Teaching & Learning Resources
This website contains a wealth of information including practical and evidence-based resources to support teaching, from getting started to resources for more experienced teachers. Filter by resource type to select quick guides, in-depth resources, templates, activities or case studies. If you are not sure what you are looking for you can browse by category such as "Assessment and Feedback". If you can't find what you are looking for let us know.
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A Framework to Support Student-Academic Advising Interactions for Students on Clinical Work Placements in the UCD School of Veterinary Medicine
This case study aimed to develop a Conversational Framework and support resources in the context of clinical veterinary workplace learning. A Conversational Framework was designed to support student adviser interactions and a support guide was also designed for advisers providing more detail about CEMS, their role, and expectations.
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Academic Advising ADAPT Humanities Student Support
This case study set out to establish a proactive student contact mechanism to make targeted early interventions with students, providing early assistance to connect students to necessary supports. A series of programme specific resources and guidance documents were developed to aid pathway coordinators and support staff to assist students with their programme engagement into the future.
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Academic Literacy Support for Student Success: Designing an Academic Advising Disciplinary Framework
This case study aimed to design an Academic Advising Disciplinary Literacy framework that can be integrated across the undergraduate nursing/midwifery curriculum. The case study adopted the Appreciative Student Voice Model (AVSM), utilising an appreciative inquiry-based approach with students and disciplinary content experts (lecturers) working in partnership.
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Beyond Progression: Academic Advising for Community Drugs Programme Students
This case study aimed to provide a range of tiered academic advising workshops and engagements for intending, current and postgraduate Community Drug Programme progression students. There were a range of outcomes and impacts for students, which were evidenced from informal conversations, participation in the inquiry group and feedback from the questionnaire.
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Building meaningful relationships through structured and reflexive dialogue: Academic advising in the Social Sciences undergraduate curriculum
This case study aimed to systematically review and evaluate the existing mentoring programme. A definition of the purpose of academic advising in the social sciences informed by NACADA’s work was developed and a model of academic advising, satellite academic advising, was also developed to be piloted in 2022/23.
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Determination of science student’s academic advice needs, and the development of an advisory resource tool
This case study set out to understand students experience with advisory information and develop an interactive tool to help students navigate the DN200 science programme pathways. The key outcome of the case study was the Major Pathways tool using data from programme structures that shows module pathways to each degree, what majors the user is eligible for after having selected a group of modules, and module pathways for a combination of selected majors.
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Development of Self-Assessment Tool
This case study aimed to develop a self-assessment tool for undergraduate students to reflect on their academic progress and assess their needs for academic advising. A working prototype of a self-assessment tool for students was successfully developed and can be accessed via the results section of the case study.
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Enhancing academic advice here at UCD: Is it simply a matter of time?
This case study aimed to increase academic advice on a wide variety of topics, such as programme choice, careers and educational development for four SBES programmes. The key impact of the case study was staff reflecting on existing academic advice practices within the school and their perception by the relevant student groups.
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Evaluating, Enhancing and Expanding Academic Advising in the Sutherland School of Law
This case study aimed to recommend suggestions and implement initiatives to enhance the current academic advisor programme in the School of Law. The key outcome was a final report which (i) identified the main issues with the existing Academic Advising Programme arising from the surveys and focus groups and (ii) made 21 recommendations to improve the Academic Advising Programme in the School of Law.
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Finding Your Way in Food Science
This case study aimed to expand the current academic mentoring system to ensure it meets the needs of Stage 1 Food Science students. As part of the case study a welcome session and careers event were hosted and an internal website was created for stage 1 Food Science students.
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Formalizing and Expanding Academic Advising Practices in the School of Civil Eng
This case study set out to formalize and significantly expand academic advising practices in the UCD School of Civil Engineering and to develop and evaluate a hybrid-model of academic advising. The key outcomes of this case study were the production of a student and staff handbook to help support local class representatives and faculty members, regular engagement of students with peers and staff, and the production of a webpage signposting students to relevant information.
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Global Leadership Programme – UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School
This case study places students and their development needs and aspirations at the heart of the programme and provides a framework for addressing needs and aspirations in a supportive way. The key resources of the case study are the 4 step approach and progress reports developed which are highlighted on the innovative approach tab.
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Staying ConnectED - Connecting Advisory Supports for Students in the School of Education
This case study aimed to formalise, and bring coherence to, the student advising services provided in UCD initial teacher education (ITE) programmes. Key strengths of the case study include the role of the community (coming together) to build a ‘Digital Hub’ and the creation of a more transparent access point for a range of services.
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TESLAA: TEchnology supported Student Learning and development through Appreciative Advising
This case study aimed to design and deploy a student-centered mobile app to support academic advising based on an approach called appreciative advising. Key outputs from this case study include an approach to training student researchers to carry out “engaged research” with fellow students, informational content/learning materials such as videos hosted on Vimeo, fact sheets, and FAQs and a walk through of the JoDo app.
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TILL21 – Toolkit for Impactful Lifelong Learning in the 21st Century
This case study aimed to develop a toolkit that would provide resources to enable academics consider their current teaching and learning processes that support academic advising while also supporting new initiatives to integrate into their modules and programmes which would consider mature and part-time students and their support and advising needs in particular.
