Teaching in Active and Collaborative Learning Spaces
Issued on 16 Jan 2026 by
National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
This UCD T&L ‘Teaching in Active and Collaborative Learning Spaces’ digital badge is a short non-credit bearing professional development opportunity to enhance the design and implementation of teaching in UCD Active Learning Environments (ALE) spaces, including the new UCD O’Connor Centre for Learning. It also aims to support and prepare students for learning in these spaces. The badge is supported by the UCD T&L Teaching in Active and Collaborative Learning Spaces web-page resources (UCD T&L, 2026). The time commitment for the digital badge is approx. 25 hours in total (including all activities). The digital badge is facilitated and awarded by UCD Teaching & Learning, the badge is electronically held in the National Forum Open Badge Factory, but note it is not a ‘National Forum Open Course Badge’
The badge, for UCD staff only, is aimed at those who teach in these spaces which includes for example, UCD Faculty, academic staff, tutors, demonstrators, professional staff who teach..
Reference
UCD T&L (2026) Teaching in Active and Collaborative Learning Spaces, UCD Dublin: https://www.ucd.ie/teaching/resources/teachingtoolkit/activecollaborativelearning/[
Issuer
National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
admin@teachingandlearning.ie
The National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, which operates under the aegis of the Higher Education Authority (HEA), is the national body responsible for leading and advising on the enhancement of teaching and learning in Irish higher education.
Criteria
Criteria for earning the badge
- To describe the value and challenges of active and collaborative learning, as evidenced by the literature.
- To discuss, with peers, a range of active and collaborative methods that support student learning in the ALE, i.e. think-pair-share, peer review, debates, group discussion, group work, debates, interactive in-class polls/quizzes, etc.
- To critique the ‘grand’ learning designs, (i.e. problem, project, enquiry/research, case based learning) and how activity in the ALE space is aligned with learning pre and post this experience, i.e. blended, flipped learning designs
- To critically reflect on how you could design and implement one/two methods for more active and collaborative student learning in your discipline, in particular how you would support and prepare students
To earn the badge, participants must complete the four learning outcomes/criteria (above) through:
- participating in the 3 hour workshop or equivalent and
- participating in all discussion forums in the workshop and
- submitting a completed session plan template by the final deadline (date to be determined) to Geraldine O’Neill (geraldine.m.oneill@ucd.ie )
(an alternative version of the badge may be offered on occasion).
