‘Teaching for transitions’
In 2014 Ireland’s National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education issued a call for projects under their Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund to support a theme of ‘Teaching for Transitions’. This theme aimed to inform the focus of activities in Irish Higher Education by changing the pedagogical landscape when it comes to supporting transitions through effective teaching and learning. The call acknowledged different types of transition: transition from secondary level into Higher Education; transition from one culture to another; or transition of adults into Higher Education. The enhancement theme also sought to improve teaching and learning culture and digital capacity. This paper reports on reflections from three lead partners of projects funded under this call. Dublin City University led the’ Student Success Toolbox’ project, which developed a suite of digital readiness tools for supporting flexible learner transition into Higher Education during the early stages of the study life-cycle. Institute of Technology Sligo led the ‘Get Ready Education - A Learning Journey’ project, which developed a dual pathway MOOC that supports students transitioning from second level to Higher Education in Ireland. Institute of Technology Tralee led the ‘Live and Learn in Ireland’ project, which developed a number of interactive multimedia learning units that aid international students in becoming familiar with studying and living in Ireland and thus helps them make a smoother transition into Irish Higher Education. This paper identifies both the common lessons learned of these three initiatives but also the how our experiences diverged.
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‘Teaching for transitions’
- 1. ‘Teaching for Transitions’ Reflecting on three nationally funded projects that developed digital tools to facilitate transitions into Higher Education
- 2. Authors James Brunton - National Institute for Digital Learning, Dublin City University, Ireland Mark Brown - National Institute for Digital Learning, Dublin City University, Ireland Gavin Clinch - Centre for Online Learning, Institute of Technology Sligo, Ireland Eamon Costello - National Institute for Digital Learning, Dublin City University, Ireland Tom Farrelly - Institute of Technology Tralee, Ireland Jennifer Gilligan - Centre for Online Learning, Institute of Technology Sligo, Ireland Antony Murphy - Institute of Technology Tralee, Ireland
- 4. The National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
- 12. Commonalities And Divergences Commonalities Divergences Focus on active facilitation of transition into higher education Student Type Demographic Profile Focus on pre-entry period Use of Technology Common aspects of the transition experience Central Focus - Students or Sector Literature review
- 13. Lessons Learned
- 14. Thank You
Notas do Editor
- Collaborations: 1) Being involved in this project call has greatly increased collaboration between institutions in Ireland as project teams have been formed across several institutions for each project. 2) Because we have been looking at the same themes, albeit in different ways, has encouraged collaboration between institutions and between projects, for example we are here today jointly sharing our experiences. And finally 3) a great deal of learning has occurred as we have all seen the progress of other projects from this call as we have had to present at open review panel days where we gave progress updates to the National Forum’s international review panel. While we might have some criticisms of this as a means of project evaluation it was a great showcase for the projects and an opportunity to learn about what other project teams had done and see what the commonalities and divergences are between them. Sustainability - The funding body had a major focus on sustainability, expressed through the type of questions project teams were asked at the international review panel presentations, and this has had a big influence on us and our project teams and the work we have done. This has had a knock on impact on the institutional practices and systems that are the focus of our projects. This focus on sustainability drove us to ensure that there would be demonstrable ongoing progression for our initiatives.