 Downing. It's so great to see so many of you here and I know many of you have travelled from very early this morning to join us today for this very special event which involves and engages all of you throughout the higher education sector. It's a celebration, it's a conversation, it's a gathering, and it's a sharing. ac ar gyfnodio'r Fforum Nathoedau a'r Ard�isation, I'm so delighted to welcome you all here this morning. This is the inaugural Teaching and Learning Summit 2015. Today's event represents a timely opportunity to bring very many of our partners across the sector together to reflect and to showcase the key outputs, activities, resources and knowledge that the Forum has generated with a huge amount of cross sectoral collaboration from all of you. Because of its establishment in 2012 you are all being vital partners in the kinds of work and changed agency that it's been possible to initiate. This is a precious opportunity at all a key time for us to engage in this focus conversation. As I said, the forum belongs to the sector and it has worked to be a lever for discussion and for conversation as well as for the confrontation and integration of sometimes divergent views in the pursuit of priorities that often compete. Today is an opportunity to remind us of the forum's purpose which is to put teaching and learning at the centre of sectoral enhancement and thereby develop our excellence, our reputation and our ambitions in higher education. There is much to discuss and take stock of. In this first intensive phase of the forum's development, an awful lot has happened. Two key phases of teaching and learning enhancement funding have been launched and outputs from the first phase of that funding have begun to bear fruit. You will have seen some of those fruits showcased outside in the foyer on your way in and if you haven't had a chance to look at them, there will be opportunities to do that later on during the day. So please do take that chance. The forum has launched three rounds of the national seminar series and the first set of focused research projects are now in completion. In recognising and awarding outstanding teaching, which is a major role also of the forum at a national level, the student partner teaching hero campaign was initiated and completed in 2014 and in the process, the forum has generated sectoral evidence about learner perspectives on teaching excellence. Crucially, in driving a national conversation about our digital priorities, challenges and futures, the forum's digital roadmap has given rise to widespread participation and commitment from teams throughout higher education institutions in Ireland and the key recommendations from that roadmap are now being implemented in a range of very important ways. The conclusion of the forum's first enhancement theme, Teaching for Transitions, has also given rise to collaboration across the sector and we'll be talking a lot about the Teaching for Transitions theme later this morning. As we keep this first theme on the agenda in terms of national forum implementation, today we also move to initiate the next enhancement theme and the enhancement theme process has been a very important lever for development and change and it's a process that's mobilised all of our energies and attention around issues that are of shared interest and concern to all of us and so that's been very powerful and we've learnt an awful lot about how that process can really help to make quite rapid progress in areas that have been challenging to all of us. The new theme is that of assessment, assessment of learning, assessment for learning, assessment as learning and we look forward to elaborating on this and to discussing how we can make it work as well as it can for us throughout the sector, both today and in the coming months. A group of pre-specified national projects are now underway and they address key aspects of the implementation of our digital roadmap. They include a focus on Ireland's technical infrastructure, active and impactful sharing of open educational resources, engaging with learning analytics in the interest of teaching and learning enhancement and developing digital teaching and learning policy guidelines to support all Irish higher education institutions. Linked to all of these activities has been the generation of a nationally agreed approach to professional development for higher education teaching and learning and one of the main purposes of today is discussing where we are with the development of that in detail to and our director Terry Maguire who's been with this process from beginning till now is going to outline where we are with the professional development approach and how we're going to continue to need your inputs and assistance to make sure that it works for all of us in a way that's flexible and effective. As I said, it's really wonderful to see so many of you here today. It's a testament to how you value teaching and learning as a fundamental and central aspect of higher education's purpose. I know that everybody here is going to make a valuable contribution today and work with us as you always have done in the spirit that you always bring to make today another important event from which new perspectives and on our outputs and activities will be articulated. I know already both from the profile and the commitment of our attendees and just the sheer energy today in the foyer and in the room that this is going to be a dynamic event. Together we're going to explore both the nature of and the connections between many aspects of the forum's work plan and highlight the role that all our institutions and