MTU Teaching & Learning Unit

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.

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

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.

Feedback is crucial--but almost everyone, from new hires to C-suite executives, struggles with receiving it. The authors, who have spent 20 years working with managers on difficult conversations, outline six steps that can help you turn feedback into an important, and unthreatening, tool. Know your tendencies. Look for patterns in how you respond. (Do you defend yourself? Do you lash out?) Once you understand your standard operating procedure, you can make better choices about where to go from there. Separate the "what" from the "who." Your feelings about the messenger might be short-circuiting your ability to learn from the message. Sort toward coaching. Work to hear feedback as well-meant advice, not as an indictment. Unpack the feedback. Resist snap judgments; explore where suggestions are coming from and where they're going. Request and direct feedback. Don't wait for a formal review; ask for bite-size pieces of coaching. Experiment. Try following a piece of advice and seeing what happens. Criticism is never easy to take--but learning to pull value from it is essential to your development and success.

Plutchik's "Wheel of Emotions" covers 8 fundamental emotions. We look at joy, sadness, acceptance, & other emotion wheel feelings.

Free Starter Profile Take a free strengths finder – learn about your ‘realised strengths’, your ‘unrealised strengths’, your ‘learned behaviours’ and ‘your weaknesses, based on the original Realise2 model.

Top Ten Indicators to Refer a Client to a Mental Health Professional