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Transitions: Better Supporting BA and BAH Students to Make Key Programme Decisions
This case study aimed to better support BA and BAH students when making key programme decisions. My Course Compass was the key outcome of this case study, the tool details learning pathways for two Brightspace modules with a number of interactive elements. The interactive elements were designed to help students achieve learning outcomes for the modules while conveying key information for students in a unique, fun and playful way.
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Generative Artificial Intelligence in Learning and Assessment (Faculty Guidance)
This quick guide starts with a broad definition of Artificial Intelligence (AI) /Generative AI and then gives some advice for UCD Faculty/Staff on how it's being used in higher education learning and assessment.
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Guidance On Academic Integrity In Online And At-Distance Assessments
This six-page guide explores what is meant by Academic Integrity; highlights students’ role in understanding and demonstrating academic integrity in their assessments, including agreeing to a UCD Honesty Code (statement); emphasises the importance of communicating to students their permitted access to resources during the assessment; presents some strategies for both preventing and detecting academic dishonesty.
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How do I Support my Students' Academic Integrity?
This web page examines the idea of students academic integrity. Topics include: academic integrity; plagiarism; education; prevention and detection.
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An Introduction to Assessment
This web page provides a brief introduction to the concept of assessment.
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Empowering Students Through Assessment: Snapshot of the Student Voice
Drawing on UCD students' views, this new resource—developed and written with our UCD Students as Partners in Teaching and Learning—discusses the importance of student empowerment and suggests how teaching staff can support it through inclusive assessment. (PDF, 7 pages)
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How do I Assess Students?
This web page explores how to assess students. It includes looking at your students’ assessment journey; aligning your assessment; using diverse methods; empowering students in the assessment process; not overloading students or yourself.
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Inclusive Assessment and Feedback
This web page gives a comprehensive overview of key concepts underpinning inclusive assessment and feedback.
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Reducing and Diversifying Assessment in 1st year social science: Case Study from UCD Assessment ReDesign Project
This six page Case Study, by Dr Patricia Kennedy, describes how she redesigned her 1st year 'Introduction to Theories and Concepts' 2012-2103 module in the Social Science Degree. She introduced in-class concept maps and removed the examination. This increased in-class discussion and reduce correction time.
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Why do I Assess Students?
This page is a good starting point when considering your assessment and feedback approaches. It sets out some of the purposes, initial terminology and underlying principles of assessment and feedback. It addresses the question: Why do we assess students?
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A Practitioner's Guide to Choice of Assessment Methods within a Module
This 78 page comprehensive resource presents the approach to giving students a choice from two assessments within their module. It is an assessment choice for all students, i.e. an inclusive assessment approach. The resource gives an overview of the approach, sets out steps to implement it, and describes its implementation in seven UCD case studies across different disciplines.
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Equity Between Choice of Assessment Evaluation Tool
This 8-item evaluation tool, validated in a research study (O'Neill, 2017), aims to specifically measure students' perceived equity (fairness) between the choices of assessment methods in their module, when they experienced this approach.
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Student Information and Equity Template
This template aims to both a) assist staff in designing equity between a choice of assessment methods in a module and b) support students in making an informed choice between their given choices.
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Students' Views on Choice of Assessment Methods
This evaluation tool aims to measure students’ views on their experience of choice of assessment methods in their module, including perceptions of equity, anxiety, support, empowerment and diversity.
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Feedback Strategies to Enhance Student Learning
This four page guide highlights the role of both staff and students in giving and engaging in feedback. It sets out six broad feedback strategies that align with those in UCD's module descriptor. It suggests ideas for developing feedback across the programme.
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Giving Effective Feedback
This page introduces the concept of feedback and how one might design and implement it in an effective manner.
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How do I Give Feedback to Students?
This web page explores is meant by the term feedback? It presents UCDs feedback strategies. It also explores how to give feedback to students and ideas to support incremental development of feedback.
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How to Give Constructive and Actionable Feedback to Students: Staff to Students
This animation gives some useful advice on how staff can give more constructive and actionable feedback to their students. It defines the term feedback, explains different feedback phases, gives some do's and don'ts around giving feedback and highlights students' emotional responses to feedback.
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How to Give Constructive and Actionable Peer Feedback: Students to Students
This animation, produced by students for students, aims to help students improve the feedback that they give to their peers. It gives some ideas on how the feedback can be more constructive and actionable. 'Peer review' is one of UCD's feedback strategies.
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Six Ways to Engage Students with Feedback
This is an episode of a podcast in which Dr Geraldine O'Neill looks at how we can rethink our definition of feedback, moving away from a retrospective approach, to an approach which develops students' own judgment and self-monitoring skills. It is ten minutes in length.
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Classroom Assessment Techniques
This document provides a snapshot of in-class assessment opportunities, i.e. primarily formative assessment (those that are denoted ‘assessment FOR and AS learning’). A brief description of each method is provided so that one might consider how to implement within their own practice. Audience: Faculty, Tutors, Demonstrators, those that support learning and students.
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Failure to Follow Instructions Impairs Novel Assessment Strategy
The laboratory notebook exercise has been perceived by some students of the Physiology module to be a "colouring competition" and those without artistic abilities were at a disadvantage. Although not so, we decided to modify the assessment on foot of that feedback.
