2024 Showcase - 19th January 5th Floor Aungier Street

Academic Affairs are delighted to host the 2024 Showcase which highlights some of the innovative learning, teaching and assessment practices taking place across TU Dublin.

Professor Lydia Arnold is Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning, Teaching and Digital) at Harper Adams University, England, where she leads on: Curriculum development; professional development related to teaching and supporting learning; eLearning; and pedagogic research. Since the beginning of her academic career Lydia has sought out new approaches to teaching and learning. Initially that included producing resources for the fully online undergraduate degree programme Ultraversity - ground-breaking at the time it was conceived. Since then, she has continued to push the boundaries as a developer and change leader. She is currently leading an institutional curriculum review project which has a strong focus on authentic assessment, inclusivity, and manageability. With a first Degree in Geography and Education with Maths, from University of Keele and a Doctorate from University of Liverpool, Lydia has a varied discipline background. She is a Principal Fellow, a National Teaching Fellow, and holds Certified Membership of the Association for Learning Technology. She is active on social media and shares ideas through her long-established blog. Beyond education she enjoys walking, live music, and travel.

Connect at:

  • Blog: lydiaarnold.net
  • Linkedin: lydiajarnold
  • Twitter: LydiaJArnold

Authentic Assessment Unpacked:

This session considers what authentic assessment is and why we might want to engage with the concept, either individually or institutionally. It will argue that the idea of being ‘authentic’ has become a movement as an alliance of educators seek to ensure higher education is relevant for the future of individual students and society – but also that to enact change in assessment we need a language that is clear, meaningful, and specific to all staff and students.

After a tour of the concept, we will get practical! We will share some real examples of what authentic assessment can look like, and then explore how assessment which has ‘authentic’ features can be developed and introduced. The role of AI is highlighted as a tool to help educators and students as part of the new learning landscape.  Emphasis is given to staff well-being, recognising the importance of realistic and manageable change. The talk argues for planning assessment changes across entire programmes rather than in individual modules, to avoid a fragmented student experience and a more isolated staff experience. Finally, by drawing on recent research and experience from an institutional curriculum review, the session identifies and explores some key challenges to assessment change, with some ideas on how to navigate these.

By weaving together ideas from literature with practical, actionable insights, this session aims to inspire action and stimulate further productive conversations about assessment.

Keynote Lydia Arnold Presentation Slides

To promote inclusivity in our laboratory setting and improve the learning experience for a student with mobility challenges, we introduced technology by incorporating the use of a portable tablet device into teaching in the laboratory. This allowed all students, to access different areas of the plant, aligning with Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

During COVID times, virtual laboratory sessions were strategically designed and 
implemented, to grant all students access to the plant to be able to complete the 
practical components. Now, with in-person classes, some of the insights garnered from the virtual sessions have translated into the physical setting. Leveraging the user friendly interface of tablets, the students can all actively and closely observe equipment, effectively dismantling physical barriers and ensure fair and inclusive participation in the laboratory environment.

Looking ahead to upcoming laboratory sessions, we are eager to explore how this 
approach can be further harnessed to provide an even more inclusive and accessible 
engagement option.

Havens, G. (2020). Universal design in the age of COVID-19. Planning for Higher Education, 48(4), 14-24

Inclusive Lab Design Presentation Slides

This presentation will focus on developing anti-racist practice in professional education as an example of transformative learning. Developing racial literacy (Sealey Ruiz 2022) involves both learning about what racism is – its historical, structural, institutional, and individual dimensions – and unlearning racist beliefs, stereotypes and ideas. This is a long-term endeavour which takes time and requires intentional scaffolding. Based on research and practice as an educator (e.g. Ní Chonaill et al 2023), a necessary first step in the process is to raise educator and student awareness of their own positionalities at an individual level. Then positionalities need to be connected to the power attached to systemically advantaged social groups, in addition to exploring the impact of being a member of or aligned with a systemically disadvantaged social group (at historical, structural, and institutional levels).

This presentation will focus on the rationale behind this and through the introduction of student activities explore the benefits of such an approach. Race and ethnicity are often viewed in relation to the Other and it is commonplace for White students and educators to think that race and racism do not impact them (Rolón-Dow et al 2020, p. 243) and that being White (or settled) does not constitute a racial or ethnic identity (Brown McNair et al 2020, p. 39). Thus, it will be argued that a key component of developing racial literacy among White settled students and educators in particular, is the need to locate and understand their racial/ethnic position within the dominant contemporary norms which have been shaped by the specific Irish historical complexities. In the current context of increased anti-immigrant and far right rhetoric in Irish society, this is more pertinent than ever.

