A highly engaging networking event for teams funded under the 2019 Strategic Alignment of Teaching and Learning Enhancement (SATLE) Fund took place on 01 December. The event, originally planned to take place face-to-face in the Aviva, took place instead online with 88 representatives across 22 institutions attending. The meeting provided an opportunity for teams to hear about and learn from each other’s work and identify potential synergies. Lightning talks were presented by staff from Athlone Institute of Technology, Cork Institute of Technology, Dublin City University, Mary Immaculate College, University College Cork and University of Limerick. Subject areas for the talks including teacher education, virology, computing, law and policy, and topics included team-based learning, spatial skill development and academic transitions. Teams also participated in facilitated group discussions focused on open education, DELTA, professional development, VITAL, impact and student success.
Initiatives funded through the 2019 SATLE Fund represent an investment of €5.57m focused on ensuring that teaching and learning within and across subject areas is characterised by innovation, coherence, connectedness and meaningful student engagement. In addition to fulfilling the government’s intention, outlined in Budget 2019, to allocate additional funding for teaching and learning capacity building across the sector, the funding of these initiatives is resulting in increased collaboration and alignment at local level in the achievement of ambitions set out in institutional strategies. Building on the success of the 2019 Fund, a 2020 SATLE Fund, worth €5m, was also recently announced by Minister Simon Harris.
We extend heartfelt thanks to all institutions for their engaged participation and valuable contributions to this important SATLE networking event. The National Forum team will meet with all SATLE teams again through another online networking event on 10 February and a second round of mid-term reviews is scheduled to take place in March.
You can view information on all ongoing 2019 SATLE initiatives here.
