| Team Leader | Institution | Project Details |
| Ms Sherrie Buckley | University of Limerick
| This action research project is a comparative study of the use of a free access public blog at the University of Limerick and a private blog at Trinity College Dublin during placements. A survey and focus groups will explore the usefulness of blogs from the students' perspective. Both blogs will be facilitated by the practice education staff in order to promote reflection.
|
| Ms Maura Conway | University College Cork | Results from a recent feasibility study, funded by the UCC/Food Industry Partnership Board, indicated a demand for a flexible degree in Food Science with Business. To that end it is proposed to develop resources to allow for the flexible delivery of a substantial element of this new programme in a distance format. It is proposed that modules currently delivered to undergraduate students on campus will be recorded and will facilitate the delivery of these modules by distance.
|
| Dr Teresa Curtin | University of Limerick | The increase in the number of students seeking third level education has resulted in many students choosing science programmes without an adequate foundation in either science or related subjects. Research will be conducted on the problems and difficulties in chemistry faced by these new undergraduates. A diagnostic instrument will be developed for groups of third level students which have been identified as weak. Their cognitive levels, their science misconceptions and their mathematics ability will be investigated, as well as their confidence and attitudes towards chemistry. This will help build a clearer picture of where exactly these groups of weaker students struggle and pinpoint their specific difficulties. |
| Dr David Ditchburn | Trinity College Dublin | The aim of the project is to share, exploit and analyse in a teaching environment the latest research into the Book of Kells. The aim will be achieved through the design of two new and innovative modules on the Book of Kells. One module will be offered to extramural students and the other to students who are registered for taught M.Phil programmes. Both modules will be interdisciplinary in approach and informed by the latest research which has been undertaken by art historians, botanists, chemists, computer scientists, geologists, physicists, and historians.
|
| Dr Elaine Doyle | University of Limerick | The researchers propose to find effective ways of enhancing ethical reasoning in undergraduate students by designing appropriate educational interventions. These interventions will be incorporated into a number of modules taught in the Business School and the Department of Professional Studies in UL. There will be two primary outcomes from this research; first, educational interventions will be developed to enhance ethical reasoning in undergraduate students and second, psychometric instruments will be developed to quantitatively measure the ethical reasoning of students in a contextual manner appropriate to their academic discipline. |
| Ms Aideen Gallagher | NUI Galway
| The aim of this project is to develop and evaluate an innovative self instructional video to educate Occupational Therapists on an ergonomic method of using a hoist. This is an initial step in a proposed wider project that seeks to transfer a current module on hoist prescription into digital form. To ensure a professional product, expert services in video production will be sought in the development of this initial video. To promote sustainability, resources will be invested in staff-skill building and hardware to ensure cost-effective continuous improvement and future development of this product.
|
| Ms Barbara Geraghty | University of Limerick | This project will develop a highly reusable digital learning object to teach recognition and writing of the 100 basic kanji characters used in the Leaving Certificate syllabus. This project builds on successful research collaboration between the Japanese and Technical Communication sections at UL, which won a European language award in 2007. At present there is no existing tool of this type available to teach this material in Ireland. |
| Dr Olivia Gill | University of Limerick | Following statistical analysis of data on 6000 first year science and technology students in UL, collected from 1998-2008, a model for predicting at risks students has been developed. The model uses data such as student's Leaving Certificate mathematics grades to predict their end of term performance. This project aims to use this information in the design of a small group, problem based tutorial strategy for mathematics modules.
|
| Professor Josephine Hegarty | University College Cork | The aim of this project is to provide students and their preceptors with an easily accessible, clinically relevant online support package which explains the clinical assessment process and associated terminology, which can sometimes be difficult to comprehend. The research will: create a formal research proposal; access ethical approval; conduct semi-structured interviews and transcribe those interviews; consult an expert panel to select most appropriate case exemplars; create an online package using text, video, audio, student/preceptor dialogue to provide clinically relevant and interesting explanations of terminology; and pilot and formally evaluate the online package. |
| Dr Mark Kelly | Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology | Construction is an intrinsically visual discipline and traditional lectures are usually supplemented by site visits. However, logistical and health and safety issues increasingly limit students ability to avail of these visits. This project aims to bring the site to the students by developing a set of case studies focussed on passive house construction to include virtual tours of projects, object movies linked to CAD construction details and interactive hot spots at which students can access and respond to additional information and resources. |
| Dr Órla Lahart | National College of Ireland | This project will design and develop a subject-independent, web-based PBL induction resource, which will comprise a large set of activities that, when used, could have a positive impact on student's problem solving. This will enable teachers to create a 2-3 hour face-to-face PBL induction process session at the beginning of any PBL module. Students will acquire the necessary skills for successful participation in PBL modules. The project will involve consultation with experts and a PBL workshop with international speakers. |
| Mr Jonathan Lambert | National College of Ireland | Poor mathematical ability and high failure rates are well-known issues in higher education. Many challenges have been identified with facilitating the progression of students through non-specialist mathematics disciplines such as Business and Computing. This project attempts to address this issue through the development of a guided self-directed learning programme as a bridge between student's prior mathematical knowledge.
|
| Dr Aisling Leavy | Mary Immaculate College Limerick
| Preparing prospective teachers to teach primary mathematics is a complex task, since they have to have sufficient understanding of mathematical concepts and they also require pedagogical support. The primary aim of this research is to produce video cases of exemplary teaching in primary mathematics. The research method used is Lesson Study which is a commonly used professional development tool in Japan, and which is enquiry-led, involving teams of educators. There will be four lesson study groups in parallel, resulting in the production of four different examples of exemplary mathematics teaching.