References

Brown McNair T., Bensimon, E.M. & Malcom-Piqueux, L. (2020). From Equity Talk to Equity Walk Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.

Ní Chonaill, B., Macnamara, N., & Lawlor, G. (2022). Embedding anti-racism in the community development and youth work programme: the focus on positionality. In Re-imagining higher education through equity, inclusion and sustainability (RISE). Proceedings of the 2nd. EUt+ International Conference on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Technical University of Sofia, Sozopol, Bulgaria, 1-3 September. doi:10.21427/cd2h-wr59

Rolón-Dow, R., Ewing Flynn, J. & Mead, H. (2020). Racial literacy theory into practice: teacher candidates’ responses. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. June.

Sealey-Ruiz, Y. (2021) The Critical Literacy of Race: Toward Racial Literacy in Urban Teacher Education. In R.H. Milner & K. Lomotey (Eds.) The Handbook of Urban Education. (2nd Ed.), New York: Routledge.

Role of Positionality Presentation Slides

A presentation of the gamification methods I use in teaching planning across multiple schools, programmes and levels.

The use of games in planning and sustainability education is not new practice, though still niche at third level games like sim city or tools like Lego have been studied (Gaber. J. 2007, Tewdwr-jones & Wilson 2022) for their contribution to decision making and problem solving. In my lecturing practice I have experience with a diverse range of students in courses from Real Estate and Auctioneering, Sustainability and Transport whose primary education focus is not Planning. Overcoming motivation barriers and generating interest in the planning process was my primary impetus for turning to gamification. While using the game I developed primarily as an introduction to processes and procedures with undergraduate auctioneers, I have expanded its use to all education levels through adapting the reflective exercises around the game for constructive alignment with the learning outcomes. This method could be applied to directly to education of processes in other sectors.

Putting the Fun in Fundamentals Presentation Slides

Each December a product Design Showcase is hosted for students on the BSc in Product Design in Bolton Street to celebrate some of the work that has been undertaken in semester one of the program. Students from year 3 make a pitch on their Bolton Trust Project and Year 4 students make short accelerated presentations on their Engineers Without Borders; Design for Community Resilience projects. There are also poster presentations from other years included. Students and staff from across the 4 years of the program attend the event together with a panel of staff and external stakeholders who give feedback on the projects followed by public voting. The showcase has become an important event on the students’ academic calendar and one that showcases the breadth of opportunity and potential of design as a catalyst for innovation and change. 

Product Design Presentation

Motivating And Engaging Students Through Enterprise Challenges
 
Developed by the Enterprise Academy in conjunction with Global School of Business, the Enterprise Challenge is a 5 ECTS credit module in which TU Dublin students work in multi-disciplinary teams to tackle a challenge or problem posed by an enterprise or civic partner.
 
Authentic Learning & Assessment
  • Multidisciplinary Teamwork: Learners from diverse fields unite to address real-world challenges presented by enterprises and civic partners.
  • Hands-On Experience: The learning experience bridges the gap between academic knowledge and practical skills.
  • Real-World Challenges: Assessments focusing on live projects and cross-discipline collaboration, equip learners for real-world success.
 
Transversal Skill Development
  • Universal Career Skills: The module hones critical transversal skills including creativity, resilience, teamwork, leadership, critical thinking, problem-solving, and effective communication.
  • Human-Centered Innovation: From research to prototyping, learners navigate through every stage of innovation, emphasising empathy and user-centric solutions.
 
Career Readiness
  • Industry Mentorship: Learners receive guidance from industry experts, gaining insights into career trajectories, internships, and job opportunities.
  • STLR Aligned: Achievements are documented in the Student Transformation Learning Record (STLR), showcasing skills to potential employers through ePortfolios.
 
This presentation offers a glimpse into the development of the Enterprise Challenge module, highlighting its unique approach to bridging the academic and professional worlds.

Cellular Pathology requires students to be able to make and interpret sections of tissue for the diagnosis of disease and cancer. With increasing class sizes, it is difficult in the laboratory to assess if each student understands the morphology and staining of the sections they stain. Using a camera attached to a microscopy enables students to create an image of their slide, annotate it and interpret it. The student submits a weekly report with a short discussion for feedback and review from the lecturers. We have transformed feedback for students, making it timely and individual to each student so that they can focus on improving areas that they are deficient in and maximising skills they excel at each week.