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Getting Started with Designing Online Quizzes
Professor Sally Jordan, UK Open University, presented this webinar on “Getting Started with Designing Online Quizzes” to UCD staff on 4th November 2021. It explores how to write online quiz questions and how quizzes can be incorporated into broader teaching, learning and assessment strategies.
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Improving the Design and Use of your Online Quizzes
Professor Sally Jordan, UK Open University, presented this webinar on “Improving the Design and Use of your Online Quizzes” to UCD staff on 16th November 2021. It explores how to improve online quiz design and how quizzes can be incorporated into broader teaching, learning and assessment strategies.
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Key Assessment Types
This practical resource is created to help you design and implement assessment in the online and in-person environments, providing an overview of key assessment types used in UCD.
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Negatively-marked MCQ exams: Biased or not?
This study set out over three academic years to determine whether the negatively-marked first-year biology MCQ exams were biased or not against female students.
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Peer Review/Assessment Tool: peerScholar
peerScholar is an online tool which supports peer review/assessment on individual, group or case study assignment types. Through a three step approach (create, assess, reflect) it enables students to provide constructive and anonymous feedback on each other's work and facilitates critical reflection on how they might improve their own work.
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The Design of Multiple Choice Questions for Assessment
This 13 page guide provides an introduction on how to design multiple choice questions. It offers some simple and effective components that will aid faculty in the production of MCQs. It also has some example questions that one may review.
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The Use of Concept Maps for Assessment
This six page resource examines the purposes and definitions of concept maps. It presents steps in designing a concept map and some established criteria for their assessment.
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UCD TEL All Talk: Audio-Visual Strategies for practice-based learning and assessment - the experience of using OSCE (VOSCE) for Midwifery students
In this practice exchange Ms Liz Greene, School of Nursing Midwifery and Health Systems overviews video OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) which utilised 'Bongo' video assignment software, performance checklists and a grading rubric. Virtual clinical placements enabled students to ongoing learning opportunities with physiotherapists and patients in remote practice sites.
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UCD TEL All Talk: Peer Assessment - making it work for students and teachers with PeerScholar
In this practice exchange talk Dr Monica Gorman, UCD School of Agriculture & Food Science outlines how self and peer assessment are becoming increasingly important in formative assessment in higher education. She shares experience and lessons learned from using peerScholar for peer and self assessment with postgraduate students.
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UCD TEL All Talk: Peer Assessment by peerScholar
In this practice exchange talk, Dr. Sarah Browne, School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science outlines how peerScholar was used for implementing a supported, virtual peer assessment process using video as a medium for assessment for Dietetic students.
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Assessment Principles
This page presents three different examples of assessment and feedback principles. These can help guide your decision making when choosing assessment and feedback approaches.
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Programme Assessment and Feedback Strategies
Over-assessment, lack of integrative assessment, and limited assessment diversity are challenges that often require a programme approach to assessment. These webpages present an institutionally approved framework to support UCD faculty to 1) review, 2) plan, 3) articulate and 4) implement their programme assessment and feedback strategies. Included are a range of resources and case studies, aligned to a set of programme assessment and feedback principles.
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Some Initial Ideas for Programme Assessment and Feedback Enhancement
This one page Quickguide sets out a table of some initial ideas for programme assessment and feedback approaches. It is organised under the headings of: diverse assessment, integrated assessment and space for reduced assessment.
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How do I Grade Students?
This page looks specifically at the grading aspect of assessment. Topics include: grading; what approaches to use; improving your grading; developing assessment standards in your module.
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Assessment Workload and Equivalences
This five page PDF resource highlights the consequences of assessment overload. It presents some examples from different institutions on how they estimate the equivalence of student effort in different assessment methods. For example, using weighting, word-counts and/or estimated student effort hours.
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Student Guide - Managing Assessment Load
Developed and written with our UCD Students as Partners in Teaching and Learning, this short guide gives essential advice to students on how to manage their assessment load with confidence and efficiency. (PDF, 5 pages)
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Blended and Online Learning Design
This page presents the terminology related to Technology Enhanced Learning and provides guidance on the systematic process of designing blended and online learning through the following subsections: Introduction, Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation.
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How to ‘Articulate’ the Research Process for Students
The goal for the delivery of this module was to develop a reusable learning object which would present the key messages of the module topic in a visually attractive and engaging fashion within the virtual learning environment.
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Netiquette for Online Learning
This resource outlines key netiquette guidelines to consider for online learning. It provides fundamental principles of netiquette and more specific netiquette guidelines for the virtual classroom/online meetings, discussion forums/chat and email.
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Teaching Online and Supporting Learners Online
This resource presents the multifaceted role of the lecturer through the various stages of Teaching Online. In the context of each stage of delivery it provides guidelines and advice on supporting online learners and examples of tools/technologies that can assist with this.
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UCD TEL All Talk: Access and UDL in Blended Learning
In this practice exchange talk, Dr. Fionnula Walsh, School of History, shares her experience with online and blended learning in particular regarding her work on the access programme and implementing a UDL approach.
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UCD TEL All Talk: Flippin' Zoom: activities to engage students online in a flipped-classroom context
In this practice exchange talk Dr. Jennifer Keenahan, UCD School of Civil Engineering presents a range of ideas, activities and educational technology tools which she used to engage students online with particular emphasis on group activities.
