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PAL Events




UPCOMING EVENTS

November 2012

2nd – 3rd November 2012, UK and Ireland National PASS Leader Conference

For more details visit:  http://www.gmit.ie/pal/conference/



PAST EVENTS

  • November 2011

    • 11th - 12th November, 2nd National PAL Staff / Student Conference, Brighton University.

    • November 2010

      • 5th - 6th November, National PAL Staff / Student Conference, Bristol University.

      • GMIT PAL Leaders were invited to participate in an international Peer Assisted Learning Conference held in University of South West England in Bristol in November. Delegates at the conference included students and staff from 25 third level colleges from across the UK and Ireland. The two day conference covered a range of workshops and seminars on leader techniques including creativity, psychology of group work, advanced facilitation skills and lots more.  The purpose of the PAL/PASS Conference is to bring together institutions of higher education from the UK and Ireland that provide peer learning support with an academic focus.

      • The GMIT PAL Leader Poster was prepared by four students from Business, Hotel and Science. Their poster was awarded 3rd place out of 25 entries and the design incorporated a 'mindmap' which highlighted the benefits of PAL to GMIT, the first year students and the leaders. The poster also included the milestones achieved to date with PAL in GMIT, AIT and NUIG.

      • For more details visit: http://www.uwe.ac.uk/pal/uwe-pal-conference.shtml

      • The following PAL Leaders and Staff from GMIT attended this event:

        • Carina Ginty, SIF II Manager

        • Evelyn Moylan, Lecturer in Business Studies

        • Christopher Griffiths, BB in Event Management & Public Relations

        • Cathriona Lafferty, BB in Business Studies

        • Daniel McCarthy, BB in Hotel & Catering Management

        • Gudny Flataboe, BSc in Chemical & Pharmaceutical Science

      • To view a picture of the leaders and staff at the event, please click here.

    • June 2010

      • 2nd - 4th June, 6th International Supplemental Instruction Conference, which is hosted by the University of Missouri-Kansas City and will take place in New Orleans.  Carina Ginty (GMIT) and Nuala Harding (AIT) will present a joint paper titled “The First Year Experience of a new Peer Assisted Learning Programme in two Institutes of Technology in Ireland”. This paper describes a collaborative research study in which Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) has been deployed simultaneously in two institutes of technology in Ireland, across a range of disciplines using an action research cyclical approach. This conference will provide an opportunity for international academic staff and students to meet and present on Peer Assisted Learning and other peer collaborative learning initiatives and related topics.

      • 10th & 11th June 2010 8th Annual Teaching & Learning Conference titled ’Creative Thinking: Re-Imagining the University’ will be held in Arás Moyola, NUI Galway. There are 20 places available for GMIT Staff to attend. The registration fee is supported by SIF II Curriculum Reform Programme.

    • May 2010

      • 26th - 28th May 2010: Fifth European Conference on the First Year Experience, University College, Antwerp, Belgium. The aim of the European First Year Experience (EFYE) Conference is to explore the student experience at institutions of higher education across Europe, with a specific focus on the importance of the first year.  By sharing good practices, get acquainted with innovative actions to support student learning and be introduced to new research we can create a better learning environment for our higher education students and improve the quality of European higher education. This year's central theme is: Appreciating & Empowering Students' Talents.

      • 12th & 13th May 2010 4th Annual PAL Symposium will take place in GMIT in theatre 994 from 9-4pm. Catherine Unite from the Centre for Academic Development, University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) will be Keynote Speaker at the event and will be presenting on “Learning to Change, Changing to Learn”.  Catherine will address the core components of the SI Model, reflect on how the program has contributed to student success, explore international adaptations, with particular reference to the South African perspective, and consider future directions for peer support in 21st Century learning.  This event will also include presentations from GMIT, AIT, UL, TCD, DIT, Granada University (Spain).

        • The Agenda (PDF, 176KB) for the event is now available.

        • Presentations (Zip File, 7.21MB) given on the day.

        • Click here to view photos from the event.

      • May 10th PAL Briefing Sessions for Lecturers of 1st year programmes in each school will run in room 1036. All 1st year teaching teams from the programmes are invited to attend the session. The briefing session is an opportunity for the teaching teams to get a better understanding on how PAL runs in GMIT, the role of the leaders, what happens in PAL sessions and how we can support the PAL leaders and 1st year students from Sept. 1st 2010. Each briefing session will be 1 hour long.

        • Schedule: Briefing sessions on May 10th for each school will take place at:

        • Engineering School (Electronic) - 10-11; Hotel School - 11-12; Business School - 12-1; Science School - 2-3; and Humanities School - 3-4.

