Enhancing Programme Approaches to Assessment and Feedback in Irish Higher Education: Case Studies, Commentaries and Tools

This resource contains case studies, commentaries and tools supporting the enhancement of assessment and feedback in Irish higher education programmes. The collection showcases the contribution of 31 staff and two students, from 14 national and five international institutions. The topics explored in this collection highlight the complexity of programme approaches to assessment and feedback, in particular:

– the drivers of programme assessment change
– leading change to programme assessment
– exploring the evidence for what’s going on in programme(s) and
– ideas to enhance changes in programme(s) assessment.

The collection should be valuable to a range of stakeholders in higher education, i.e. academic staff, senior administrators, programme teams, students, quality assurance officers, education developers/technologists, assessment unit staff, etc.

Reaching Out: Why Students Leave

This briefing paper reports on a research project established by the National Forum in partnership with the Union of Students in Ireland, which aimed to inform our understanding of why some students do not progress to the completion of their programmes of study in higher education and to determine how best to support students in their transitions into and through higher education. The study examined, through surveys and interviews, the motivations and experiences of 331 students who did not complete their programmes of study in higher education. The briefing paper adds to the growing evidence base about the challenges that students face in their transitions into and through higher education in Ireland.

Student Non-Completion on ICT Programmes

This report is based on findings from a National Forum-funded research project on student non-completion on ICT programmes led by a team based at the University of Limerick.

The Paper summarises international literature on student non-completion with a focus on students of ICT ; it outlines proven initiatives and pedagogic practices designed to tackle ICT student non-completion and it presents the results of exploratory case study research on ICT non-completion at the University of Limerick. It also includes further considerations arising specifically from the institutional case study as well as those arising more generally from the question of non-completion in the Irish context.

Transition from Further Education and Training to Higher Education

The first enhancement theme of the National Forum focused on transitions into and through higher education. Based on surveys and interviews with FET students, the research summarised in this insight begins to fill an important gap in our understanding of transitions, and it recognises the often substantially different experiences of those entering higher education from school, and those entering from the FET sector.