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UCD TEL All Talk: Group Work and Participation in Blended Learning
In this practice exchange talk Daniel describes one of the main challenges in his blended learning module was to engage students who are connecting remotely to participate in group work and active learning activities. He shares some experiences of using Brightspace, padlet, polls, and a 360° webcam to enhance group activities and participation in a blended learning environment.
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UCD TEL All Talk: Labs through a lens: improving access to practical elements of environmental engineering
In this practice exchange talk, Dr. Sarah Cotterill, School of Civil Engineering explores the learnings from the development of a range of digital resources, virtual field trips and laboratory animations designed to reinforce learning, increase the number of practical sessions students could engage with, and facilitate access for distance learners.
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UCD TEL All Talk: Teaching Large Classes Online: the triumphs, the pitfalls and the lessons learned.
In this practice exchange talk Dr. Julie Byrne, UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School discusses the triumphs, the pitfalls and the lessons learned when modules are delivered and assessed fully online. Dr Byrne presents her teaching methods and learning strategies. A clear organisational module structure and availability of one-on-one lecturer and tutor time, as well as tutorial recordings are well received by students, however, technology sometimes fails.
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An Introduction to Quizzes in Brightspace
This resource overviews quiz design considerations and introduces how quizzes can be created, managed and graded in Brightspace.
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Assignments in Brightspace
This resource outlines the core functionality of the assignment tool in Brightspace and the online assessment and submission types which it enables.
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Communicating Effectively in Brightspace
This resource overviews the different ways to communicate with your students by using tools such as Announcements, Email, FAQs forums and Intelligent agents in Brightspace.
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Creating and Managing Discussion Forums in Brightspace
This resource outlines what discussion forums are used for, how to create them in Brightspace and how to manage and moderate them.
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Introduction to ePortfolios
This web page introduces ePortfolios and looks at why one would use them. It also outlines some of the benefits and challenges of using ePortfolio and briefly outlines how to set them up in Brightspace.
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Introduction to Rubrics
This web page introduces rubric and looks at why one would use them. It also outlines the types of rubrics that are available and provides step by step guidance on how to create a rubric in Brightspace.
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Managing Groups in Brightspace
This resource gives an overview of the groups tool in Brightspace. It outlines why one would use groups in Brightspace, how to create them, and the use of group assignments and discussions.
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Module Design in Brightspace
This web page provides guidance to assist module coordinators to design or redesign modules to present them via Brightspace in a contextualised format. With regard to designing and structuring modules in Brightspace the following key components are outlined: Module Homepage, My Learning, Learning Materials and Module Builder.
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Providing Feedback in Brightspace
This resource highlights some efficient ways of providing feedback in Brightspace. It outlines the process of providing various feedback formats using the built-in feedback tools available within Brightspace.
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TEL All webinar recording: Going Further with Brightspace
This webinar explores some advanced functionality in Brightspace, including using release conditions to create different views in a module, intelligent agents for communication and creating knowledge check quizzes with reminders.
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TEL All webinar recording: Managing Groups in Brightspace
This webinar overviews how to manage groups using the various tools in Brightspace. Use cases of effective group work in the university will also be discussed.
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TEL All webinar recording: Providing feedback to students via Brightspace
This webinar overviews the different student feedback tools available in Brightspace, including written, audio and video.
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TEL All webinar recording; Using peerScholar in Brightspace
This webinar overviews how to set up peerscholar in Brightspace, as well as discussing recent use cases in the university.
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UCD TEL All Talk: Enhancing Student Engagement with Brightspace
In this practice exchange talk Dr Emma O’Neill, UCD School of Veterinary Medicine, and Dr Crystal Fulton, UCD School of Information and Communication Studies outlines In this TEL ways to personalise the student experience and enhance engagement by creating a more interactive, responsive virtual learning environment.
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UCD TEL All Talk: Using Brightspace Templates: optimising module design
In this practice exchange talk Dr Annunziata Esposito Amideo, UCD Quinn School of Business outlines how using templates in Brightspace enhances module design. It offers tips and tricks in using templates to streamline module layout and reduce student queries.
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UCD Virtual Learning Environment (VLE): Standards Policy
This five page institutional VLE Standards policy document comprises of the VLE Module Standards Framework which details at a minimum how all academic modules should be presented to students. The VLE standards were developed by representatives of the University Teaching and Learning Committee, the Educational Technology Advisory Network (ETAN), UCD Teaching and Learning, IT Services and UCD Estates and were approved by the University Management Team.
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Using Checklists in Brightspace
Checklists are primarily used as a tool for students to help them to track their progress within a module. Checklists are used to support learners in completing learning activities, assessments and also for assignment preparation. This resource outlines when and how to use checklists in Brightspace.
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Using the Brightspace ePortfolio - Case Study
This four page document provides an overview of the use of the Brightspace Portfolio tool within a module. It highlights the cohorts' particular requirements and provides a brief guide as to how the tool was deployed.
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Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Overview
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is seen as the means of achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education) which is key to international and national priorities. This quick guide provides a starting point for understanding ESD and embedding ESD into teaching and learning at UCD.
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Chemistry Pre-lab Quizzes
This case study is about replacing a mostly-by-rote exercise and instead encouraging engagement of students through planned active-learning before they arrived to the lab.
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Digital Badges in Psychiatry
This showcase is about the use of digital badges on a 10 credit clinical module in Psychiatry which students take in stage five of their medical degree course.
