Learning Supports

Student Learning Development

Student Learning Development provides learning support to help students reach their academic potential. The supports include:

• Individual learning support sessions and self-help literature on many learning and study strategies.
• Free workshops throughout the year on a variety of topics for students from all departments, including undergraduate and postgraduate students.
• A website with a range of resources including podcasts, downloads and interactive workshops that provide academic support to students. Topics include time management, study skills, exams, academic writing, presentation skills and more.
• For more information please visit http://student-learning.tcd.ie
• Other supports for learning in College include:
  • The Maths Help Room, which provides informal help from Trinity students. It is located in the Maths Seminar Room, 2nd Floor, 18 Westland Row and is open on Monday-Friday, from 1-2pm.
  • The Programming Support Centre is available to all computer science and engineering students taking programming courses. See www.scss.tcd.ie/misc/psc
• Peer Learning is available in several of the modern language departments. It involves working with other students to get the most from your course to improve performance. E-mail us for further information: student.learning@tcd.ie

Library

Trinity College’s library is the largest research library in Ireland. The collections include 4.5 million printed volumes, almost 300,000 electronic books and journals and an extensive collection of literary, historical and political manuscripts, including the Book of Kells. The Library has the country’s largest collection of maps and printed music.

The reading rooms are in a number of buildings, all of which have access to the College wireless network. The Berkeley/Lecky/Ussher library complex contains the collections for arts, humanities, social sciences, geography, geology, and nursing, together with the Map Library.

The Hamilton Science Library holds the collections for engineering, mathematics, science and some health sciences.

Clinical health science material is held at the John Stearne Medical Library at St. James’s Hospital at the AMNCH Hospital, Tallaght.

The Old Library (1732) is one of Ireland’s greatest buildings, and the Long Room is one of the most famous library spaces in the world. It contains the reading rooms for manuscripts and for early printed books, as well as providing a public exhibition space with the Book of Kells (entrance is free for Trinity College students).

The Library offers many facilities including group study rooms, a multimedia resource area and assistive technology suites.
Undergraduates are encouraged to browse and explore the online catalogue: the key to finding the Library’s printed and electronic resources. You can also use the catalogue to renew and request books online.

Tours, seminars and workshops are given throughout the year to help students get the most out of using the Library. One to one help is available too at the Duty Librarian desks and from the Subject Librarian team who offer specialised subject help.

Students can access the Library’s electronic collections on campus or at home. Find out more about the Library at www.tcd.ie/Library

IT services for students

Undergraduate students at TCD are provided with access to a wide range of computer facilities and services provided by the Information System Services department. These include:

• Access to hundreds of personal computers located in over twenty student computer rooms across the campus. Many of these rooms are open on a 24 hour, 7 day week basis. In addition to the standard software packages such as MS Office, some computer rooms have specialist software to support particular courses or projects. Dedicated e-mail/web stations located close to large lecture theatres enable students to check their e-mail and to use the web between lectures.
• All student residences are networked to provide a fast broadband service. In addition, some residences, and many areas of the campus, have Wi-Fi access to the College network. Students register their computers to gain access to this network which is designed to the highest security standards.
• At registration each student is issued with a Trinity College e-mail account, together with a range of other applications, hosted by Google. Students retain this account for life after leaving Trinity College.
• E-learning now plays an important role in the learning experience of students in Trinity College. Resources for many courses are available in the College’s learning management system.
• All students have access to the IS Services’ Helpdesk where queries regarding any of the above services are dealt with by a team of IT professionals.
• Find out more at isservices.tcd.ie

Optional courses

Broad Curriculum

The University of Dublin is renowned internationally for the breadth and depth of the degrees it awards. Trinity College is dedicated to encouraging the following qualities in its students and graduates: inquisitiveness and analytical ability; creativity and reflectiveness; adaptability; breadth of reading; ethical responsibility; international outlook; articulacy; literacy; and numeracy.

To assist with the development of these qualities, Trinity College offers students the opportunity to study one module outside their chosen course, via the Broad Curriculum. These Broad Curriculum modules are usually available to students in the Senior Freshman (second) or Junior Sophister (third) year. The chosen module would typically account for approximately 10% of the teaching for the year.

At the time of publication, Trinity College offers 18 broad curriculum modules in literature, film studies, languages (2 modules), philosophy, psychology, political science, living sustainably (2 modules), criminal law, business, planet earth, art in Ireland (2 modules), science and technology, gender and society, and history (2 modules).

Find out more at www.tcd.ie/Broad_Curriculum

Optional language courses

Some places in optional evening language courses (for students who are not studying a language as part of their degree) are available. The courses take place at the Centre for Language and Communication Studies (CLCS), and are designed to help develop practical communication skills for study or work experience abroad. CLCS language modules may also be taken for credit (5 ECTS) by undergraduate students under the Broad Curriculum.

The following language modules are available:

Irish (A1, B1); French (A1, B1, B2); Spanish (A1, B1); Italian (A1, A2); German (A1, A2, B1, B2); Turkish (A1, A2, B1); Korean (A1, A2);

A1 level classes are for complete beginners; A2 classes are for post-beginners. For B1 and B2 level classes, the minimum entry requirement is a Leaving Certificate (or equivalent) qualification in the relevant language.

Find out more at www.tcd.ie/slscs/undergraduate/clcs-language-modules