Assessment & Feedback in a Digital Context - Registration now closed

‘Assessment & Feedback in a Digital Context’ can form part of Trinity’s structured PhD programme and is open to postgraduate research students with active roles in supporting teaching and learning/or assessment at Trinity.

This fully-online 5-ECTS standalone structured PhD module aims to support GTAs with teaching/learning/assessment responsibilities in their role as a GTA and to consider where and how digital assessment and feedback practices can be used to enhance learning.  

It is suitable for both for GTAs who have already completed the 5 ECTS online module ‘Teaching & Learning for Graduate Teaching Assistants’ and for those students newer to professional development in teaching, learning, and assessment.

Module participation is built around engagement in small peer learning sets at times to be agreed between participants in these groups, e.g. supporting flexible timetabling that suits the calendars of busy GTAs. Materials supporting these peer learning encounters (‘blocks’) are released on a highly structured weekly basis across the term. These are supported by three live tutorials which all participants must attend.

There is no charge for participating in the module. Before registering please ensure that you can engage fully in the module (approximately 100-125 hours of learning to include tutorials, assessment, directed and self-directed learning).

Tutorial Dates

• Tutorial 1: Module introduction & Introduction to peer learning sets (13:00 - 15:00) - 1st Feb 2023
  
• Tutorial 2: Digital practices in assessment and feedback (13:00 - 13:50) - 1st Mar 2023
  
• Tutorial 3: Module assessment in context (13:00 - 13:50) 22nd Mar 2023

Module learning outcomes:

• Define what assessment and feedback mean to you in the context of your discipline.
  
• Reflect on and evaluate your evolving role in assessment and feedback as you make the shift from student to assessor.
  
• Identify how digital technologies can be used to enable and enhance assessment and feedback processes.
  
• Demonstrate engagement with the relevant literature of assessment feedback.

Module credits are linked to:  

• Participation in online discussion threads
• Ongoing engagement in peer learning sets
• Participation in three mandatory-attendance online tutorials
• Development of a resource document suitable for peer GTAs in their context
• Development of a reflective document on feedback in practice.  

Please note this module is not suitable for Masters students.

Timetable Hilary Term 2023

Assessment Process

The module is graded on a pass/fail basis.

Module participants are expected to demonstrate satisfactory engagement with discussion board and journal prompts as well as evidence their engagement with their peers across the module (‘formative’ assessment).

As ‘summative’ assessment, they must also submit a digital resource document suitable for peer GTAs  (e.g. infographic, text-based resource, poster etc) and a short written reflective document focusing on the impact of the module on their own assessment and feedback practices.

Credits cannot be awarded for the module unless both summative components are completed; summative components will not be reviewed until all formative/continuous assessment activities have been completed. 

Formative assessment deadline: 12pm on Thurs 4th May
Summative assessment deadline: 12pm on Thurs 25th May

Teaching & Supporting Learning as a Graduate Teaching Assistant (5 ECTS) - Currently closed for Registrations.

This fully-online 5-ECTS module which can form part of the structured PhD is offered by Academic Practice. The module is targeted towards the needs of PhD students with roles in teaching or supporting learning, e.g. those working as teaching assistants or demonstrators, and is particularly appropriate for students aiming towards a career as a lecturer. Module participants join a supportive peer group who share practice, insights, and pedagogical concerns and are supported to reflect critically on and take a scholarly approach to their own educational practice.

This module seeks to enable Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) to:

• Develop a conceptual understanding of the norms and expectations of being a TA;
• Examine your assumptions, values, beliefs, and practices;
• Employ effective teaching strategies to enhance student learning;
• Develop a student-centred approach to teaching;
• Promote inquiry and student engagement;
• Evaluate your teaching and its impact on student learning.

Module learning outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this module, you should be able to:

1. Reflect on the tasks and responsibilities associated with your role;
2. Practice some appropriate communication and coping strategies;
3. Select and apply some relevant theories of learning to your teaching;
4. Design a teaching session plan;
5. Use technology to enhance your students’ learning;
6. Support assessment of, for and as learning;
7. Reflect on your own learning as a teaching assistant.

Module Blocks
The module is divided into the following 7 learning blocks:

• Role of the Graduate Teaching Assistant
• Communications and Coping Strategies
• How Students Learn
• Session Planning
• Designing an Online Activity
• Assessment and Feedback
• Reflecting on and Evaluating your Teaching

The module will run in Michaelmas Term for 12 weeks and there is no charge.  You will participate in weekly online discussion threads, contribute to journal entries and must be able to participate in the following 3 x 50 minute online tutorials on the following dates:

• Tutorial 1 – Designing a Session Plan(1:05pm) -Wednesday 2nd November 2022
• Tutorial 2 – Digital Teaching and Learning (1:05pm) - Wednesday 23rd November 2022
• Tutorial 3 – Preparation of a Draft Teaching Philosophy  Statement (1:05pm) -Wednesday 7th December 2022

Please note this module is open to PhD students only at this time. Please click on the tab above for the non-credit option of this module.

Michaelmas Term 2022

Assessment Process

Students are required to submit 3 items for assessment. Each assessment is linked to one online tutorial, led by one of the Academic Practice team. Further details will be given at the start of the module but please find a brief overview below.

Assessment due date for all 3 items will be scheduled for early January 2023

• Submission of a draft teaching philosophy statement (700 words)
• Submission of a draft session plan (one A4 page)
• Submission on the topic of Digital Teaching and Learning
• Contribution to a minimum of 8 Discussion Forum Threads
• Contribution to all the journal entries (35 across the 7 blocks in the module). We do not wish to be prescriptive in level of contribution to each thread, but expect meaningful engagement with the blocks. 

Teaching & Supporting Learning Uncredited

Funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning, Academic Practice have developed an online module titled ‘Teaching and Supporting Learning as a Graduate Teaching Assistant.’ This online module is research led and is based on the original 5ECTS module for Graduate Teaching Assistants.

The online module is available in Blackboard and contains seven blocks: -

•Role of the Graduate Teaching Assistant
•Communications and Coping Strategies
•How Students Learn
•Session Planning
•Technology-Enhanced Learning
•Assessment and Feedback
•Reflecting on and Evaluating your Teaching

All postgraduates in Trinity may self-enrol on the fully online version of the module from within Blackboard. Please note that no credits can be awarded for completing this self-directed professional development module. Postgraduate students seeking to complete a module for credit as part of the structured PhD should complete either of the for-credit modules available.

To self-enrol, go to Blackboard at https://mymodule.tcd.ie (This module is NOT for credit).

Log in using your College network username and password
In the Module Search box, enter –Teaching and Supporting Learning as a Graduate Teaching Assistant
Click on the module -VP1017_PD_1819
Click on + Enrol at the bottom of the module menu on the left of the screen
In the ACCESS CODE box enter –TACOURSE1819
Click OK. You may need to log out and back in to Blackboard if you cannot see all the content in the module after self-enrolling.

Please see Student Learning for further information.