A number of events are scheduled for the upcoming semester, including the National Seminar Series, national launch, national symposium, regional workshop, webinar and project reviews. The key events are listed below and more may be added to the events section of the National Forum website in due course.
1 October-30 June: National Seminar Series
The 2019/20 National Seminar Series is due to be launched in early September 2019, with events taking place across the sector during the 2019/20 academic year. When launched, the full list of seminars will be published here.
14 October: Launch of Irish National Digital Experience Survey (INDEx)
The National Forum, in partnership with higher education institutions across the country and their representative bodies, will oversee the implementation of Ireland’s first national survey of the digital experiences of staff who teach and learn in Irish higher education in October-November 2019. The Irish National Digital Experience (INDEx) Survey will be formally launched by Minister of State for Higher Education, Mary Mitchell O’Connor T.D., on 14 October 2019. See more here.
23 October: Regional Workshop: Developing Enabling Policies for Digital and Open Teaching and Learning
The National Forum will facilitate a workshop on 23 October to support those in Irish higher education who are engaged in institutional policy development, or who would like to contribute to institutional policies, in the areas of digital and/or open teaching and learning. See more here.
24 October: Student Success Symposium: Developing our national understanding of student success
The National Forum, in partnership with the Higher Education Authority, is organising a Student Success Symposium on the morning of 24 October 2019. The purpose of the symposium is to provide participants with the opportunity to contribute to the development of a national understanding of student success, to learn how student success is currently being conceptualised within institutions nationally and to consider approaches that have been adopted internationally. See more here.
25 October: Open forum presentations of 2018 teaching and learning enhancement fund projects
On 25 October, eight of the project teams funded through the 2018 Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund will take part in open forum presentations where their projects will be reviewed by a panel of international experts who will provide feedback on progress to date and guidance for the future. See more here.
6 November: Learning Analytics: What Works
The National Forum will host the second in our series of learning analytics webinars on 6 November 2019. The webinar will highlight a number of innovative learning analytics initiatives that will be of interest to staff who teach and policymakers/managers in higher education institutions who wish to learn more about how data can be used to enhance student success. See more here.
Upcoming Professional Development Open Courses
In addition to the events listed above, online participation in a number of professional development short courses will become available in the coming months. The online option for the Universal Design for Learning short course is scheduled to be launched in October, a second iteration of the online option for the Getting Started with Professional Development – PACT short course will also be schedule in the coming semester. Online options for other professional development short courses are currently under development and will be announced in due course. Information on all 17 National Forum professional development short courses, including self-study, online and facilitate options, can be found at opencourses.teachingandlearning.ie.
