ATU win award for innovation in teaching and learning

THE Sanctuary Runners are calling on people in towns and villages across Sligo to come together to form new running, and walking groups. Launching their new ‘Side-By-Side’ programme this week the solidarity-through-sport initiative, founded in Cork in 2018, hope to build groups in 50 new towns across the country.

Focusing on community integration and bringing people together to the benefit of all, the initiative will focus on areas to which Ukrainian and other people have moved in recent months and years. To start a Sanctuary Runner group in your town or village, please contact Annemarie Sheehan, Community Development Lead, at annemarie@sanctuaryrunners.ie.

ATU have won the prestigious John Kelly Award for Universal Design in Further and Higher Education at a recent event in Dublin.

This award recognises the innovative practice of teaching staff in further and higher education engaging with the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework.

The goal of UDL is to use a variety of teaching methods to remove barriers to learning by building in flexibility that can be adjusted for every person’s strength and needs. This aims to deliver a more inclusive learning experience for all students.

This year, AHEAD and UCD Access & Lifelong Learning teamed up to expand the awards with three additional categories.

The UDL in Collaboration category is aimed at higher education institutions (HEIs) and education and training boards (ETBs) who have used the UDL Digital Badge to systematically develop UDL capacity in their college or centre, such as the development of communities of practice, institutional projects, and new strategic actions.

After an international review process,

ATU were one of four finalists shortlisted in the Collaborative category. Dr Niamh

Plunkett, Head of Teaching & Learning at ATU Sligo, and Maureen Haran, Lecturer in UDL presented in front of a live audience and an international judging panel in O’Reilly Hall UCD and were announced winners on the day.

ATU had further representation on the day with Cormac Flynn and Lucia Cloonan shortlisted for the individual award.

Dr Orla Flynn, president ATU, congratulated the winners; “We are formally embedding UDL as one of the central pillars of our teaching and learning function and we are developing policies in this area for adoption across the university.” She added: “I want to congratulate our UDL team on a their well earned award and look forward to further development in Universal Design for Leading.”

LEFT: ATU’s Niamh Plunkett and Maureen Haran accepting the UDL Excellence in Collaboration Award with John Kelly, Mark Glynn, Anna Kelly and Dara Ryder.