We have been sent the following invitation from colleagues from the MSc in Applied E-learning at DIT. They would be very happy for our students to join in their webinars.
Are you thinking of starting doctoral research any time in the future?
You are invited to a series of short Monday webinars [45 mins] from academic staff to hear about some new exciting pedagogic doctoral research happening in DIT – the second one is coming up shortly! You can listen to how various academic staff members are getting started on the road to doctoral research and engage in a Q&A about their research and the process.
“Evaluating the effect of a student peer mentoring approach for mature students undertaking computer programming at foundation level”
Presented by: Nevan Bermingham, Lecturer in Hospitality Management & Tourism, DIT
Date & Time: Monday 29th February 2016, 1:00-1.45pm
Venue: ONLINE at http://bit.ly/1VEtA8g
Registration: online at http://www.dit.ie/lttc/workshops/onlinebookingform/ or email lttc@dit.ie
About the webinar – This webinar will discuss a new study which investigates if a peer mentoring structure of mature students at Foundation Level has an effect on their understanding of programming threshold concepts compared to traditional class only teaching approaches. Mature students undertaking the coding module on DIT’s Access foundation Programme traditionally have difficulty understanding the computer science material, including threshold concepts in programming. Mature students tend to have lower levels of prior technology familiarity and tend not to have a prior educational background where they would have encountered programming before.
The traditional face-to-face method usually involves a step-by-step approach whereby the teacher demonstrates the task, students observe and then practice. The aim of this doctoral research is to explore if a peer mentoring approach will build student confidence in programming by providing structured peer mentoring supports that can run in tandem with the lab environment and outside the class.
If you have any further enquiries please contact roisin.donnelly@dit.ie
