“The latest results from a survey of Maynooth University students in response to Covid 19 show ‘62% of students indicate that they felt ‘optimistic’ a little, or a lot, less often than usual in the 30 days preceding the survey’ …” (more)
[Leinster Leader, 24 June]
“Currently, third level institutions are working hard to prepare for the return of students in September. As a result, we are starting to gain an understanding of what third level might look like in the next academic year …” (more)
[Aoife Walsh, Independent, 10 June]
“The future of Higher Education is not online. In a post-Covid-19 world, that statement seems a little counter-intuitive, but it’s true. The future is not ‘online’, it is not ‘remote’, and it is not ‘distance. Just as modern work has moved past telecommuting and remote working, so teaching and learning will need to move past a millennium mindset of remote, online, and distance …” (more)
[Simon Harper, Wonkhe, 8 June]
“In a matter of weeks, universities have changed how we teach in at least one important way: we’re now online. It is now becoming clear that this shift may last at least into the new academic year and likely longer. As lecturers, this is not necessarily something to be afraid of: it’s an unparalleled opportunity to rethink teaching and to refocus on relationships with students …” (more)
[Kate Roll and Marc Ventresca, Guardian, 8 June]
“Sir, – As a prospective student who will hopefully be starting an engineering degree in Queen’s University Belfast this autumn, it is with growing concern that I read of various developments regarding next year’s teaching methods …” (more)
[Szymon Gorczynski, Irish Times, 4 June]
“Online lectures are set to continue for students at colleges and universities in September, combined with some face-to-face seminars in some institutions. The Irish Times would like to hear from students and lecturers …” (more)
[Irish Times, 3 June]
“Our thousand-year-old model of higher education has been strongly culturally transmitted. It is based on creating environments and facilities that ensure efficiency and effectiveness for university teaching and a ‘place to be’ for the students, in social and academic communities …” (more)
[Gilly Salmon, Wonkhe, 27 May]
“Over the past month, the world has changed rather rapidly. Organizations have had to close their physical facilities and move to virtual operations, practically overnight. We are fortunate to have the technology in place to be able to do this, something that would have been unthinkable a few decades ago. And yet with all of these tools, we are still scrambling …” (more)
[Todd A Carpenter, The Scholarly Kitchen, 8 April]
“As a result of the public health restrictions facing the entire country, higher education institutions have moved to host their classes and lectures online. Face-to-face exams are also being replaced by alternative online and remote assessment procedures. However, many students who face challenging and stressful circumstances worry that they are falling behind and their grades will suffer …” (more)
[Irish Times, 3 April]
“I work in Trinity College Dublin, which announced on Tuesday that education would be delivered online from next Monday. The National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education has put together a very useful spreadsheet of links to useful online teaching resources. But, in our race to go online in time to deliver classes to our students, we must not forget that copyright law continues to apply …” (more)
[Eoin O’Dell, Cearta, 15 March]
“The Centre for Irish Language Research, Teaching and Testing (Lárionad na Gaeilge) at Maynooth University has been awarded funding to develop an online course which will qualify graduates to teach Irish to adults. Minister of State for the Irish Language Seán Kyne announced a grant of €270,000 which will fund the delivery of the course during a visit to the campus on Tuesday afternoon …” (more)
[Éanna Ó Caollaí, Irish Times, 21 May]
“According to Clay Shirky (@cshirky), ‘The digital revolution in higher education has already happened. No one noticed.’. He writes that in 2012 one in four American undergraduates took ‘at least one course online’ – a figure that is surely climbing …” (more)
[Careful With That Axe, Eugene, 7 March]
“Sir, – We note with interest the debate in recent days regarding students’ experiences of third-level teaching and learning (‘Students have unrealistic expectations, academic says’, January 21st). Since 2008, we have collaborated with colleagues in a multi-institutional research project across Ireland examining students’ use of online learning systems at third level …” (more)
[Eamon Costello, Irish Times, 1 February]
“For a brief period in the history of teaching, using PowerPoint automatically qualified you as a tech-savvy professor – an innovator who wouldn’t settle for the usual combination of staticky black-and-white overhead films and hand-scrawled chalkboard notes. Now, it’s hard to believe that PowerPoint was once considered innovative by anyone …” (more)
[Michelle Denise Miller, The Conversation, 24 September]
“Academics’ fears that making video recordings of lectures available will reduce student attendance are misplaced, a study suggests. Computer scientists at Queen’s University Belfast who monitored the introduction of lecture capture on their courses concluded that it had not had a negative impact on attendance, and that students had instead used the footage to reinforce traditional learning …” (more)
[Chris Havergal, Times Higher Education, 24 September]
“Generally, if something seems too good to be true then it probably is – Hence my concern with the new online honours digital degree thing offered by the Digital Skills Academy …” (more)
[Brian M Lucey, 25 July]
“For students taking courses online, the endless distractions of the Internet can be a hindrance to success. But using software to limit those diversions can make a big difference. That’s the takeaway from a new study …” (more)
[Casey Fabris, Chronicle of Higher Education, 23 April]
“The Online Learning Consortium has just published a smashing new infographic about the changing face of on-line learning. Third level colleges are now offering more affordable degrees on-line than ever before …” (more)
[Careful With That Axe, Eugene, 11 March]
“Opinion: Third-level courses cost everyone a lot of money, whereas distance learning does not. Could it be that sending our children to college is an extravagance? Something that would be nice to have, but we can’t really afford and do not really need? …” (more)
[Brian Mulligan, Irish Times, 9 December]
“Representatives from Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City University and the Open University will appear before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection tomorrow afternoon for a discussion on the role and contribution of online courses in the third level sector in Ireland …” (more)
[Houses of the Oireachtas, 2 December]
