AHEAD Member Webinar Series 2021 Schedule
Tuesday, 12th October 2021
AHEAD greatly value our members and their support in our work to create inclusive environments in education and employment for people with disabilities. Their support is very important to AHEAD's work in information provision, advocacy work, research, training, events and production of resources for the sectors.
We are pleased to be able to provide a range of free and exclusive AHEAD Members Only Webinars to show our appreciation for their support and to help equip our members with key resources on areas relevant to them.
If you aren't sure if your institution/organisation is a member you can check on The AHEAD Member Webpage. If you have any queries about the upcoming events or have any ideas about what you would like covered for future members online webinars please feel free to contact us at events@ahead.ie.
The 2021 webinar series will focus on pandemic learnings on inclusion for higher and further education, exploring how these can inform the design of inclusive and equitable education practices as students and learners return to campus, and how disability support services have been introducing new and innovative ways of working in response to these circumstances.
Webinar 1: Pandemic Learnings on Inclusion in Tertiary Education from AHEAD November 2nd
Date: 2nd November 2021
Time: 3-4.15pm
Speakers: Dr Richard Healy, AHEAD, Dara Ryder, AHEAD, Dr Marian McCarthy, Dr Vivian Rath, AHEAD
Event Information: In the first contribution, AHEAD’s Richard Healy and Dara Ryder will highlight key findings from AHEAD’s newly released Learning from Home research, exploring how students with disabilities coped with Learning from Home, and what practices can be retained and embedded to support inclusion as we return to on-campus learning. The session will weave in related findings from other recently released AHEAD research to paint a picture of what we have learned and how we can productively use the findings to improve tertiary education going forward.
In the second contribution, AHEAD conference 2021 Rapporteurs Dr Marian McCarthy and Dr Vivian Rath celebrate the release of the AHEAD Conference 2021 Rapporteur Report, exploring the key messages and themes exploring and discussed at the conference and summarises the collective learning from the contributions made across the 5 weeks of presentations, workshops, discussions and digital posters.
Finally, comments and feedback from the audience will feed in to a closing discussion with all contributors.
Access Learning from Home 2021 Report
Access AHEAD Conference 2021 Report: Placing Inclusion at the Heart of Online Learning and Support
Webinar 2: Offering Choice in Assessment - Why and How! November 23rd
Date: 23rd November 2021
Time: 3-4pm
Speakers: Dr Lisa Padden, UCD Access and Lifelong Learning
Event Information: Research from across the tertiary education sector has highlighted that students have reacted positively to the pandemic-enforced move towards a greater level continuous assessment, alternative assessment and choice in assessment. Additionally, the huge rise in support for, and understanding of UDL at a national and local level, demands that we offer students more ways in which to demonstrate their learning and meet their programme’s learning outcomes. But why should we offer more choice, and how do we go about it?
In this webinar, Dr Lisa Padden explores why offering choice and variety in assessment approaches supports equity and quality, shares findings of her research with Dr Geraldine O’Neill in the experiences of students and educators, and shares practical tips on how to get started in building choice into your assessment practices.
Webinar 3: Learning from Covid-19 - Innovations in Disability Support
Date: 14th December 2021
Time: 3-4pm
Speakers: Rachel Abraham, Exams Secretary at CSN and Courtney McGrath, Graduate Intern at Trinity Disability Service
Event Information: Covid-19 presented the further and higher education sector with huge challenges in how they continued to deliver high quality individual and group supports to students with disabilities. But as the proverb goes, necessity is the mother of invention, and many of the innovative approaches developed during this period within support services offered a new level of flexibility and agency to students with disabilities, and brought services closer to the students they serve.
This webinar will showcase snapshots of innovative approaches taken by further and higher education support services, leading out into a wider panel discussion with input from the audience about what the sector has learned, what practices should be retained and what the future for will look like for students engaging with disability support services.
Register for Webinar 3 'Learning From Covid 19 - Innovations in Disability Support'