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One Minute Paper
This case study highlights a peer-learning approach, taken in a large group to encourage critical thinking. Introduction to Applied Psychology is a large general elective module taken by approximately 520 students each year. It is run in both semesters, with half of the students in each offering. The module was designed to encourage students to think critically about the strengths and limitations of research findings in psychology and other human sciences
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Professor Mark Keane - Teaching Strategies for Success
How can you help first-year students to understand the practical applications of computer science from the start of the programme, expose them to research in the field and improve social interaction amongst the class? Watch this video for approaches to all three.
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Think Pair Share
Here is an in-class peer approach that helps stage one students to overcome the anxiety that they can feel about asking questions, about uncertainty and about being judged by their peers and about getting it wrong. It also gives the teacher an idea about how the content is being received.
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Turning a Traditional Teaching Setting into a Feedback-rich Environment
"Le Tour de France" is a fun way for students to learn using their own devices in class. The real-time graphical display of results provides performance information for the teacher and rapid feedback for the students.
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Using Blogs and Twitter to Encourage Student Engagement
The use of blogs, and to a lesser extent Twitter, was explored to see how student engagement with assessments and the module in general could be improved.
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Responding Constructively to Student Feedback
This six page resource will guide you through a process for dealing with student feedback including; prioritising student comments, establishing which are relevant and constructive and considering possible responses.
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UCD Student Feedback Survey Process
This document provides a one page overview to the design, planning, implementation and review of student feedback, utilising the standardised UCD system.
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Brightspace Audio Feedback
This four page case study outlines a trial to provide Audio feedback to students for two online short essay submissions instead of usual extensive typed feedback stapled to their corrected work. Each student got some online corrections (on-screen edits), but also got an audio file within Brightspace with personalised feedback on their assignment.
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Student Guide - Enhancing the Student Role in Mastering Feedback
Feedback is an opportunity for students to improve their work and develop their skills. This guide, developed with our UCD Students as Partners in Teaching and Learning, contains useful tips by students for students to make the most of the feedback they receive. (PDF, 6 pages)
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Five UCD Case Studies: 1st Year Assessment Design
This 10 page resource highlights UCD design principles for first year modules. It then presents five UCD case studies and how they addressed some or all of these first year module design principles.
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Reducing and Diversifying Assessment in First Year Social Science: Case Study from UCD Assessment ReDesign Project
This six page case study, by Dr Patricia Kennedy, describes how she redesigned her first year 'Introduction to Theories and Concepts' 2012-2103 module in the Social Science Degree. She introduced in-class concept maps and removed the examination. This increased in-class discussion and reduce correction time.
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Formative Assessment: Practical Ideas for Improving the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Feedback to Students
This five page resource identifies the principals of feedback and provides some examples of how to integrate them into practice.
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Collaborative Teaching of Engineering and Architecture Students
This is a showcase about a joint teaching module set up for engineers and architects with a view to producing graduates who are better able to work together, with experience of working together as part of their formal training. The development of effective team-working skills is one of the goals of the approach.
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Enhancing Performance through a Competitive Team Tournament
Structures-related civil engineering subjects requires a maturation time in the student’s mind before being fully understood. This project aims to develop highly efficient group activities that will help students to meet their learning outcomes in traditionally difficult subjects.
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Group Work and its Assessment
This 14 page guide gives an overview of the assessment of group work. It explores how you can assess the process and/or the product of group work. In addition group work can be assessed by student's individual and/or group contribution. It is valuable to consider how you incrementally develop students group work skills throughout a programme. Advice is given on how to support students in the face to face and online group work.
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Group work in Stage One English for Social, Critical and Creative Benefits
This four page Case study, by Dr Naomi McAreavey and Dr Niamh Pattwell, describes their experience of introducing a group project to a large class of Stage 1 English students. Overall, they were satisfied that the group project does important work in facilitating social learning – a process through which students learn from each other and deepen their engagement with the module.
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Projects in Teaching Linguistics: Burden or Opportunity?
A group project approach has been taken in a second year Sociolinguistics module to help students with the challenging learning curve and socially sensitive subject matter.
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Surviving Group Work -Tips for Students
This one page guide offers top ten tips for students when engaged in group work - ideally suited as a resource provided by faculty for their learners.
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Assessment for Inclusion Framework
This web page provides a comprehensive overview of the Assessment for Inclusion framework, how it aligns with current literature, and ways in which it can be implemented.
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Inclusive Assessment and Feedback
This web page gives a comprehensive overview of key concepts underpinning inclusive assessment and feedback.
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TEL All webinar recording: Creating Accessible Content with PowerPoint
This webinar reviews the tools available in PowerPoint to help you develop accessible content that is well calibrated to a blended learning environment
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Top Seven Tips for Inclusive Module Design
This two page resource, developed by UCD Access & Lifelong Learning provides a quick reference guide for integrating 'inclusive' design into module development.
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How can I design my curriculum to promote intercultural learning?
This section offers guidance to support you to embed culturally-responsive teaching, learning and assessment into the curriculum including principles of good practice.
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Intercultural Learning: Why? What? How?
Dr Stephanie Doscher and Dr Hilary Landorf from Florida International University come together in conversation to focus on intercultural learning in UCD.