|
| Mr Patrick Marshall | NUI Maynooth | Based on the need to introduce Computer Science students to task solving in industrial settings, this project develops an automated tool to assist staff to collate marks and assess learning logs more effectively. The tool will allow marking schemes to be uploaded by a groups and will subsequently suggest possible final marking schemes that best represent how the student body and the teacher believe the work should be marked. It will also allow learning logs to be completed online.
|
| Professor Geraldine MacCarrick | Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland | Based on on previous and successful experiences of developing Virtual Patients, an authentic, real life clinical scenario which addresses six of the curriculum areas relevant to improving patient safety outlined by the WHO will be developed. The online Virtual Patient will address the science of safety, and will provide a safe and supportive environment which will integrate and embed the teaching of patient safety, concepts and principles into the undergraduate paediatric programme. |
| Dr Laura Incalcaterra McLoughlin | NUI Galway | This project in recognising that while AV material used in foreign language classroom is profitable, it also has copyright issues and tends to encourage passive reception will instead create materials for captioning by learners. It will create: a number of short video clips in English, French and Italian; a web platform containing captioning activities, video clips, a database of reference material and a podcast guide along with Web 2.0 tools and forums. The project will use freely downloadable, user-friendly subtitling software.
|
| Ms Miriam McSweeney | Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology | This is an interventional study that seeks to examine why there is a low level of engagement on the part of academic staff with new technologies in the teaching environment. The technology under study is the LMS Moodle which is currently used at GMIT. The research will use an adaptation of the Change Laboratory methodology to perform the study. Using this, workshops will be run in three different schools, enabling lecturers to move forward with new technologies in the teaching environment and illuminate tensions and contradictions that exist in the various cultural contexts in which the technology is employed.
|
| Ms Niamh O'Meara | University of Limerick
| This project aims to improve the levels of knowledge among trainee teachers by adopting an innovative approach to teacher training in the University of Limerick. Recent findings on mathematical failure at second level suggest that this can be accredited to poor teaching. It is clear that a concentrated effort is needed to ensure highly qualified mathematics teachers graduate on a yearly basis. The project primarily aims to help prospective teachers develop the knowledge required for mathematics teaching. Using a model of the package of knowledge, designed by the author, it will develop seven types of knowledge among trainee maths. Teachers all of which will culminate in teachers developing effective models for maths teaching. |
| Dr Michael O'Rourke | Athlone IT
| This project will research lesson, case study, scenario and simulation development with various course groups and subjects, using the facilities provided in the Moodle VLE. A comprehensive literature survey will be undertaken to determine the state of the art and current practice in lesson, case study, and scenario or simulation development in e-learning situations. It will also determine the development effort in terms of time and technical knowledge required to produce these learning objects. Learners will be surveyed to determine the success or otherwise of this approach to SDL. |
| Dr James Power | NUI Maynooth
| This project proposes to substantially enhance the teaching and learning of discrete mathematics in computer science and computing related courses. The topic of discrete mathematics covers set theory, functions and logic, and despite the interest in computing in general, the teaching of discrete mathematics is problematic, since typical computing students are not as mathematically-oriented as, for example engineering students. It is proposed to build an adaptive self-paced learning environment that provides scaffolding and feedback to a large and diverse student group. Specifically, this environment will include a bank of problems that uses computing examples to teach mathematical concepts, and interactive adaptive learning and formative assessment software that allows students to solve problems at their own pace and level. |
| Dr David Sammon | University College Cork
| All researchers strive to master the practicalities of carrying out research while contending with the challenge of how to make a theoretical contribution to scientific knowledge. It is well-documented that Information Systems researchers are faced with the most acute issues, making them an appropriate sample for this project. Collaborating with the U of New South Wales, this project focuses on simplifying the theoretical research process. More specifically, as past research is the foundation from which new theory is developed, the literature review becomes a key bridging point to new knowledge. Key aims are: to enable researchers to better balance the rigour and relevance trade-off; to guide decision-making during literature surveys; to improve theoretical analytical skills; to enable researchers to better understand and shape the theoretical landscape of their domain.
|
| Dr Breda Sweeney | NUI Galway | The objective of this project is to develop two research-based teaching cases of management accounting control systems, one for undergraduate and one for postgraduate students. The teaching of management accounting suffers from a dearth of in-depth case studies based on successful, innovative companies in industries which provide a platform for long term and sustainable economic recovery in Ireland. This project seeks to extend an existing research study of control systems to ensure the integration of the findings into innovative research tools. |
Mr Guiseppe Torre
| University of Limerick
| The aim of this project is to survey the most common communication protocols used in the Digital Art domain and create a substantial information resource (in PDF and as online WIKI). It is intended that this source will be a "one stop shop" for students studying digital art in need of information regarding communication protocols. As well as integrating the results of the literature review as a set of example applications will be created. These examples will be added to the WIKI as short tutorial videos that indicate the role of communication protocols in a digital art context. |
| Dr Stephan Weibelzahl | National College of Ireland | The integration of technology into teaching allows third level institutions to offer more flexible models of learning and support. An ongoing study of student use of VLEs (Cosgrave et al, 2008) showed that students experienced some difficulties around usability issues. In this project we will identify these issues by observing and interviewing fifty students with courses on Moodle in NCI. Undergraduate students from computer courses will assist in collecting these data. We will produce a report on learner experience, and then produce a booklet with guidelines for lecturers in which teaching practices meet the needs and expectations of our learners.
|
