Welcome to the OVPLT eNewsletter Summer 2023 We are excited to bring you the latest news from our seven units. As always, the last few months have been busy ones, and there have been plenty of news stories, events, new courses and development opportunities for staff.

Cork has been chosen as the host city for a major international summit on the future of higher education which is to take place in 2025.

Hundreds of Europe’s top minds from the world of university education are to come to University College Cork  (UCC) for the European University Association (EUA) Learning & Teaching Forum, which will be held in Cork on February 27 and 28, 2025.

UCC’s Office of the Vice President for Learning and Teaching and Centre for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning today announced its successful bid to host the event.

In this edition, we are delighted to celebrate the wonderful achievements of our colleagues which were marked by the Annual Staff Recognition Awards ceremony, which took place in December in the Hub.

This workshop will explore strategies for transparently centring purpose and value in our design so we may effectively assess learning processes, with a particular focus on including process-oriented information literacy competencies in assignment design.

These sessions help to ensure staff have the skills to identify and respond to student needs and to provide them with a high-quality university experience. 

The Strategic Alignment of Teaching and Learning Enhancement (SATLE) 2022/23 fund is an initiative aimed at driving innovation in learning and teaching across the Higher Education sector in Ireland.

This year’s allocation for UCC is €715,000, to support almost 30 Teaching and Learning Enhancement initiatives which will be crucial in supporting the provision of a student-centred, inclusive, and digitally enhanced learning environment.

Are you interested in learning about making your research materials FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable)? Want, or need, to publish open access? Need to know about search techniques for systematic reviews? Or perhaps you would like training in planning, managing, and tidying your research data?

UCC Library is hosting eight in person workshops over February and March, which will provide you with practical information on a range of research specific topics. These free workshops will have a practical focus, with plenty of opportunity to apply some of your knowledge in a welcoming and friendly environment.

Welcome to the latest edition of the OVPLT eNewsletter where we share all the news, events and opportunities from the OVPLT Centres. 

In this edition we celebrate the achievements of the awardees of the President’s excellence in Teaching Awards and hear from some of the successful nominees.

Áine Hyland, Emeritus Professor of Education and former Vice-President of UCC, has been one of the most influential figures in Irish education over the past 50 years.

In our latest OVPLT eNewsletter Winter 2022 we celebrate the achievements of our colleagues who were awarded with Excellence in Teaching Awards in November, and those who completed Postgraduate Certificates and Diplomas in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

Registration for VITAL Week is now open.

Join us for Valuing Ireland’s Teaching and Learning (VIT&L) Week

Join us from Monday 8 to Friday 12 November 2021 to share and learn with the Irish higher education community as it considers how we value teaching and learning and explore what the future of education will look like for the students of tomorrow. VIT&L Week is co-ordinated by the National Forum, in partnership with students and those who teach, lead and support learning across the Irish higher education community. It marks the start of a focus on valuing teaching and learning that will extend to Tuesday 30 November 2021.

View Registration and Programme

We are all delighted to be getting back to our beloved campus and to see students returning to student life again. Although, there are many changes and adjustments to be made as we work towards making the campus a safe space for both students and staff, we look forward to engaging with colleagues to make these adjustments as smooth as possible.

Welcome to the OVPLT eNewsletter Summer 2021 In this edition, we celebrate the achievements of 48 staff members who were recognised as Teaching Heroes in the recent National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning Awards. We also congratulate the members of the Elevate Delta team who have received national recognition.

Week 3 will explore the theme of “Active Learning & Student Success”. The showcase will present the work of colleagues supported by the National Forum’s Strategic Alignment of Teaching and Learning Enhancement (SATLE) fund 2019, followed by an open Q&A session.

The Centre for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL) and the Office of the Vice President for Learning and Teaching are delighted to host a series of online Learning & Teaching Research Showcase events. These online showcases will take place across all Fridays in May 2021, with the second event taking place on Friday 14^th May 11am-12pm.

These online showcases will take place across all Fridays in May 2021, with the first event taking place on Friday 7^th May 11am-12.15pm.

This Fund offers grants of up to a maximum of €2,000 per application.  Its purpose is to provide opportunities for developmental activities which enhance teaching, learning and assessment and support UCC’s Academic Strategy 2018-22 and UCC 2022: Delivering a Connected University.  

We hope you enjoy reading this Newsletter and would like to thank all our contributors across the OVPLT and the wider university. For further information or feedback, please contact Jacqui at j.churcher@ucc.ie

Welcome to the winter edition of the OVPLT eNewsletter. The challenge of working from home and balancing work and home life has certainly not dampened the enthusiasm and dedication of our colleagues across the University. This edition is packed full of stories of achievement, commitment and optimism.