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Internationalising your Curriculum: Quick Self-Assessment Exercise
This Internationalising the Curriculum Self-Assessment Exercise provides specific questions to help review your current curriculum.
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Lessons Learned from Lecturing in Guangzhou, China
An Introduction to Horticulture, Forestry & Land Use and Environment is a core module taken by all UCD/ South China Agricultural University (SCAU) students. It introduces the major global issues in horticulture and forestry in conjunction with other interactions between human beings and their environment. The challenges relate to delivery, the nature of the material and the differences in lecture/tutor-student interactions.
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The UCD Student Perspective on Intercultural Learning
This short video highlights the perspective of UCD students on Intercultural Learning. The students talk about what they believe they can gain from learning from people from different cultures.
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What is Intercultural Learning?
This section provides an introduction to the key features of intercultural learning including an overview of topics and terminology.
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Large Group Teaching Strategies
This page offers some insights on differing approaches to engage large groups from the lecturer and learner perspective.
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Academic Skills Development - A Disciplinary Approach
The Centre for Distance Learning has developed two academic skills modules which form part of the Diploma in Business Studies (DBS) programme. The modules, Induction and Returning to Learning and Developing Learning Competencies, are a core part of year one of the programme
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Bringing Bees Back to Belfield
Honey bee colonies were established as part of a programme of staff-student projects aimed at enhancing university and community life. Students have an opportunity to handle bee colonies in the apiary and experience at first hand bee activities and behaviour within the hive environment on campus. Bees play a vital role in the food chain.
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Bringing Undergraduate Research to Life
This showcase is about how use of a Research Expo has brought research to life for UCD undergraduate business students who, as part-time students, have particularly benefited from the community developed.
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Coherent Learning Approaches
This web page highlights the importance of coherent learning approaches.
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Creative Challenge for Science Students
The challenge for the students is to develop a learning aid to teach the fundamentals of organ specific toxicology. They are encouraged to be creative and are free to work in any media.
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Guide to Taxonomies of Learning
This nine page resource gives guidance on the different taxonomies of learning. Taxonomies are catagories that describe different levels of learning and suggest verbs that could be useful to use in learning outcomes.
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Interactivity for 200+ Sciences Students in Statistics Modelling Module
This module was designed to give first year science students the basic tools to think about their ideas in a rigorous statistical manner and to understand that this is not a dry subject which requires strong mathematical ability, but rather a necessity of life which can be of huge benefit to all.
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Paper Tower Challenge
A class of 320 first year students of UCD Mechanical and Materials Engineering have been set a challenge to build a one meter tall paper tower that will hold one kilogram. The students work in teams and use only paper in the construction. In the video the students and the lecturer, Professor Michael Gilchrist talk about the positive impact of this learning approach.
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Student Participation for Social Learning
The capacity of students to recall and understand material covered in the latter parts of lectures is shown in educational literature to be low. The role of the active learning environment is to re-engage students at points in lectures where concentration levels are seen to be in waning.
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Student-centered Learning: What does it mean for students and lecturers?
This ten page book chapter by Geraldine O'Neill and Tim McMahon provides an overview of the concept of Student Centred Learning and offers a guide as to how one might enact this in their teaching.
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Study Skills for University Learning
Feargal Murphy, a lecturer in the UCD College of Arts and Celtic Studies talks about a module he developed for the Humanities to teach Study Skills for University Learning.
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Supporting Student Learning
This page offers an introduction to common theoretical concepts and how they may impact the learning, teaching and assessment practice.
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Techniques for Encouraging Active Learning
This document offers a snapshot of a range of techniques and methods that enable and promote ‘active’ participation in teaching and learning. A brief description of each is provided, followed by some pertinent suggestions. Audience: Faculty, Tutors, Demonstrators and those that support learning.
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Consumer Law: Real-world Applications and Communications
Students learnt about real-world application and communication of complex consumer law information through poster design and Twitter.
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Delivering a Lecture
This page provides a number of simple guidelines in establishing a rapport with ones' audience and delivering an effective lecture.
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Development and teaching of a large online undergraduate module
The module "Food Diet and Health" was moved online to increase capacity in line with growing demand. This showcase is about the development and teaching of the online version.
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Evaluate
This web page addresses key questions to be asked when evaluating a module.
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Module Design
This web page provides module coordinators with a step-by-step guide to the module design process.
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Module Design & Enhancement
This page provides guidance on module design and enhancement.
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An Introduction to Peer Observation of Teaching
This 12 page introduction paper explains key terms associated with the peer observation process and provides an overview of the UCD Peer observation process. It offers a simple five point guide to the preparation, planning, gathering of feedback and evidence and designing of an action plan to enhance ones' teaching and learning.
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Genuine Peer Observation of Teaching
This one page poster outlines UCD Teaching and Learning's five-stage model of "Genuine Peer Observation of Teaching", which can be used both for reflective practice, and to generate validated evidence of excellence in teaching.
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An Introduction to Effective Poster Design and Production
This nine page PDF resource, written for students producing a poster, gives detailed information on how to design a poster, including the poster size, font and use of colours. It discusses accessibility and graphics issues and suggests some different software.
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Designing Micro Research and Digital Posters
This ten page guide offers some simple design principles with which to create posters. The focus is on how to integrate them into teaching practice from a research-based point of view. The guide may also be offered to students as a basic resource.