partners play. These have been difficult times for educators. It would be naive to underestimate the kinds of constraints under which higher education has been operating in recent years. But if my experience in teaching and learning and my time on the forum board has done anything, it has given me hope. The commitment, the expertise, the ingenuity, the instincts, the intuition, the passion of teachers, educators, leaders and students from across the sector, many of whom are in this room right now, is clearer than it has ever been. And it is those things that we look forward to celebrating and talking about more today. I'm now delighted to welcome the person who's going to launch this event and declare it officially underway. A real believer in the principles of the collaborative conversations that we espouse. A champion of education at all levels, a promoter of equality, of access and a supporter of the kinds of convergent collaborative work that has made possible the forum's vision and the sector's mission for higher education. To launch our interactions today, I can think of no better person than Minister Janet Sullivan. Thank you. Good morning everybody. Can I first of all thank Sarah and her colleagues for the invitation to be here for the launch of the first, I think, national forum, specifically the first national summit on teaching and learning in higher education, but obviously not the first event for the forum. Indeed I had the honour of being here last year for the presentation of HERO's awards to teachers in the higher education sector. And I'm sure many of you were here and it was really inspiring to see the way in which students talked about their HERO's in their own institution. And also to hear the inspiring speech from President McLeese and indeed from Laura Harmon of the Union of Students in Ireland as well. And I know you're going to have a similar ceremony I think later on this evening at this time I think the institutions putting forward the HERO's. But I suppose first of all I want to say that I really salute the work of the forum for the enhancement of teaching and learning. You really have gone from strength to strength since the foundation just a couple of years ago. And I think what you've done and it's been just outlined by Sarah has been really positive. But I think there is that sense of passion about the people who are driving this. And also as Sarah has said it was evident in the foye this morning coming into this event and it's a very positive development and great credit to those who have set it up and are organising this forum today and have been involved from the beginning. I had the opportunity coming in to meet some of the people who are presenting the showcases, the all aboard digital which is a huge number of strands and elements and also to meet people from IT Sligo in relation to teaching for transitions. And I'm going to refer to both of those areas in a couple of minutes. But I think they're just examples of the really strong work that has been done since you were founded. And I think the attendance today is also evidence of what has become I think a strong movement at this stage with a great deal of engagement and discussion as Sarah has said but also research and showing the value of teaching and learning which is something that maybe sometimes hasn't been given the level of importance that it should have at all levels in fact of education. And I do also want to acknowledge that there have been difficult financial times in particular in the last few years for the higher education sector that has responded very strongly and I want to acknowledge that as minister. I hope we'll have a little bit more money into the future as we now begin to build up our education budgets again. As Ireland's National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030 emphasises, teaching and learning are fundamental to the mission of higher education institutions. What we're realising more and more is that it's not only what students learn but how they learn that determines success in the world of work, in civic and social participation and in the students' personal lives. All too often we compartmentalise the core roles of higher education be it teaching, research or engagement when it is the symbiotic relationship between them upon which a world class higher education sector depends. The National Forum has sought to encourage reflection on and to share best practice about how we teach students in higher education. You've hosted seminars, commissioned and disseminated research on teaching and learning and supported conversations within our institutions. Today's summit will make an important contribution to advancing this important endeavour. I'm going to say just a little bit now about teaching for transitions which I know is a major theme. For the past two years your forums enhancement theme across all aspects of your work has been teaching for transitions. Today presents an opportunity to learn about the key findings from this important work of the forum. Through this focus on teaching for transitions the National Forum has provided rich resources which will leave a lasting legacy on which we can build as we continue our work in this space broadening entry to higher education and developing pathways into and through the reformed higher education sector to support lifelong learning for an increasing diversity of students. The ongoing initiative to reform the transition from second level to higher education is also an important part of the jigsaw. The launch in 2015 of a new grading scale for the leaving certificate examination and of a new CAO points