Pathology Slides Presentation

I am scared of the power of drawing in architectural education… 

You are probably very familiar with the typical architectural or construction drawing. Within architectural education and practice, orthographic projection, the plan, section, and elevation, and 3D axonometric versions of these, are ubiquitous. They are the visual language we use to explore and communicate design solutions. Even with powerful digital tools available to us, we defer back to "ortho" for the final product of architecture; the drawing. However, the drawing is not architecture. The drawing is not construction. The drawing is passive and silent, and does not test or verify our ideas adequately. The drawing is an abstraction.  

From a pedagogical perspective, this is exacerbated. I have seen students struggle with this visual language, even in higher years of our programmes. The assessment of the quality of drawing, or the design solution it conveys, is done via a form of "connoisseurship" feedback model where the student produces work, submits it, and waits for either formative or summative feedback from the educator. This form of feedback is not a true measure of the quality of the proposed design solution, and is very slow as a feedback mechanism. Nor does is support independent iterative testing and exploration of better and multiple solutions by the learner.  

In response to these perceived shortcomings, I set about devising a series of teaching exercises (projects) that flipped the typical approach of drawing first and making or testing second. In this presentation, I will quickly show two of these exercises carried out last year.  

The first required the students not to focus on drawing but on the act of creating a simple shelter to house their group overnight at Grangegorman. This was done in conjunction with the national Shine A Light Night Sleepout charity to raise funds for homelessness. Unlike the broader initiative where people sleepout in back gardens or schools, the students were given a set number of parts and tools and left to determine whether they could create a small piece of architecture that could survive out in the elements. The final structure would need to withstand the climatic conditions by excluding water, allowing a minimum light level to be admitted, and maintain an internal temperature of 20 degrees Celsius. What we found was that students first tried to understand the components and tools and then used drawing only to explore aspects of the design which were not expedient to test "for real". They also used the drawings to explain their ideas to each other. The result was a subtle but deep set of lessons about communication, testing, collaboration, and decision making that would be very difficult to achieve via typical abstract drawing exercises.  

The next exercise built upon the first. After the conclusion of the sleepout (including the students raising over €4,000), they were tasked with making their structures robust enough to last for the long term by exploring increases in size and by testing different combinations of wall, floor, and roof specification. This time they could us typical design approaches and explore new designs at small scale. 

They also were very mindful of sustainability criteria and counted carbon at each stage of the process. The original simple structures had an approximate area of 9sqm and averaged 90kgCO2e in a cradle-to-site calculation carried out by the groups (this did not include possible sequestration which would have resulted in a surprising negative figure). The final designs were then (notionally) doubled in size to about 21sqm but resulted in over 120 times more embodied carbon impact at 26,000kgCO2e on average. The students learned that there is a significant ecological cost for meeting our current expectations for durability and building lifespan… 

Finally, the teams each made a 1:10 scale model. Crucially, all components were required to be created by the students in a manner as close as possible to the real building materials. Unlike typical model making in architectural design, which tends to be primarily an aesthetic exercise only with no building physics or structural forces at play, by forcing the students to use real materials and components they would see and feel consequences for their design choices, hopefully. 

  

Over a period of two weeks, the groups poured miniature foundation strips in soil trenches along with granular fill and insulated floor slabs. Over 500 individual blocks were moulded by them and laid for rising walls. 1500 individual handmade “unfired” clay bricks were stacked for superstructure. 60 wall ties were twisted into shape. 375 individual insulated clay block units were extruded and placed. 500mm wide refined earth walls were rammed. 50 individual softwood rafters and 20 individual tiling battens were cut by each of the teams. 

What became apparent to the students (and teaching staff!) during this process was that this was not model making. The model makers were in fact really building. Apart from just becoming much more aware of the huge effort required to procure and assemble real materials, and the skill and precision required of a builder, certain groups discovered that a 3/4 brick is required to turn corners in Flemish bond walls. Another struggled to connect a damp proof membrane to a damp proof course while wrapping a thermal block. While others came away understanding the elegance of Tuscan roof tiles and the complexity of the spars and sways of thatching. None of those highly specific and important scenarios would be apparent through the medium of drawing or digital tools or typical architectural models. It left us asking the question “What should come first in architectural education? The building or the drawing of the building?”. 

