ICEP Blog

Application of HETAC Assessment and Standards Policy – A Case Study

Posted on November 19th, 2010 by Kevin

Fiona O’Riordan, GCD, Dublin, Ireland Angela O’Keefe, GCD, Dublin, Ireland

In December 2009, HETAC published an Assessments and Standards policy document to be implemented by all providers of Higher Education (HE) by the 2010/2011 academic year. It reflects the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) ‘which has become the benchmark for quality assurance in Europe’.

Our paper presentation provides an overview of the policy followed by a discussion of our research which identifies the strategy and policy issues most adhered to by lecturers currently, and more importantly, the shortcomings that exist. Griffith College Dublin (GCD) is used as a case study.

Posted in ICEP 2010 | No Comments »

(m)Oodles of Data – Mining Moodle to Understand Student Behaviour

Posted on November 12th, 2010 by Kevin

Dr Kevin Casey, GCD, Dublin, Ireland Dr Paul Gibson, LOR, Paris, France

With 32 million users across approximately 3 million courses worldwide, Moodle has proven to be an immensely popular and important tool in education. One feature provided by Moodle is a rich source of information about student access to online material. While important, this information is presented in a raw format with little indication about how it might be used.

In our talk entitled “(m)Oodles of Data-Mining Moodle to understand Student Behaviour”, we examine Moodle viewing statistics from an Irish third-level institution. We examine correlations between these statistics and student results on degree and masters courses. We identify the circumstances where the correlation can help predict poor performance (and hence allow early intervention). In the analysis we find some interesting associations between student behaviour on Moodle and their final grade. Some of these associations reinforce beliefs the authors already had about Moodle usage, and some results were surprising.

You can catch our talk at ICEP 2010 on 3rd December at NUI, Maynooth.

Posted in ICEP 2010 | 2 Comments »

Professor Sally Brown to give Opening Address at this years ICEP conference on 3rd December 2010 in NUIM

Posted on October 1st, 2010 by Fiona

Professor Sally Brown is Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic) and Professor of Higher Education Diversity in Teaching and Learning at Leeds Metropolitan University. Originally trained as a classroom teacher of English and therapeutic drama, she was previously Director of Membership Services for the Institute for Learning and Teaching (now merged into the Higher Education Academy). Prior to that she worked at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle for almost 20 years as a lecturer, study-skills practitioner, educational developer and Head of Quality Enhancement. Growing from her commitment to student learning, Sally has co-written or co-edited more than 30 books and is an enthusiastic keynote speaker in the UK and internationally on innovative teaching approaches, inclusivity and especially assessment.

Posted in ICEP 2010 | No Comments »

Theme: Cultural Diversity in the Classroom

Posted on May 31st, 2010 by Fiona

If you are interested in the theme of ‘Cultural Diversity in the Classroom’ you might like the attached artice by Kelly Coate ‘Exploring the unknown: Levinas and international students in English higher education’. The article challenges the reader to explore the concept of ‘otherness’ with regard to all students. It questions how we define and stereotype  international students and how this possible stereotyping impacts upon our pedagogy.

I found it very stimulating and it has me (re) considering the way in which I focus so much of my attention at engaging international students in the learning process…and whether I ought to be widening my net with regard to engaging ‘other’ students!

Posted in pedagogy | No Comments »

Welcome to ICEP 2010

Posted on May 24th, 2010 by admin

Welcome to ICEP 2010.

There’s just under seven months to go to our upcoming conference, the International Conference on Engaging Pedagogy (ICEP10), to be held in the National University of Ireland Maynooth on Friday, December 3rd 2010. What better time to launch the ICEP blog? Over the next few months, various members of ICEP will be posting articles on a variety of pedagogical issues. We hope you will find the articles, interesting and relevant (and perhaps even controversial from time to time). As always, we welcome your comments, discussion and general participation.

To kick-start the blog, just a quick reminder that this year’s theme is Engaging pedagogy: research and practices for a new decade.

Relevant topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Novel teaching methods
  • Educational technology as a means of engaging students
  • Cultural diversity in the classroom
  • Module and curriculum design for a new decade
  • Assessment techniques
  • Promoting student interest and participation
  • Case studies

If you are interested in submitting a paper, you just need to submit your abstract for intermediate feedback on or before Tuesday 8th June, 2010 (25 days time). If you have an interesting topic in mind, but are unsure about its suitability or how to proceed, feel free to email info@icep.ie for advice.

For any authors who submitted abstracts, intermediate feedback will be sent out on or before the 22nd of June. Their final papers will then be due Monday September 20th, 2010.

Finally, notification of acceptance will take place before or on Monday October 18th, 2010.

We look forward to seeing you in Maynooth in December.

The ICEP 2010 Comittee

Posted in ICEP 2010 | No Comments »

| Newer Entries »