UCD, through its academic staff, has a long established tradition of excellence in teaching. We provide innovative and high quality programmes adaptive to the current and future learning needs of our students and graduates. As a research intensive university, the formation of creative and innovative graduates is fundamental to our mission. When it comes to Academic Development, our focus is on supporting our academics in ensuring that what they teach, and how they are teaching it, remains state-of-the-art and commensurate with the needs of the wider community.
Academic development opportunities at UCD enable academic staff, at all stages of their careers as educators, to:
- Gain effective teaching and learning skills which promote students' learning
- Extend their professional teaching skills by deepening their knowledge base
- Develop their expertise as innovative curriculum designers
- Engage in practice-based inquiry to facilitate high quality student learning
- Develop as scholarly practitioners
- Enhance their talents for academic leadership and contribution to the wider teaching and learning community at UCD
Whether you are a new member of staff just beginning your career in UCD, or an experienced academic with an interest in exploring new approaches to teaching and learning, there is a range of modules and programmes available through UCD Teaching & Learning to support the development of your academic practice. These include:
- Becoming a Better University Teacher (formerly called Induction)
- Accredited programmes such as the Graduate Diploma in University Teaching and Learning
- Specialist modules for staff who wish to develop aspects of their teaching and learning expertise or their scholarship interests in focused areas.
All modules and programmes are integrated into a coherent, flexible, credit-based framework which is adaptable to a wide range of disciplinary areas and the needs of staff at various stages of their academic careers.
For details of other training and development opportunities such as skills seminars, health and well-being programmes and PMDS programmes, go to the HR Training & Development web page.