 

Equality, diversity, and inclusion need to be at the heart of the work of university careers services. It is crucial that careers staff understand the needs of all the students they support, how to engage with them and how best to support individuals to achieve their objectives and overcome any challenges. A partnership formed between two Career Centres (TU Dublin and SETU Waterford) created a unique event focusing specifically on encouraging and promoting the goal of real diversity in leadership, reaching out to all those that are under-represented in positions of influence across society.

And so ‘Lift the Lid on Equality – Careers in Leadership for Under-Represented Groups’ was born. An inspirational half day event featuring 6 speakers from EDI under-represented groups leading fireside chats with a range of leaders in business, politics and the voluntary sector, across 8 themes. This line-up was enhanced by presentations from two motivational speakers and a video created by a disability champion. The aims were to educate, motivate and inspire all those attending, towards the contemplation of leadership and achieving a more equal, diverse, and inclusive society. The response from participants and attendees alike exceeded all expectations. It was clear that the event would have a lasting impact on all those who took part – an online audience of around 2,000. Its success as a concept was further bulwarked by the TU Dublin Students’ Union undertaking to run the event in 2023 and, hopefully, yet another in 2024.

With diversity at its core, the key to the success of Lift the Lid on Equality was the collaboration and partnerships between a wide range of organisations and individuals. The idea was germinated by Jill Barrett of TU Dublin who reached out to Angela Collins of SETU Waterford. They jointly organised and implemented the event in collaboration with Caroline Casey, Founder and CEO of The Valuable 500 Global EDI business collective and Jools Hamilton, Co-Founder of The Good Summit Global Events.

Other partners included: EDI leaders from five representative bodies (The Irish Traveller Movement, The National Women’s Council of Ireland, CrossCare, AsIAm and AHEAD), political leaders (including Owen Hurcum, the world’s first non-binary mayor), business leaders such as Leon Diop (Ernst and Young and co-founder/CEO of Black and Irish) and public sector EDI leaders. In addition, the event featured an inspirational video by Mark Smith of Run of the Mill inclusive artists’ theatre company, and two motivational talks from LIFT Ireland and Karen Weekes.

Prior to the event, independent connections were facilitated between the EDI experts and the ‘leader’ interviewees. This allowed them free rein to agree and discuss topics they felt to be of most relevance, value, and interest to the student audience. This empowered all collaborators to drive the agenda, making them co-creators of the narrative.

Lift the Lid on Equality Presentation

The BSc. in Computer Science International (TU858) programme delivered in the School of Computer Science includes a mandatory foreign study exchange in year 3, semester 2. In recent years, due to the national housing crisis, particularly in Dublin, some students were unable to participate due to severe financial issues and the fear of losing their current rental accommodation. This has resulted in those students being excluded from this key component of the programme. To address this issue, the School has engaged with some partner universities and developed strategies to financially assist those students and allow them be included to participate on their required study exchange. In this short presentation, these strategies will be outlined and how it has increased student motivation and engagement in this programme.

Internationalisation Presentation

 Assessment of Learning Outcomes for an Employment Experience Module 

The Dublin Institute of Technology was formed through the DIT Act of 1992 by bringing together six colleges of higher education formerly under the City of Dublin Vocational Educational Committee. The First of these to be formed was College of Technology, Kevin Street - founded in 1887 and the last was the College of Catering, Cathal Brugha Street - founded in 1941 with College of Technology, Bolton Street - founded in 1911. [1]

A qualification from Dublin Institute of Technology, Bolton Street or DIT was renowned in the Engineering Industry as being an International Qualification where the graduate would go into employment ‘by hitting the ground running’. Even with the recent transition into TU Dublin, Ireland’s first Technological University the practical elements of the Fluids, Thermodynamics, Materials, Automation & CNC laboratories among others are maintained and infused into the curriculum for all the engineering modules.

The Level 7 Ordinary Degree in Mechanical Engineering taught in TU Dublin City Campus has accreditation completed by Engineers Ireland. Recently there was a recommendation made by Engineers Ireland to introduce more practical elements and work experience into the course. From this the MECH2039 Employment Experience module evolved as a voluntary module that can be taken as an alternative to the taught MECH2002 Professional Development Module for 5 ETCS points. As this module takes place in 2nd year, the students only have 1 year of college learning so the students may only get non engineering related employment. As they get the employment themselves, we give them full access to the TU Dublin Careers Portal and student membership of Engineers Ireland to help with this. My presentation is about aligning the student assessment with the module deliverables with an Authentic Assessment Methodology.