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A Practitioner’s Guide to Enquiry and Problem-based Learning: Case Studies from University College Dublin
This 54 page guide gives detailed UCD case studies including sample problems used and student feedback.
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An Informed Vision and Values Statement
This document gives you practical guidance on writing a vision and values statement.
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Coherent Learning Approaches
This web page highlights the importance of coherent learning approaches.
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Curriculum Design in Higher Education: Theory to Practice
This 189 page eBook by Dr Geraldine O'Neill, provides a comprehensive overview of curriculum design in higher education. It covers: educational philosophies, curriculum models, programme aims, teaching and learning strategies, evaluation cycles and more.
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Curriculum Research
This web page gives ideas and resources for doing curriculum research.
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Define Curriculum Challenge
This web page encourages module designers to clarify their specific curriculum design challenge.
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Implement
This web page addresses key questions of curriculum implementation.
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Light Review: Some Questions for the Programme Team to discuss
This activity contains some questions about assessment and feedback for a programme team to discuss as part of a light review.
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Meeting a Group of Graduates
This exercise really gets you to think about graduate attributes.
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Needs Analysis
This web page provides key questions to be asked when doing a needs analysis at the start of the module design process.
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Outline
This web page explains how to do a curriculum outline.
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Programme Aims and Outcomes
This web page gives guidance and resources on writing programme aims and objectives design
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Programme Design and Assessment
This web page gives an overview of programme approaches to assessment.
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Programme Mapping & Alignment
This web page gives guidance and tools on curriculum mapping
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Questions to Prompt Discussion and Interpretation of the Curriculum Map by the Programme Team
This document provides specific questions that you can use for group discussion of the curriculum map.
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Questions to Prompt Thinking and Development of Programme Outcomes by Programme Teams
Questions to Prompt Thinking and Development of Programme Outcomes by Programme Teams
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The Programme Design Dialogue Tool
This 13 page guide helps you to engage in important conversations about a programme.
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Vision, Values and Models
This web page gives guidance and resources on the vision and values stage of the programme design process
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Learning Journals and Logs
In this 19 page comprehensive resource, Dr Jennifer Moon gives an overview of the difference between learning journals and logs. She highlights the purposes and forms of the reflective writing used in these approaches. She presents some exercises and explores how to assess them, giving some disciplinary examples.
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Reflective Practice Models
Reflecting on your teaching encompasses taking a step back from your teaching, evaluating it, and extracting meaning from it in order to make positive change. During this process, we can learn more about how we teach and the impact it has on student learning. This six page guide "Reflective Practice Models" provides an overview of just some of the practical models that have been developed to support you in this process.
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Reviewing and Sharing your Teaching
There are many ways that you can review and share your teaching, from reflecting in private to sharing your teaching in public. This is not a static process and occurs informally as well as formally. This reflective journey affords you the opportunity to discover more about yourself as a teacher and it will help you to more easily make changes in your practice. Here you will find information and resources about aspects of the reviewing and sharing journey in teaching and learning.
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Case Study Template
This three page case study template is a great way of distilling down an initiative you have introduced or an approach you have taken in your teaching into its main components for sharing with UCD colleagues.
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Researching and Publishing your Teaching
If you are thinking about exploring your teaching at a deeper level through research, this section provides information and resources about researching and publishing your teaching, including beginning the research process, deciding on your focus and research questions, considering ethical questions, and other aspects of getting your research published. It also provides information on ways that you can share your findings with others (conference presentation, case study, or journal articles, etc
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Sample Information Leaflet and Student Consent Form
This four page document is a sample information leaflet for interview/focus group participants (students). You can edit it to your requirements.
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Approaches to Research-Teaching Linkages: Some Examples
This two page guide provides some useful examples of different approaches for incorporating research into teaching.
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Learning Through Research
This guide provides an important insight into the impact of research-teaching linkages on the Undergraduate student experience in UCD and the understandings and perceptions of the importance and relevance of research-teaching linkages amongst faculty.
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Assignment rubrics for supportive feedback and consistent grading
This showcase demonstrates the multiple uses of rubrics for individual assessment components in modules with large students numbers and includes a sample rubric and a student guide to using rubrics.
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Designing Grading and Feedback Rubrics
This 10 page resource gives a definition of holistic and analytic rubrics. It explores the three key purposes of rubrics. It steps out the benefits and challenges of rubrics and highlights the different components and steps required when designing rubrics.
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TEL Quick Guide Pre-recorded Lectures and Screencasts
This one-page TEL quick-guide introduces pre-recorded lectures and screencasts, presents possible uses in teaching and learning, relevant educational technologies and getting started guidelines.
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Self and Peer Assessment
In this two page PDF resource, Dr Charo Hernandez gives a quick overview of the benefits and challenges of using self and peer assessment.
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Small Group Teaching Strategies
This page establishes how one may manage small group interactions to the best possible advantage of the learner.
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Creating a Week’s Space across the Curriculum for Engagement - Case Study
This five page case study highlights how staff in the BSc in Social Science programme came together to support more space for engagement in the curriculum. Week 8 of the first semester was ring-fenced as an opportunity for first year students to step back, reflect on, and ensure they were on target with all of their learning activities following their first few weeks in University.
