Student engagement is a central concept in the literature on teaching and learning in higher education. Research has shown that students’ active engagement in their learning is central to their academic success and that students who engage deeply with learning are better equipped for life-long learning. However, encouraging student engagement can be challenging. So, what can be done - how can we encourage students to engage in their learning in what, for many of us, are quite challenging times? One way of achieving this is through assessment. Assessment is probably the most important thing we can do to engage students in their learning. Traditionally, assessment practices have tended to focus on progression and completion rather than focus on enhancing student learning. If we wish to use assessment as a tool to enhance student learning the provision of 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 outlined how staff from different discipline areas have developed their assessment practices to integrate feedback as a central component of their practice. Three different case-studies were presented and discussed with the intention of providing participants with a range of practical options that they might choose from and integrate into their own practice. The seminar was aimed at all academic staff, whether new to the whole notion of assessment and feedback, or those who wanted to improve their feedback practice with students, or those looking for ideas on how to enhance their current practice.

In recent years, the issues of poor referencing skills and plagiarism have become a significant concern for higher education practitioners. In many instances’ students are often unaware of the problems associated with plagiarism since copying from various sources has unfortunately become the norm. This problem is further compounded by the fact that many students often struggle to understand the importance and basics of essential referencing techniques. This workshop: Highlighted how CIT Library staff can assist academic staff convey the importance of referencing to their students, helping them to avoid various forms of plagiarism. Explained how online referencing software can be easily utilised to ensure effective and consistent referencing when completing notes, essays and assignments.

"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"

Assessors complain that they spend hours devising and delivering good feedback via comments on assessed work, in class, in studio critiques, on the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), in one-to-ones and in tutorials, only to find that students seem to either ignore the formative comments or complain they never get any feedback. If students ignore or trivialise our feedback, it cannot help them however detailed and supportive it is. Students’ failure to engage with feedback not only is unhelpful to them and frustrating for us, but also impacts negatively on Irish Survey of Student Engagement (ISSE) scores.

Students put great store by the comments we put on their work. They often come to higher education with high expectations about the nature and value of teacher comments, and look to them to provide them with authoritative guidance on their learning and performance. Where that provision is found wanting, unhelpful or unconstructive, students rapidly become disenchanted, disappointed and alienated.