I introduced the requirement for an employment journal which encourages the students to focus on the activities, tasks, projects, and training that they received and completed, this will form the basis of the report and presentation. I then staggered the completion of the 4 deliverables over the 12-week duration of the semester 1 module and I give them this schedule in week 1.  

While this is a pass/fail module I advised the students of the indicative effort involved with each part of the module deliverables. i.e.  

  • Employer questionnaire, a requirement for module entry but no marks awarded. 
  • Employment work journal 20%   
  • Employment Experience Report 40% 
  • Professional PowerPoint Presentation to the Assessment Panel 40% 

These deliverables will enable the Employment Experience assessment to be constructive, modular, and intricate in nature. The employer questionnaire to be completed as an entry requirement and starting point of the module. The completion of the employment journal is seen as the pool of information for the report, when the report is completed the PowerPoint presentation can be used as a summary of this report. This shows the dependency and relationship between all the parts of the module to achieve the result.

The introduction of a work journal allows the student to list and record all the activities and projects they have completed during the employment experience. The introduction of the indicative weighting system allows the students to gauge the time to be spent on each section to get the maximum overall result. The introduction of both these authentic assessment measures has increased the student engagement/ performance and allows the student to complete reflective learning on the activities that they have completed in the workplace. 

 

References

[1]

ARROW, "DIT Website," [Online]. Available: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/dit/. [Accessed 17 January 2024].

 

Employment Experience Module Presentation

In Ireland, the Digital Divide has become more prevalent since the Covid-19 Pandemic. While
Computer Science (CS) was introduced as a state examined subject in 2018, it is not a mandatory
subject for students. At present, there is a low number of teachers available to teach this subject at
2nd Level in Irish schools. Furthermore, many schools do not have access to necessary devices, and
research has shown that teachers lack confidence in their own digital skills.
Facilitated by researchers within TUD’s School of Enterprise Computing and Digital Transformation,
CS_LINC is a Computer Science MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), aimed at supporting teachers
to engage students with introductory computing topics, with the hope that students may choose to
take CS as a Leaving Certificate subject and perhaps continue further to study the subject at 3rd
Level. CS_LINC intends to support disadvantaged students in schools which have been assigned DEIS
(Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) status by the Irish Department of Education. There
are currently 116 schools across Ireland which are registered on CS_LINC modules for the 2023/24
academic year. Of this total amount, 23 schools have DEIS status, representing 20% of the total
number of schools participating in CS_LINC nationwide and engaging disadvantaged students in CS.
We hope that CS_LINC’s innovative approach to enhancing student exposure to and confidence in
Computer Science will help to create further educational opportunities for students of all
backgrounds.

CSLINC Presentation

Despite increased LGBTI+ awareness, Ireland ranked in 16th place in Europe for LGBTI+ equality rights in the ILGA Rainbow index published in May 2022. This highlights the necessity for support for LGBTI+ students at 3rd level education to achieve better equality. According to TENI Supporting Transgender Inclusion in the Workplace, one in four trans people in Ireland are unemployed.  Almost half of Irish LGBTI+ employees conceal their LGBTI+ identity at work for fear of discrimination. TU Dublin Career Development Centre identified the need for a tailored suite of resources to assist students to confidently enter into employment. 

It is estimated between 5-7% of students attending 3rd level education belong to the LGBTI+ community.  To date in Ireland, there has been a lack of tailored career resources for these students.  In addition, National Career Guidance training has not addressed the specific knowledge needed for working with this cohort of students.    With this in mind, TU Dublin Career Development Centre has designed and delivered a suite of resources to assist LBGTI+ students and graduates nationally make the transition from education into employment and to enable Career Coaches support this cohort of students effectively.

Resources created and disseminated nationally and the UK include:

  1. A student career e-guide with information onareas including how to find LGBTI+ positive companies, pros and cons of disclosure, effective networking with LGBTI+ professionals. 

