Ms Imelda Huggins-Postgraduate and Research Administrator-School of Computer Science and Informatics

 

Winning Innovation: Student Support Liaison  Project for the Negotiated Learning Postgraduate Programme

 

The Negotiated Learning Programme in Computer Science offers graduate students from different experiential backgrounds a detailed assessment of their individual training needs and allows them to negotiate a suite of modules that will maximise their graduate skill acquisition. In her role as Student Support Liaison to the project, Ms Huggins demonstrates a huge enthusiasm for her work and her applications shows that she has put considerable effort into creating a supportive learning environment. She has the responsibility for supporting students in constructing their individual learning contracts and also creating a ‘learning community’ among the students as a group. There is evidence that Ms Huggin’s role is central to the success of the project as a whole, particularly the amount of work needed during the induction phase for students. She runs a drop-in help desk, has developed VLE and Social Networking initiatives and she also manages the feedback-informed curriculum development cycle for the students. On her own initiative Ms Huggins is also taking on new responsibilities for the successful recruitment and integration of international students on the Negotiated Learning Programme.  NAIRTL grants received in the last two years have funded a number of activities.
The adjudication panel was particularly impressed by Ms Huggin’s drive and enthusiasm and the energy that she has put into developing on her key role in this successful project considerably beyond its original parameters. As one of her nominees noted, these awards are designed to acknowledge and support individuals like Ms Huggins who are ‘willing to go that extra mile’.

Mr Adam Tattersall-Audio-Visual & IT Technologist-School of Medicine and Medical Science

Winning Innovation: The Anatomy Image Programme

Professor Ambrose Birminghan, Chair of Anatomy of the Catholic University of Ireland Medical School from 1887-1905, produced over 200 highly detailed anatomical drawings which are still in the ownership of the UCD School of Medicine and Medical Science. Drawn around 1904 these illustrations are of such a high quality that they still rival most anatomical images produced in modern text books. Mr Adam Tattersall has undertaken the skilled and painstaking job of restoring and digitising these illustrations, bringing this unique and valuable resource up to contemporary standards for use by our students and staff. This work has included the digital cleaning of the images, colouring different sections, updating labels and creating depth layering to facilitate interactive manipulation.

Mr Tattersall’s work represents a true labour of love, completed on top of his regular work in the School. This effort has produced an important teaching resource for future generations of students in the Health Sciences. He has also facilitated staff training on use of the digitised collection and images can now be customised by staff to meet their particular teaching requirements. The adjudication panel noted that part of the digital resource has already been made available to over 350 students, eliciting very positive feedback and he has plans to create an e-book of the collection.

Ms Irene Rose, Ms Iris Burke, Ms Annette Patchett, Ms Jacinta Freeney & Ms Ros McFeeley

Agriculture and Food Science Programme Office

Winning Innovation: Stage One Mid-Semester Review, First Year Undergraduate.

The Mid-Semester Review of first year students in the School of Agriculture and Food Science is now in its sixth year and it represents an excellent example of how student feedback, collected and acted upon at an early stage, can have a profound and positive impact on student engagement, retention and achievement in first year. The Mid-Semester Review was originally designed at a time when the Agriculture and Food Science Programmes were facing poor level of student retention and low CAO points. Co-ordinated by the Programme Office Team, the review brings together all stage one students six weeks into the first semester. Meeting with academic and support staff a range of issues are discussed in a relatively informal setting; students also complete questionnaires at the meeting and the data gathered from these are analysed by the team and fed back to the wider programme team to drive enhancement and change.

While simple in design, the impact of the review process and, more importantly, the changes in teaching, learning and student support initiated as a result of the review have made a very significant impact on retention and performance of students in Agriculture and Food Science. The number of students achieving 60 credits in first year has risen from 48% in 2006 to 71% in 2009/10 while those progressing to stage two rose from 57% to 84% in the same period. It should also be noted that the CAO points for the main Agricultural Programme rose from 310 in 2004 to 420 in 2010. The adjudication panel were particular impressed by evidence of strong teamwork in this project, by the administrative/academic collaboration at the heart of the review process and by the amount of work undertaken by the team in the first semester over a sustained period of time. The success of the project is clearly evident in the improvement in retention of students, their improved achievements and the growth of the popularity of the programme itself.

Ms Ursula Byrne, Mr James Molloy, Ms Jennifer Collery, Ms Susan Boyle, Mr Gerard Walsh, Ms Michelle Latimer, Ms Celia Kenny, Mr Peter Clarke & Ms Monica Glynn

Library

Winning Innovation: Library initiative to develop e-learning tools to support new students

The adjudication panel considered that this was a particularly strong, evidenced-based application demonstrating the planning, design and delivery of a very innovative and collaborative project. This iniatitive is a creative response to the complex needs of incoming first year undergraduates by providing them with online tutorials and videos to assist them in accessing books in the library, using library catalogues and sourcing e-journals. It seeks to ‘desensitise’ anxieties around library use, not just for first years, it has also proven to be useful for mature, international and part-time students and distance learners.

 

The resource created by the team has the capacity for further development – it can be embedded into Blackboard and be customised to meet the specific needs of individual programmes. There is evidence that the resource has already been widely used and has proved very successful.The adjudication panel considered that this project was an excellent example of a sustainable project with the potential for expansion and wide roll-out across the university.

Mr Niall Watts, Mr Brian Kelly & Mr Sean O’Domhnaill

Media Services

Winning Innovation: ELearning Tutorials in Psychiatry and Mental Health

The team from Media Services have produced a series of online e-tutorials built around doctor-patient interviews in the field of mental health.They collaborated with the medical team in St Vincent’s University Hospital in preparing the scripts for the tutorial interviews which they then filmed with the medical staff while actors took on the patient roles.Students use these e-tutorials as part of their psychiatric rotation, allowing them to study the complexities of the doctor-patient interview prior to starting their own face-to-face work with patients.The team from Media Services have also embedded these e-tutorials into Blackboard, where they are accompanied by a suite of online learning activities, designed to help students check their understanding of the interaction they have just watched and to reflect on their learning. The adjudication panel was impressed by the fact that, in a recent review of the UCD Medical curricula, the Medical Council singled out these e-tutorials as an excellent innovation with a positive impact on students learning.    

The Media Services team have produced a sustainable teaching tool which has the capacity to be further developed in other professional disciplines to support students in developing a deeper understanding of the complex and often difficult interactions between professionals and service users. At a time of financial austerity these e-tutorials are a flexible teaching resource for student use and also represent a cost-effective use of limited staff time.