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Larger Modules: Space for Deeper Learning in History - Case Study
This four page case study, by Prof Paul Rouse, describes how the staff in the School of History introduced ten (in place of the typical 5) credit modules. This was to allow students pursue a deeper engagement with particular aspects of History at Level 3. Staff and students were positive about the move to larger modules.
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Student Response System (Poll Everywhere)
This page provides an overview of the Poll Everywhere student response system. Student Response Systems are educational technologies most often used for the purpose of making lectures interactive by engaging students in real-time activities. Typically during class the lecturer would pose a question or poll which students would respond to instantly via their own device such as a smartphone, tablet or laptop.
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Planning a Teaching Session
This six page guide explores some of the core concepts one needs to employ when devising a teaching session.
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Professor Anne Drummond - Teaching Strategies for Success
Professor Anne Drummond, UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science, shares her teaching strategies for success with the UCD Community
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Professor Danielle Clarke - Teaching Strategies for Success
Professor Danielle Clarke, Professor of English Renaissance Language and Literature shares strategies she has been using for many years to engage and teach students, particularly in humanities and literature-based subjects. Danielle says: "Teaching should be objective-led, student-focused and discussion-driven."
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Professor Gavin Barrett - Teaching Strategies for Success
Professor Gavin Barrett, Jean Monnet Professor of European Constitutional and Economic Law shares a number of strategies including enabling students to think independently, engaging them with the subject matter, trying innovative approaches and focusing on teaching itself
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Professor Pat Gibbons - Teaching Strategies for Success
Professor Pat Gibbons, Jefferson Smurfit Professor of Strategic Management shares his Teaching Strategies for Success. Pat predominately teaches strategic management to graduate business students. He follows a participant-centered approach, where students are co-creators of knowledge. Pat talks about the detailed information he provides to students in order to set clear expectations and he talks about his own process for improving his teaching strategies.
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Questions to Prompt Critical Thinking
This five page document offers up a simple framework one might use to design effective questions that shall enable learners to understand and develop their own autonomous critical thinking. Audience: Faculty, Tutors, Demonstrators, those that support learning and students.
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Writing a Teaching Philosophy
This 10 page guide introduces one to the concept of a teaching philosophy and how to set about creating a reflection of one's own conceptions about teaching and learning. It provides an introduction to some models of reflective practice and offers a series of exercises to help frame your own philosophy.
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Enhancing Student Learning and Engagement with Technology
This module discusses the concepts and specific skills related to electronic marketing (eMarketing), Social Networking & Web2.0. This practical oriental module requires students to design and implement an online marketing strategy for a small or medium sized organisation as part of an international online marketing challenge organized by Google
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Six Approaches to Technology Enhanced Feedback
This resource highlights six feedback strategies on students’ assessment. It encompasses feedback given from staff to students and where students self-monitor, review and critically evaluate their own and/or their peers’ work, it sets outs different technologies to support these strategies.
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UCD Educational Technologies
This web page outlines the UCD core educational technologies i.e. Virtual Learning Environment (Brightspace), Virtual Classroom (Zoom), G Suite for Education and others and our support relating to same.
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Using Smartphones in Class to Access Irish Language Resources
The introduction of the smartphone into a lecture theatre with 100+ first year students seemed risky but so far the response has been very positive. The students were given deliberately ambiguous sentences to translate together using the dictionaries, ranging from excerpts from Harry Potter to pieces on nautical terminology and trade unionism.
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Supporting Tutors: A Guide for Module Co ordinators
This 2 page guide offers specific guidance for the support of tutors and highlights some of the relevant materials/resources for small group teaching.
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Tutor Induction Pack
This 32 page guide provides a broad overview of teaching and learning approaches and methodologies. It includes a series of activities to help one prepare, design and implement small group teaching sessions.
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Mechanics Video Tutorials for 320+ First-year Engineering Students
Mechanics for Engineers is a core module taken by every engineering student in semester one of first year. It is one of the first modules that some 320 students take upon entering university and is traditionally regarded by students as one of their most difficult stage one modules.
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Teaching Online with Zoom
This web resource offers an overview of zoom for teaching and learning purposes. It is the recommended virtual classroom tool available in UCD which is integrated with Brightspace. It outlines how best to facilitate an active and engaging session using zoom's in-built tools and it presents a series of practical considerations to consider when using breakout rooms.
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UCD Guidelines for Faculty Using the Virtual Classroom
This five page document sets out the institutionally approved guidelines for faculty on use of the virtual classroom.
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UCD Guidelines for Students Using the Virtual Classroom
This four page document sets out the institutionally approved guidelines for students on use of the virtual classroom.
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Using a Virtual Classroom to Support Part-time Business Students
This module, BMGT3002D Undergraduate Dissertation, is a core module on the Bachelor of Business Studies (BBS) part-time programme at UCD Lochlann Quinn School of Business.
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Using a Wiki to Share Undergraduate Student Project Ideas
The process of selecting a suitable project topic can be a daunting one for undergraduate students. The wiki enables students to share ideas and to make suggestions to each other assisting in refining their topic focus.
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Using Wikis to Facilitate Small-group Learning
The goals of this assessment, the second of three, were to help to (a) develop group skills; (b) demonstrate effective reading and (c) develop effective writing and communication skills. Students had been exploring the impact of renaissance planning ideas on European cities.
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Work-Integrated Learning
This page sets out the definition and approaches for work-integrated learning as part of module design.