“Mary Mitchell O’Connor, TD, Minister of State for Higher Education, today 2nd of November, 2017, launched an online resource to assist higher level institutions to create effective student retention strategies and to enhance student experiences …” (more)
[Teaching and Learning, 2 November]
“A former wrestler at the University of Iowa was arrested last week for his role in a high-tech cheating scheme. The student, Trevor Graves, secretly installed devices called keyloggers onto campus computers and used them to record his professors’ keystrokes. Armed with his instructors’ institutional log-in details, Graves reportedly boosted his grades over 90 times in a 21-month period, in addition to intercepting exam and test questions …” (more)
[Lindsay McKenzie, Inside Higher Ed, 1 November]
“Today I finish a three-year term as the Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning in our Faculty of Science and Health. The ADTL role is probably one of those admin roles that are seen as representing university bureaucracy gone mad and associate deans as a group are routinely lampooned on Twitter …” (more)
[educationandstuff, 31 October]
“Over 75% of Irish school leavers will progress to further or higher education. And you might imagine that we would adopt an integrated approach to curriculum design in our education system. And you might think that we’d think about each level of the education system in terms of how well it prepares pupils and students for the subsequent level …” (more)
[educationandstuff, 25 October]
“Apparently like all university heads in the United Kingdom, I received a letter this week from Mr Chris Heaton-Harris MP, a Conservative Whip in the House of Commons and, as his own website states, a ‘fierce Eurosceptic’. In his letter, Mr Heaton-Harris asks me to supply him with the names of professors ‘who are involved in the teaching of European affairs, with particular reference to Brexit’ …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 25 October]
“Queen’s University Belfast is giving students ‘trigger warnings’ that material on some courses may offend or cause distress. History and politics undergraduates at the university have been told they may be upset by modules on the far right movement in Europe and North America …” (more)
[Jonathan Bell, Belfast Telegraph, 24 October]
“For the last three years I’ve been teaching a first year module called Introduction to Bioprocessing. To be honest, the purpose of the module is to get our biotechnology students together as a relatively small group (25 students) which I hope will help make the transition to university that little bit easier for them. The module is, to a large extent, an ice-breaker …” (more)
[educationandstuff, 24 October]
“I wonder can you learn how to do anything you want on YouTube? Yesterday I went about fixing my broken car key fob. I had to buy a replacement shell, get a new key cut, and take the transponder and circuit board out of the old key and insert into the new key fob. Easy? …” (more)
[Careful With That Axe, Eugene, 24 October]
“UK universities must ensure that their policies on borderline scores do not in effect lower the thresholds for degree classifications, sector bodies say. In a new report, Universities UK and GuildHE call for more transparency around degree algorithms – the set of rules that institutions follow to determine a student’s final degree classification …” (more)
[Ellie Bothwell, Times Higher Education, 18 October]
“Children’s progress in maths at the age of nine has a major influence through to Junior Certificate preparations and suggests a need to overhaul how it is taught at primary level, a leading education researcher says …” (more)
[Niall Murray, Irish Examiner, 19 October]
“Higher education in the UK, and in England in particular, has undergone more than two decades of continuous reform, in its governance, structures, funding and quality assurance mechanisms. Among these reforms has been the imposition of research assessment as a mechanism for distributing research funds, which has acted as a huge and successful incentive to improve the quality of research …” (more)
[Bahram Bekhradnia, University Times, 17 October]
“Outside of the world of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter, little attention is probably paid these days to the philosopher’s stone, or indeed the study of alchemy from which it derived. Even if we don’t now want to focus on the ostensible chemical transformation suggested by the concept (of base metals into gold or silver), alchemy provided an interesting framework for the study of life, enlightenment and perfection …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 9 October]
“When a group of third-year chemistry students in Trinity found themselves experiencing mental health problems as a result of a severely high workload, meeting little or no support from their school, they decided to take action. Compiling and submitting a report to the School of Chemistry that detailed the impossibly high academic standards set for them and the stress and upset for students, they received a muted response …” (more)
[University Times, 1 October]
“I read with interest the post by the ever-excellent Eugene O’Loughlin on student note taking. He notes, pun intended, a reluctance and resistance from students to taking notes, relying instead on the handed out powerpoints he creates. I agree, this is a common experience …” (more)
[Brian M Lucey, 26 September]
“While taking my usual perusal through the very funny Waterford Whispers News this morning I had a giggle at one of their latest posts: Fucking Loser In Front Of You Actually Taking Notes During Lecture. In this post a student who doesn’t take notes thinks others who do are ‘losers’ while scribbling rude drawings and checking out Snapchat and Netflix. Funny – maybe, but real? …” (more)
[Careful With That Axe, Eugene, 26 September]
“The way institutions conceptualise doctoral candidates – as individuals without baggage, able to devote all their time to their research – has very real consequences for those who do not fit this profile. Marie-Alix Thouaille reports on recent research into the professional development behaviours and experiences of doctoral and early-career researchers …” (more)
[Impact of Social Sciences, 26 September]
“We need to revise our thinking about MOOCs. The old story was that MOOCs are just another overhyped educational technology, one more example of interests outside of the academy (investors, technologists) seeking to ‘disrupt college’ without any true understanding of how higher education actually works. The new MOOC story may be about the professors …” (more)
[Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed, 25 September]
“Many times in my lectures I derive an equation and I ask my students how they would linearise the equation in such a way as to inform their data analysis …” (more)
[educationandstuff, 25 September]
“Sir, – Further to the article ‘Irish workers most “overqualified” in Europe’ (News, September 22nd), those concerned about the future of work recognise that the rate of technological progress is exponential. As a result, we are already in an era when jobs and entire industries are being transformed …” (more)
[Ned Costello, Irish Times, 25 Septmeber]
“A major deal struck by the National Maritime College could signal Ireland’s arrival as world-leaders in safety training for personnel involved in the offshore gas and oil exploration sectors. The National Maritime College of Ireland, and its joint venture Irish partner SEFtec, have landed a major contract to build a marine safety training centre in Germany …” (more)
[Sean O’Riordan, Irish Examiner, 23 September]
