NAIRTL Grants Initiative

Download or read book NAIRTL Grants Initiative written by Jennifer Murphy and published by NAIRTL. This book was released on 2011 with total page 103 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The mission of the National Academy for Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (NAIRTL) is to ensure that all higher education students are exposed to cutting edge research in their classrooms, and that students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels are actively engaged in relevant and authentic research in their chosen discipline. To this end, NAIRTL has initiated a wide range of events and activities aimed at enhancing student learning and that support stronger links between research and teaching. This report focuses on the impact of just one of these creative interventions, namely the NAIRTL grants initiative. The objective of the grants initiative is to provide financial support to research proposals that endeavour to enhance student learning through developing innovative and creative approaches to teaching and assessment. More than forty per cent of the National Academy's total budget to date has been invested in the grants initiative, funding 161 projects that involve 420 researchers in seventeen higher education institutions in Ireland. This report focuses on the impact of the projects that were funded in the period 2007-2010. The report is divided into three parts. The first part provides a brief introduction to the National Academy, giving an overview of a selection of its main initiatives i.e. the awards programme for excellence in teaching, professional development activities in academic practice, and development of publications and resources. Part two of this report presents the findings of an evaluation of the impact of the grants initiative. Part three of this report presents fifteen case studies of projects that were funded through the NAIRTL grants initiative. Appended are: (1) NAIRTL Publications; (2) Table of Outputs; and (3) List of Projects Funded 2007-2011. (Contains 23 footnotes.).