April 2015 Workshops

A Tour of DCU's ePortfolio System

1st April 2015 | 12 Noon | DG10 Bea Orpen

ePortfolios have been promoted as being tools for life-long learning, enabling higher order learning and potentially showing employers competencies and skills of students

This training workshop will showcase the DCU ePortfolio system and is aimed at lecturers who wish to integrate the DCU ePortfolio system into activities with students. The workshop will demonstrate:

Login to DCU ePortfolio
The interface and skills matrix of DCU ePortfolio
how to upload evidence to match skills
Create a CV with the ePortfolio tool
Other features of the ePortfolio tool
Reservations are essential as places are limited.

Reservations are essential as places are limited. Register available at this link.

Gaining Publications from Theses

22nd April 2015 | 11a.m. | DG10 Bea Orpen

Dr Debbie Bright, a visiting New Zealand Scholar, will lead a discussion on work she has done to produce and promote a range of books based on her theses. She has worked in reflective practice in dance education and in exploring female artists' ways of knowing. Debbie will encourage you to research your own practice, and to gain publications from this work.

Reservations are essential as places are limited. Register at this link.

Managing Assessments through Loop

23rd April 2015 | 1p.m.| DG10 Bea Orpen

Managing assignments can be very time consuming and cumbersome tasks. Typical questions a lecturer is faced with: Have all the students made a submission? did everybody submit before the deadline? how can I give feedback to all of my students in a practical way?

Furthermore continuous assessment may result in you having to weight assessments differently, thereby creating the headache of converting the actual grade from each assignment into a percentage of the students final mark towards their exam.

This session will show staff how to simply get Loop to solve all of those problems. The session is aimed towards lecturing staff.

By the end of this session participants will be able to:

embed rubrics and marking guides into their assignments within Loop
track all of their assignment submissions
use Loop gradebook to manage all of the grades and their associated weighting
know how to import your marks directly into the anonymous marking tables within ITS

Registration available at this link.

The Hip Bone's Connected to the Thigh Bone! Constructing a Coherent Curriculum

29th April 2015 | 12 Noon | DG10 Bea Orpen

Have you heard about Constructive Alignment but are not sure you understand exactly what it means? Done correctly, McMahon and Thakore (2006) say that it leads to fairer assessment, greater transparency, more effective course evaluation, and an increase in the criticality and depth of student work.

To learn more about it, come along to this workshop where staff from the Teaching Enhancement Unit, NIDL, will discuss ideas on how to ensure that your courses and/or programmes demonstrate constructive alignment. We’ll look at graduate profiles claiming skills and attributes developed on a programme, then discuss how these influence what goes into the programme. We will also discuss practical tips on the writing of learning outcomes so you can be sure your outcomes and assessments match up well and meet your teaching goals. Bring your ideas and questions to this session.

Reference: McMahon, T., & Thakore, H. (2006). Achieving constructive alignment: Putting outcomes first. The Quality of Higher Education (Aukštojo mokslo kokybė,), 3, 10-19.