ACTIVE” Learning Framework and created a structured plan to embed active learning in their own teaching and learning context"

"This seminar was split into three with the first part of the seminar exploring “10 Ideas on how to Enhance Interaction and Student Engagement in your Teaching”. It selected examples that highlight the importance of student engagement in learning. Active learning strategies, suitable to a range of different learning environments, online, blended, and face-to-face were explored, with consideration given to different group sizes. These 10 ideas and practical tips were provided alongside a collaborative discussion amongst attendees, where best practice were shared. Munster Technological University are active members of the Active Learning Network (ALN) which is a group of people from around the world (over 35 institutions represented) who share an interest in active approaches to learning. In the second part of the seminar, participants were introduced to the work of the ALN and shown how to connect with the Network. In the third and final part of the seminar, participants were introduced to the “Be ACTIVE” Framework, a new and exploratory framework focusing on Active Learning. Participants had an opportunity to actively engage in the development of a plan to implement active learning in their individual context using this framework. The framework empowered participants to plan strategies that work for them in their context to get the most out of students and develop a structured overall approach to active learning. Those who participated in this seminar: Discussed practical ways to Enhance Student Interaction in their Teaching Evaluated effective student engagement strategies for their context Described the challenges of student engagement and shared best practice Applied the “Be ACTIVE” Learning Framework and created a structured plan to embed active learning in their own teaching and learning context"

"Established in June 2020, those involved in organising and facilitating work placement in MTU Cork set about forming a learning community to collectively work towards improving the work placement experience for all key stakeholders, i.e., students, staff, employers and the institute. This learning community has gone from strength to strength and is now university wide with in excess of 90 members, including those from the MTU Kerry campus. They have put together a steering group as follows to represent various placement programmes across the college. Annette Coughlan, NCMI Catherine Murphy, Accounting & Information Systems & TLU, MTU Cork Clive Atkinson, Process Energy & Transport Engineering, MTU Cork Eleanor Baldwin, Physical Science, MTU Cork Marian Quinn, Childhood Studies, MTU Cork Mary Moloney, Civil, Structural & Environmental Engineering, MTU Cork Rachel O' Farrell, Process Energy & Transport, MTU Cork Sean Donovan, Management & Enterprise, MTU Cork Shirley Millar, Tourism & Hospitality, MTU Cork Trevor Hogan, Media Communications, CCAD This session was effectively a meeting of the MTU Work Placement Learning Community, but those involved in, or interested in becoming involved in, work placement were also encouraged to come along to gain insights into the work of this highly successful learning community."

"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."

"This workshop briefly described the why and what of Active Learning. Members of the Active Learning Movement shared their experiences and key learnings. This was a great opportunity to learn from others about what active learning practices work in the MTU context. The perils, positives and possibilities of Active Learning were also be discussed and developed in this interactive and engaging workshop. "

"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."

"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."

"Though nearly as common as dyslexia, dyscalculia is neither well-known nor well-understood among educators and clinicians. In recent years students with dyscalculia have presented in different MTU Cork programmes of study and have struggled with completing core maths modules or using maths within modules of their course such as Science and Business subjects. Staff in MTU Cork were surveyed about their awareness of and questions about Dyscalculia. In addition, students with the Disability Support Service (DSS) were surveyed on their experience of dyscalculia in college. The results of these surveys were used to inform the design and content of this workshop and their findings were presented during the workshop itself. The objective of this workshop was to raise awareness about dyscalculia among the MTU community and identify best practice approaches to support our students with dyscalculia. Following universal design for learning (UDL) principles that promote increased accessibility in teaching and learning we hope that this raised awareness will in fact benefit all students who interact with maths and numbers as part of their studies at MTU Cork. A major focus of this workshop was on ways in which lecturers or tutors can support students with Dyscalculia to succeed. Hilary Maddocks has worked for many years supporting such students at Loughborough University. The student perspective was also presented as we heard from an MTU Cork student about her experiences of learning with Dyscalculia, and the DSS gave some background."

While we as educators might hate to admit it, assessment does drive student learning and is probably the one most important thing we can do to help our students learn. Formative assessment can help us as educators identify concepts that students are struggling to understand, skills they are having difficulty acquiring, or learning standards they have not yet achieved so that we can make adjustments to lessons, instructional techniques, and academic support. If we wish to use assessment as a tool to enhance student learning the provision of formative feedback is crucial. We need to help students understand not only where they have gone wrong, but also what they need to do to improve and when they have done well, we need to help them understand what is good about their work and how they can build on it and develop further. This seminar focussed on how the Department of Mathematics and the Academic Learning Centre use Numbas, a free online platform aimed at numerate disciplines, to provide students with the opportunity to practice particular types of mathematical problems, receive instant feedback and advice on where they may have gone wrong, and to attempt other similar auto-generated questions. This seminar was aimed at academic staff who teach in a numerate discipline who would like to explore how they too can provide formative assessment opportunities to their students in an efficient and effective manner. Those who attended this session: Got an overview of some of the capabilities of Numbas Learned how Numbas can be used to enhance student learning Learned how a Numbas learning resource can be uploaded to Canvas.