This project addressed the needs and challenges of overseas students transitioning into the Irish Higher Education system and the needs and challenges of the lecturers delivering the programmes. Digital strategies and tools were developed based on the experiences of incoming students, staff and the local communities to ease the transition and promote positive integration into academic and college life.

To make the incoming students experiences of Irish Higher Education as fruitful and productive as possible institutions must ensure that incoming students transition effectively. However, the most recent report from Education in Ireland on International Students in Higher Education 2011-2012 identifies a number of constraints to this objective. The project tackled these constraints and support to systems that are fit for purpose. This project also supported the lecturers transition from teaching and supporting traditional students to teaching and supporting foreign national student groups in an increasingly digital world.

The project consisted of six multimedia interactive asynchronous units that were divided into two categories. The first two units were designed to be used by incoming students prior to their departure from their home country. The first unit outlines items concerning Irish customs and culture in general while the second unit focuses on custom and practices specific to the Higher Education system in Ireland. The remaining four units will provide a series of practical teaching and learning strategies to lecturers who teach groups of incoming foreign national students. Drawing on exemplars of practice from the participating colleges and their international students, each of these units focused on the teaching and learning strategies used by lecturers with extensive experience of teaching groups of foreign national students.

For further information, please go to: http://www.liveandlearninireland.net/

Or, contact Mary O'Rourke on: 021 490 3609 / email: mary.orourke@ucc.ie

Project Team 
Suzanne Buckley
Mary O'Rourke

Collaborators
Institute of Technology Tralee (Project Lead)
Waterford Institute of Technology
Cork Institute of Technology
University College Cork
Institute of Technology, Carlow

Funding
National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education; Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund 2014 (Building Digital Capacity)

Duration
January 2015 - December 2016