scale to accompany this has been a seminal development in the endeavour to provide students with a better transition as they progress from school to college. For my department fostering a whole of education approach to policymaking is a key priority and indeed I know that from the conversation I had out there that some of the work that's being done by your members is around going to schools and dealing through the schools with the changing way in which students must learn when they go into higher education and something which I think is a shock to some students and it is important that they have this engagement in relation to that very important transition in the life of a young person. With the establishment of QQI in 2012 and Solace in 2013 we now have in place a strong national level infrastructure to ensure the coherence of our further and higher education sectors and early in 2016 I'll publish a new national skills strategy to further advance this vision. The National Forum's new enhancement theme assessment of learning or assessment for learning formally launched today has exciting potential to complement the work undertaken in respect of the teaching for transitions piece. As the work carried out as part of transitions reform has shown the manner in which students are assessed has a profound impact on what they learn and how they learn. We need to ensure that all of our students acquire the ability to think critically and to question so that they have the capacity to advance the sum of knowledge that we depend. We need to increase our focus on student learning outcomes in assessment practices to ensure that tomorrow's graduates can meet tomorrow's challenges. Of course technology has great potential to enhance assessment in higher education. Building the digital capacity of the higher education sector is another ongoing endeavour of the National Forum. At today's summit Dr Ian McLaren will provide an insight into the digital skills which are essential to this capacity building. The digital skills framework for the sector which the National Forum funded all aboard consortium is developing and that map out there is really interesting the underground map will make an important contribution not only to digital capacity building for the sector but also to the development of innovative assessment practices. These initiatives at higher education complement efforts at school level to better embed ICT and this year we launched the digital strategy for schools which will be supported with an investment of 210 million euros and will embed ICT skills as part of initial teacher education and ongoing training for teachers and I think with digital strategy it is essential that we have this kind of seamless movement from primary education right up through and I've seen some great things in primary schools where they've been coding and so on through the digital schools of distinction endeavour and also I was yesterday in Google headquarters for the call for code for post primary schools and again the interest in young people in this whole area is really palpable but I think what we need to do on a policy level and on a strategy level is to make sure that there is this kind of transition and that we basically engage with the whole IT sector at all levels I know that there is often a I suppose call from industry to say that we're not doing enough to interest young people in this whole area but I think we do need to have that strategy right across the sectors and certainly it's one area that I feel as minister that I have strong responsibility to ensure that that happens The digital skills framework will also support academics continuing professional development as you know the establishment of a national framework for the professional development for those who teach in higher education has been a key aim of the national forum since its inception and I'm pleased to state that they've made great strides in advancing this strand of their work programme in partnership with the sector today you'll hear about plans in this area which I'm confident will have a tangible and lasting impact on teaching quality in Irish higher education another strand of the work that I referred to at the beginning has been to recognise and reward the teaching excellence that already abounds in Irish higher education and as I said it was a privilege last year to launch the inaugural teaching heroes awards which were presented to some of our most inspirational teachers across the sector today some of these award winners will share the secrets of their success while Professor O'Connor will talk about the 10 greatest teachers that have contributed to his success the national teaching expert awards will build on the success of the teaching heroes scheme providing further insight into the world class teaching from which our students benefit and again I think that idea of recognising excellent teaching is one that really was needed and is needed indeed across all sectors of education and I think we all can remember particularly inspiring teachers from our own education from our own educational days and the huge role that they can have in helping I suppose all of us to direct our lives in a way that is positive and fulfilling for us so it's a real pleasure to be here with you today and I just want to finish by thanking Sarah Moore Terry Maguire and everybody involved in the forum for the work that you've been doing over the past few years and I'd like to wish you well with what I think promises to be a really interesting, informative and stimulating day and it's my honour to officially open the forum Goromil Mahwef, Gwleir.