It was around this time last year when there were countless questions about how the upcoming teaching year might look like. This year there is still a certain amount of vagueness surrounding the finer details, but there does appear to be a light at the end of the tunnel at this stage. Face-to-face teaching will resume to a certain extent, and the buzz around campus that was so sorely missing will gradually return.

This edition of the EDTL Newsletter largely focuses on the return to college, but more specifically how we can combine what we learned over the past year with the more traditional teaching experience. It would be a shame to just discard all the ways in which we learned and grew over the past year as we adapted to a whole new style of digital teaching and learning. So in this edition, we have included advice from a variety of students and educators from EDTL team members to our student interns so that you can effectively integrate these lessons going forward.

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New Year, New Perspectives

Andreas Boldt, the EDTL Digital Skills Officer at Maynooth University, shares his thoughts on teaching and learning in the digital sphere and provides some advice for the upcoming academic year as face-to-face learning returns.

As the country continues to open more doors, we have a hope for a populated campus once again. However, our way of teaching and learning has changed through this unexpected time of Covid-19; educators have embraced online classes and novel teaching methods to create a teaching space that is conducive to learning remotely, and learners have rose to the challenge in adapting to a remote teaching environment that has been created for them. …. continue reading.

A Way Forward Together

This past year has given many the opportunity to integrate new technology into their teaching practices. With the prospect of a return to campus on the horizon, our IUA Student Intern Míde Nic Fhionnlaoich discusses the importance of student partnerships in bringing the lessons learned during Covid-19 back into the classroom.

Students as Partners is an approach to education which acknowledges students have important experience and insight into how we teach and learn, and that students and staff should work in partnership to improve teaching and learning…. continue reading.

You Need a Break

One of our student associate interns, Fernandos, discusses the importance of taking time to get away from the home office, even when usual holiday destinations are not an option.

August is here, it has been eighteen months of working from home and most of us might think that taking a break from ‘Zoom’ is enough, but there is more to taking a break from than the technology around us. Have you ever thought of how much the environment around your ‘home office’ contributes to your fatigue?… continue reading.

Student Interns: The Best of Both Worlds

Over the course of the last year, we lost and gained many things in the move to remote learning. In this article, the EDTL Student Interns discuss what they would like to see educators keep from this past year and also what they hope is emphasised with a return to campus.

There has been plenty to take from the last year. All of us were forced to think differently about teaching and learning, and the plus-side of this is that there have been many positive changes for both students and lecturers. Saying that, there have also been parts of education that all of us have missed and will be very eager to see return this year…. continue reading.

Back to College Resource Roundup

Since our last EDTL Resource Roundup, the EDTL team across IUA member universities have been hard at work creating new resources that enhance digital learning for both educators and students.

It is hard to believe that it has been over a year since we began to create EDTL resources for remote learning. At the time, remote learning felt like a very temporary solution – but even as normality gradually resumes for this upcoming year, remote teaching and learning will still have a major role to play… continue reading.

Meet the New EDTL Student Interns

It has been all change on the EDTL Student Intern front, with several new faces since the our last newsletter. Read on to learn more about the EDTL interns you will definitely be hearing a lot from over the next few months.

As the new academic years comes into view, there is all change on the EDTL Student Intern front. The role of EDTL Student Intern is to provide the student voice on the topic of student education, and contributing to EDTL resources on both a university-level and national level format. Over the summer we have said goodbye to some of our wonderful EDTL student interns who have contributed so much to the student voice aspect of the EDTL project over the last few months… continue reading.