Link:  https://www.tudublin.ie/for-students/career-development-centre/students-and-graduates/equality-and-diversity-resources/

  1. A Career Coaching Guide aimed to enhance career coaches’ knowledge when working with this cohort of students.   

Link:  https://create.piktochart.com/output/57714186-lgbti-coaching-guide

  1. Training webinars for both students and career coaches supporting students to make the transition from education into employment:

Student Presentation Link:    https://www.tudublin.ie/media/website/for-students/careers/docs/Career-Resources-for-LGBTI--Students-LYC-22.pptx

 

The Career e-guide was shared with all Career Services nationally and the UK inviting them to edit and host it on their own Career websites

The resources were compiled in collaboration with LGBT Ireland, Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI) and TU Dublin Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Directorate to ensure best practice.  Feedback from students and career professionals has been overwhelmingly positive:  Eg:  “As a trans student I have been feeling so nervous about looking for work.  The help I have got from my career coach and the LGBTI+ career e-guide has made me a lot more confident.”   (TU Dublin Student)  These resources are incredibly helpful for careers practitioners and LGBTQI+ students alike.”  (Marielle Kelly – Careers Consultant, Trinity Careers Service)

The aim of creating the student e-career guide was so that each 3rd level institution could build on it and tailor it best to the needs of their own students, having been given editing rights over the information.  It is envisaged that this resource will continue to grow as further information is added that assists each individual institution’s LGBTI+ students progress into employment.  As new staff join institutions, the career coaching guide will provide them with a basis to help them best support this cohort of students.  This guide has been created to have ongoing relevance for career practitioners.

This initiative was awarded the 2023 AHECS Employability Award for Supporting Student/Graduate Employability which recognises and showcases the best in employability initiatives implemented by AHECS members careers and employability services throughout the year.  AHECS is the professional body of higher education careers and employability professionals across Ireland. 

Career Presentation

Transition Year Dual Enrolment is a college in school program which aims to develop partnerships between TU Dublin and local schools. It will provide secondary school students with an authentic experience of what is required to succeed in university programs whilst doing so through their school or within the university. This experience will support students in transitioning from secondary school to university life, encourage participation, and support good college and career choices. TY students take modules from the university engineering programs running at the Blanchardstown campus. The students get to experience first year modules under the same conditions as students enrolled on TU Dublin programmes.

Pathways to Higher Education

Practice-based research (PBR) is an integral activity embedded in the undergraduate curriculum across disciplines within Arts & Humanities at TU Dublin. Research practices on authentic aspects of the learning activities are said to be beneficial and support student academic engagement and success. In this presentation, we report on how we formed a Community of Practice to support faculty-wide undergraduate PBR that aims to share practice among lecturers and provide fora for students to share and disseminate their research, thus supporting the development of their identities as researchers. 

Undergraduate Research Practice

Photographic practice requires individual creativity and an articulate critical voice. The BA Photography course utilises a group critique method to foster authentic critical discussion and develop each student's creative practice. Work from each student is considered and each student is expected to contribute to the analysis. The key rules are simple: the comments must be kind and the critique must be specific. This method encourages the group to become a learning community that supports and challenges the members.

Critical Discourse Presentation

Nurturing Creativity by creating a sense of community and enabling implicit learning through hands-on exploration of special custom guitars

TouchTheSound Presentation

In recent years, the volume of domestic waste being produced in Ireland has been increasing while the rate of recycling has been dropping. Consequently, Ireland risks not meeting the 2025 ‘EU Municipal Waste and Plastic Packaging’ targets. Key to the solving this problem is the improvement of knowledge and practice of correct waste management in Irish households.

Employing a service-learning methodology, students of the module, Food Product Regulatory Affairs, assessed the knowledge, motivation and practices of waste management in Irish households by surveying primary school pupils and their parents and designed infographics to address the knowledge and practice gaps revealed in the research.

This project is part of an Erasmus + project “Nemos” which aims to embed sustainability into educational curricula using Service -Learning.

Domestic Waste Presentation

TU Dublin and the School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering are engaged in the ERASMUS+ funded TRansdisciplinary course on sUSTainable FINANCE project, along with its three partners (Lappeenranta University of Technology (Finland), Cologne Business School (Germany) and IPAG Business School (France)). The project has three objectives. The primary objective is to develop a course on sustainable finance to prepare future finance executives and engineers. A didactic objective focuses on the design of educational support with an Environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) database included for teaching and training purposes in Higher Education, and also for professionals. The final methodological objective, is centred on innovative pedagogies in Higher Education and facilitating dialogue between engineering and business students to develop transdisciplinary skills necessary to solve sustainable finance issues. These three objectives are facilitated through mentored practical case studies involving financial industry representatives to enhance the professionalisation and employability of the student participants.

This presentation highlights progress to date, detailing the bumps on the road along the way as well as the wins in launching the pilot course (within the MSc in Energy Management). The presentation will also trace project implementation plans and how the work will be refined into a CPD with Engineers Ireland, and developed into an associated micro-credential.

TRUST Presentation

IJAP Special Ed for Sustainable Development 

IJAP Summary Presentation