      • 7th May 2010 2nd UK National Transition Conference in the University College London.  The central theme of the conference is ‘To explore students' transition to Higher Education in the UK, with a focus on identifying strategies for engaging specific cohorts of under-represented learners in the context of different kinds of institutions.’ Carina Ginty, GMIT and Nuala Harding, AIT will present a paper and workshop about the PAL programme running in both institutes and experiences to date. Two leaders from GMIT and AIT will also participate in a workshop. For more information on this Conference visit: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/transition/transitionconference

    • APRIL 2010

      • CANCELED DUE TO FLIGHT SITUATION: 19th April 2010 A PAL Workshop for Heads of School & Heads of Department from GMIT & AIT will take place in the new boardroom in GMIT from 11– 2pm.  This workshop will be run by Marcia Ody from University of Manchester. AIT Heads of Department will also take part in this workshop. This workshop is an important part of our GMIT PAL Programme evaluation and implementation process. It is also an opportunity to meet with our PAL partner, Athlone Institute of Technology and share experiences of how PAL is working in both institutes. Please confirm attendance with phyllis.smyth@gmit.ie.

      • CANCELED DUE TO FLIGHT SITUATION: 20th April 2010 Problem Based Learning (PBL) Workshop with Prof. Birgit Storm from Aalborg University, Denmark will be running in room 1036 from 3-5pm

        • Brigit has been a pioneer in the field of Problem Based Learning (PBL). At this workshop she will give specific examples of PBL and report on her experiences in delivering courses through PBL. The specific aims of PBL are to develop the intrinsic interest of the students in the subject matter which motivates students to be independent learners. One of the main defining characteristics of PBL, which distinguishes it from some other forms of Enquiry Based Learning, is that the problem is presented to the students first at the start of the learning process, before other curriculum inputs.

    • March 2010

      • 29th - 31st March 2010: March LDHEN Annual Symposium, Nottingham Trent University. The theme for the event will be 'Celebrating Partnerships in Learning Development'.  Keynote speakers will be Marcia Baxter Magolda, Distinguished Professor, Miami University and Glynis Cousin, Director of Institute for Learning Enhancement and of Centre for Excellence. 

    • November 2009

    • November 19th 2009 - A special staff 'PAL in Action' workshop was delivered by Marcia Ody and Will Carey who manage the PAL Programme at Manchester University. The Peer Assisted Learning Programme in Manchester University was set up in late 90's and currently supports 6000 + first year students and has 500 trained student PAL leaders running weekly PAL sessions this year. Manchester University recently were awarded the status as the national centre of excellence in the UK for peer learning programmes. The workshop included - Understanding the PAL Model, simulated PAL Session, understanding PAL Leadership Training, DVD Clips - PAL Experiences and Q & A Session.

    • October 2009

    • 12th October 2009 The official launch of the Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) Programme took place in GMIT, Dublin Road Campus at 12.00 in the new reception - Cafe Foyer Area. GMIT President Marion Coy and AIT President Ciaran O'Cathain officially launched the programme.

    • GMIT and AIT presented a poster at the LIN Conference 2009, which took place in the Sheraton Hotel in Athlone.  The poster outlines details on the GMIT and AIT PAL Programme and the major steps on implementation.  Download a copy here (PDF, 921KB).

    • September 2009

    • September 7th 2009 - Moodle Training for PAL Leaders took place on Monday September 7th from 11 am to 1 pm in Room 917 beside the IT Centre.

    • September 3rd and 4th 2009 - PAL Leader Training took place in Room 996 on Thursday 3rd September and Friday 4th September 2009 from 9:30 am sharp to 5 pm.

    • June 2009

    • 11th and 12th June 2009 GMIT (Carina Ginty) and AIT (Nuala Harding) designed and delivered a PAL workshop at NUIG 7th Annual Teaching and Learning Conference. The workshop addressed the PAL programme implementation steps, issues, challenges, evaluation of Phase One and Phase Two plans. At the workshop, student leaders (Brian Flynn and Aoife Dempsey, School of Business from AIT) simulated a PAL session in action to academics. The workshop received a lot of interest from many IOT's and Universities. Student leaders were praised for their role as facilitators. For more information.

    •  June 15th -17th 2009 GMIT (Carina Ginty) and AIT (Nuala Harding) ran a similar PAL workshop with PAL leaders at the Confederation of Student Services in Ireland (CSSI) First Year Experience Conference which took place in IT Sligo. The workshop included a presentation on research findings from GMIT and AIT PAL Phase One Evaluations and leaders  (Brian Flynn, School of Business and Maura Burke, School of Humanities from AIT) simulated a PAL session in action with academics.

    • May 2009

      • 8th & 9th May 2009 GMIT (Carina Ginty) and AIT (Nuala Harding) presented at the PAL Ireland Symposium hosted by Trinity College, Dublin (www.palnetireland.com). The presentation described the GMIT and AIT PAL programme implementation steps, phase one evaluations and the collaborative action research approach.

    • April 2009

      • April 2009 The SIF II Project Manager from GMIT (Carina Ginty) and AIT Learning and Teaching co-ordinator (Nuala Harding) with student PAL Leaders (Brian Flynn, School of Business and Sharon Flaherty, School of Humanities from AIT and Janine Bartley and Darius Morozas from the Hotel School in GMIT) attended the European PAL Symposium ("Students learning from students - from theory to practice") hosted by the Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven, Belgium. Pdf-files of the talks presented on the symposium "Students learning from students: from theory to practice".