OVPLT eNewsletter Winter 2021

UCC was delighted to receive support for a number of Network and Discipline groups under the National Forum’s 2020 Network and Discipline Fund. A total of 17 networks and discipline groups across the sector have been approved for funding. This iteration of the Fund has a focus on Shared Solutions to Common Challenges. It aims to support networks and discipline groups to work together to respond proactively to identified challenges in teaching and learning in higher education, including those that have come to light through the sudden move to online/remote teaching and learning. 

The National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education have launched their National Seminar Series for 2021. 

The National Seminar Series gives those working in higher education the opportunity to connect with colleagues and to focus on shared interests in both the research and practice of teaching and learning enhancement. The series also creates opportunities to hear from national and international experts in different areas of teaching and learning.

UCC has several seminars available as part of this series which can be viewed here.

Over the summer months, the Skills Centre, Adult Continuing Education and Exam Appeals Office have gone fully online.

The Language Centre ran its summer courses online, the Centre for Digital Education has maintained a high level of support for online teaching and the Canvas trainings which ran over the summer months are now available on the CDE website. The CDE and CIRTL also launched Teach Digi, a series of digital education training supports for UCC staff.

The Information Session will be held on Microsoft Teams on Monday 20th July 11am -12pm. 

Catherine will be joined by Máire Leane and Fiachra Ó' Suilleabháin from Applied Social Sciences, who won a team award in 2018 and will be available for questions and answers. 

Link to join Information Session 

Professor Lynch, a professor and consultant in Restorative Dentistry at UCC, was this week announced as a recipient of Ireland's inaugural Teaching and Learning Research Fellowships.

The fellowships, introduced by the National Forum in partnership with the Irish Research Council were presented to a total of five recipients from Irish universities.

This 6 week programme will run from the 29th June to 6th August and will include 11 workshops and a free mini-conference. 

This edition contains news and events from the spring period, from all of the OVPLT departments. 

Chris Lynch Professor and Consultant in Restorative Dentistry in UCC, has been shortlisted for the country’s most prestigious national individual teaching and learning awards.

The Fellowships recognise, reward and celebrate those who have demonstrated, through practice, scholarship and leadership, a deep commitment to the enhancement of teaching and learning in higher education. They will also develop a robust evidence base for future teaching and learning enhancement decision-making across the sector.

CIRTL is here to help with new Learning Design workshops. The focus of these 90minute interactive workshops, hosted in the Hub, is on the alignment of your curriculum with the Academic Strategy and the Connected Curriculum. These workshops will also give you space and time to analyse your existing curriculum and tweak your teaching and assessment design.  

Welcome to the Winter edition of the OVPLT newsletter. As always, it’s been a busy few months for all of the Units and Centres within the OVPLT, which all provides for an interesting read. 

This edition rounds up events and news from our 6 units, the Centre for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning, the Centre for Continuing Professional Development, the Centre for Digital Education, the Exam Appeals Unit, the Language Centre and Adult Continuing Education.

OVPLT Winter 2020 Newsletter  

The Skills Centre is a dedicated, active learning space that helps students improve their academic communication, so they can independently discover their own needs and improve their academic work and assessment outcomes, with confidence. Utilising an interactive, student-centred approach that engages collaborative learning and skills development, the Skills Centre team provide a confidential and non-judgmental space for students so they can work towards scholastic improvement in a comfortable environment.  The 2019/20 academic year is the third year of operation for the Centre which has gone from strength to strength.

As part of their work on the TAP (Transforming Assessment Practices in Large Enrolment First Year Education) Erasmus+ Capacity Building Project, CIRTL were delighted to welcome a delegation of senior management representatives from several Palestinian universities and the Accreditation & Quality Committee to UCC in May 2019.

Welcome to the new edition of the OVPLT eNewsletter. With an introduction from VP; Professor Paul McSweeney, the Summer edition contains news from all the Centres and Units in the OVPLT family. In addition to updates from the office, we welcome new units, say goodbye to retiring staff and congratulate recipients of awards and parchments.

University College Cork is committed to excellence in education and the Teaching Excellence Awards scheme at UCC is the longest-established scheme of its kind in Ireland. These awards recognise staff who have made an outstanding contribution in the pursuit of teaching excellence through innovative and creative forms of teaching, learning and assessment.

The 6th Scenario Forum Symposium was hosted by the University of Hanover in September 2018. The Symposium brought together colleagues from different academic disciplines to discuss – and experience – how performative approaches to teaching and learning can be applied in a range of third-level contexts. In this article Professor Manfred Schewe, Department of German shares the recommendations for promoting a Performative Teaching, Learning and Research Culture in Higher Education. 

Alison Farrell, Senior Lead for Sectoral Engagement with the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (‘the National Forum’) will give an information session for staff on 17 April at 1pm-2pm in O’Rahilly Building, room 255:

Applications for the Online Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 2019/2020 are now open until 20th June, 2019.