Education Commons^™

Infusing Critical Thinking Into Business Programmes. Video Case Studies:, Roisin Donnelly

Conference papers

Thinking critically about media content and contexts, Be an entrepreneur for a day: Market Trader Project.

Soft Skills Development In Hospitality, Tourism And Event Management Education, Denise O'Leary, Ziene Mottiar

Conference papers

Soft skills are skills such as interpersonal and social skills, communication skills, teamwork and the ability to self motivate. Numerous studies have shown that employers in the tourism, hospitality and events sectors place high value on soft skills when recruiting new employees, yet these skills can often be underdeveloped in graduates of tourism and hospitality programmes (Stietska-Ilina et al. 2005, Nyanjom and Wilkins 2016). This in part because unlike hard skills, which are more technical in nature and as a result, measurable, soft skills can be difficult to measure, document and assess in third level education programmes.

This paper reports …

A Study Of First Year Undergraduate Computing Students' Experience Of Learning Software Development In The Absence Of A Software Development Process, Catherine Higgins, Claire Mcavinia, Ciaran O'Leary, Barry J. Ryan

Conference papers

Despite the ever-growing demand for software development graduates, it is recognised that a significant barrier for increasing graduate numbers lies in the inherent difficulty in learning how to develop software. This paper presents a study that is part of a larger research project aimed at addressing the gap in the provision of educational software development processes for freshman, novice undergraduate learners, to improve proficiency levels. As a means of understanding how such learners problem solve in software development in the absence of a formal process, this study examines the experiences and depth of learning acquired by a sample set of …

Moving Modalities: An Exploration On How Switching Modes Of Reader, Writer And Reviewer Can Enhance Academic Writing Pedagogy., Roisin Donnelly, Claire Mcavinia, Ita Kennelly

Conference papers

For over a decade, the Academic Writing & Publishing (AWP) module has been delivered for academic staff and postgraduate students in the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), now part of the new Technological University Dublin. The module aims to support students to enhance their academic writing and to develop an academic paper to the standard of publication for a peer-reviewed journal of their choice. Module delivery comprises workshops and a range of supports and feedback mechanisms built in to give students opportunities to critically evaluate and develop their own work and to assist in the development of their peers’ writing. …

Open Practices In Academic Professional Development Programmes, Roisin Donnelly, Pauline Rooney, Claire M. Mcdonnell, Muireann O’Keeffe

Conference papers

In this reflective practice work, we will examine critically the process of evaluating and redesigning academic professional development programmes through the lens of open educational practices and resources. For over 15 years, the DIT’s Learning Teaching and Technology Centre (LTTC) has offered a suite of accredited postgraduate programmes and modules for staff. Demand for these programmes and modules has increased since 2013 with 187 participants graduating and a further 221 completing modules for continuing professional development (CPD). DIT was the first higher education institution (HEI) in Ireland to state a requirement that newly appointed lecturers complete a postgraduate qualification in …

Developing All Learners Through Analytics: A Collaborative Consultative Approach To Professional Development And Support, Pauline Rooney, Geraldine Gray, Lee O'Farrell, K.C. O'Rourke

Conference papers

By the end of this session, delegates will be able to: -explore the potential value of learning analytics for creating a supportive educational experience for students and for increasing students’ feelings of ownership, agency and self-regulation. -examine the role of professional development resources and support in increasing staff and student digital proficiencies in using learning data and in facilitating greater evidence-based decision-making in HE. -identify how we can collaborate with our institutional colleagues and our students in the design and provision of professional development resources and support in relation to the analysis and interpretation of learning data to support student …

How Architecture And Engineering Students Conceptualize Design Creation: Report Of A Pilot Study, Shannon Chance, Mike Mimirinis, Ines Direito, John E. Mitchell, Emanuela Tilley

Conference papers

This study uses phenomenographic research methodologies to identify qualitatively different ways engineering and architecture students conceptualize design creation; it seeks to discover if and how their conceptualizations of design creation relate to their conceptualizations of knowledge generation. This work extends prior research by King and Kitchener (1994) and others (Baxter Magolda, 1992; Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986; Hofer & Pintrich, 2002; Perry, 1970) about the ways students develop increasingly sophisticated ways of: understanding and conceptualizing knowledge; sources of truth; how to evaluate various opinions and points-of-view; and ways to assess truthfulness and validity of new ideas. This project stems …

An Evaluation Of The Reliability, Validity And Sensitivity Of Three Human Mental Workload Measures Under Different Instructional Conditions In Third-Level Education, Luca Longo, Giuliano Orru

Conference papers

Although Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) has been researched for many years, it has been criticised for its theoretical clarity and its methodological approach. A crucial issue is the measurement of three types of cognitive load conceived in the theory, and the assessment of overall human cognitive load during learning tasks. This research study is motivated by these issues and it aims to investigate the reliability, validity and sensitivity of three existing self-reporting mental workload instruments, mainly used in Ergonomics, when applied to Education and in particular to the field of Teaching and Learning. A primary research study has been designed …