EDIN welcomes National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning

EDIN members attended the Minister's speech on higher education on November 22 last at the Department of Education and Skills. We welcome the launch of the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning with Professor Sarah Moore of UL as chair. This is an important recognition of the teaching and learning expertise within Irish higher education and the need to provide 'all students with a teaching and learning experience of the highest quality through engagement with innovative pedagogies and the technologies that support these' (Minister's speech, 2012).

Professor Sarah Moore is a key figure in educational development in Ireland. She set up the Centre for Teaching and Learning at the University of Limerick and is the Associate Vice President Academic at the university. Professor Moore has published extensively on teaching and learning in higher education and has presented workshops for EDIN, most recently in 2009.

EDIN wishes Professor Moore  all the best for her challenging task and looks forward to working with the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning as it  draws 'on the strong areas of existing expertise in our institutions, . . . raising standards of teaching and learning overall' (Minister's speech, 2012).

EDIN AGM 28 May 2012 - a brief report

The EDIN AGM took place on Monday 28 May in Athlone Institute of Technology. The group were formally welcomed to AIT by the Academic Registrar Dr Joseph Ryan. At the AGM EDIN Officers and Committee were elected for 2012-2013. Congratulations to Nuala Harding AIT who is EDIN Chair for the coming year. She is ably supported by Martin Fitzgerald LIT as Vice-Chair, Angelica Risquez UL as Secretary and Michelle Tooher NUIG as Treasurer. The Committee members for 2012-2013 are Anne Carpenter IT Carlow, Alison Farrell NUIM, Ciara O'Farrell TCD, Marion Palmer IADT and Anne Mangan Institute of Physical Therapy. Thanks to the 2011-2012 Officers and Committee for all the work this year. Thanks to all who attended the AGM from twelve different higher education institutions across Ireland.


The AGM was followed by two seminars. The first seminar focused on Strategic leadership in educational development. It was led by Professor Paul Blackmore of King's College London who looked at possible futures for higher education and argued that it needs to prepare for uncertainty and educational developers have  a clear role in academic leadership. The seminar finished with presentations by Professor Ciaran O'Boyle and Dr Pauline Joyce from the Institute of Leadership at RCSI on the Irish perspective. 

Nuala Harding EDIN Chair with Professor Paul Blackmore King's College London and Professor Ciaran O'Boyle, RCSI

The second seminar focused on Strategic Curriculum Change. Professor Paul Blackmore presented on the King’s-Warwick project Creating a 21st Century Curriculum, a collaborative curriculum project undertaken by King’s College London and the University of Warwick. The project provides great insight into curriculum development in higher education and the project website is a great resource for all who wish to develop an engaging curriculum for undergraduate education. EDIN thanks all the speakers for a most stimulating and engaging day. 

EDIN AGM 28 May 2012

EDIN is delighted to announce the 2012 AGM will take place on Monday 28 May 2012 at Athlone Institute of Technology. The meeting will begin with the AGM and members are invited to attend, the agenda and minutes will be issued closer to the date. New committee members are always welcome, if you are interested please let Nuala Harding (EDIN Chair) or Angelica Risquez (EDIN Secretary) know.

We are delighted to inform you that Professor Paul Blackmore, King’s College, London, has agreed to work with EDIN members on the theme of Strategic development for academic developers. For further information and to register for either or both sessions please see the Activity page of the website.

In the meantime work continues on Emerging Issues III and we will keep you posted.

EDIN Update March 2012

EDIN Emerging Issues III is moving ahead. The review process has been completed and the abstracts selected. To keep up to date with progress click on the EDIN Projects web page. 


The EDIN website is a resource for educational developers. Current and forthcoming events of interest to educational developers are on the EDIN News & Events page. The NDLR Research Symposium in September 2012 call for proposals in open until 16 March, for further information click here. EdTech2012 call for papers is open until 30 March.


Useful journals are listed here at the bottom of the page. New journals added recently include the Journal of Pedagogic Development from the Centre for Learning Excellence at the University of Bedfordshire. Please send any journal recommendations for the website to Marion Palmer. 

EDIN Update 11 February 2012

Emerging Issues III call for abstracts closed on 3 February. Thanks for the submissions. They are now being reviewed and feedback to authors will be issued by 23 February. Please see the Project page for the schedule.  

The call for nominations for the 2012 Jennifer Burke Award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning is now open. It is awarded annually by DCU and the Irish Learning Technology Association (ILTA) in memory of Jennifer Burke. Full details
are available here. The deadline for receipt of submissions is 27th February 2012.

EdTech2012 takes place in NUIM from 31 May to 1 June. The call for papers is now open here. Deadline for submission of abstracts is 30 March 2012.  

Anyone thinking of attending the 2012 ISSOTL conference in Canada in October may be interested in a call for International Collaborative Writing Groups. Information available here. Closing date for applications is 28 February 2012.

EDIN Call for contributions Emerging Issues III

EDIN is delighted to announce a call for contributions to Emerging Issues III. In 2013, EDIN is seeking to publish Emerging Issues III; for Emerging Issues III EDIN has adopted the working title From Capacity Building to Sustainability. Though there has been significant capacity building over the past 10 years in terms of support for teaching and learning in the sector, few of us could have predicted the utterly changed landscape with which we are faced in higher education today. The current situation in higher education, and more widely in the country, means that sustainability will be a key concern for the future.  Full information about the call, submission of abstracts and key dates are on the EDIN projects page.


Some journal news
The new issue of International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning is available online here. Research in Learning Technology the journal of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) is now open access and all back volumes are available, click here.