CIT Student Engagement

Ideally you would have some preparation done for an appointment but if you're not sure where to start, don't worry.

It's also fine to come to your first appointment without any prep work. The lecturer will work with you to figure out where you need to start.

Some ways you could prepare:

1. Pick some coursework you would like to work on. You can send this on to the lecturer in advance of your appointment.
2. Write a few questions down for the lecturer to ensure that any specific questions you have will be clarified.
3. Have you attempted any solutions to problems yourself? Share your attempted solutions so the lecturer will be able to see exactly where you are getting stuck.
4. Have you attempted any exam questions yourself? Share these attempted solutions with your AlC lecturer.

The more preparation that you can do yourself before the subject session, the more learning benefits you will gain.

Most importantly...bring yourself! if you don't know where to start, just join the meeting. You will have an opportunity to get some guidance to start your learning, introduce yourself to the service and have a chat with a subject lecturer. 

All the lecturers running the ALC appointments are very friendly and approachable. They'll work with you to figure out exactly where you need help. The appoinment will go exactly at your own pace and you can feel free to stop the lecturer and ask any questions you have.

When you book in you will recieve a link to your appointment. You will usually get an email from your ALC lecturer (the person who your booking is with). They often ask in advance if you would like to work on a particular question. If you have this ready then send it on. If you don't have a specific question you want to work on then at least let the lecturer know what module you are working on and what general topic you would like to start with.

When you click the link at the appointment time you'll meet your lecture in the virtual meeting room. You'll need to have your mic on but cameras are totally optional. You'll have a chat to figure out together what area or topic would be best to work on during the session. Often the lecturer will share their screen and you and the lecturer will work through a question or topic together.

After your appointment the lecturer may send you on a record of what was covered e.g. any document you created together or a screenshot of the work done.

Most student attend the ALC regularly once they attend their first appointment. It would be very unusual for all your questions to be answered on the first day. So while your first appointment is fresh in your mind you shoud probably book in your next time.

The Academic Learning Centre is open to ALL students of MTU Cork. Whether you are a mature students of engineering or a 20 year old student of Art you are very welcome to join in any of the activities we organise or just drop us a line on academiclearning@cit.ie with a question you have.

You can access the supports from whichever campus us are attached to. The main ALC office and classrooms are in the Bishopstown campus and in the past most of the supports ran from there. There were also support hours available in NMCI. However, since the shut down for COVID 19 we have massively increased our provision of online supports. This means that from now on the vast majority of our services will be accessible equally to students from any of the MTU Cork campuses.

The main difference between subject support in the ALC and other lectures/tutorials is that the student decides the content in an ALC session. The lecturer does not come in with a plan of what they want to cover. They react to the questions and needs of students. The only exception to this is if the student doesn't know where to start. In this case the lecturer will work with them to figure out where they need help and start from there. At the moment most of the support sessions are done one to one so this also makes it very different from other class situations.

Students are welcome to attend the Academic Learning Centre at any stage in their studies. However, over the years we have noticed that common reasons to attend include:

• Doing ‘grand’ but know you could do better.

• Doing well but still a bit nervous about certain topics, you’d like to build your confidence.

• Struggling with an assessment.

• Just received a poor mark back from an assessment.

• Missed a deadline or feel like they’re about to miss a deadline. It feels overwhelming to catch up.

The ALC is open to ALL MTU Cork students regardless of what year you are in. However, as you progress through to more specalist modules we cannot guarantee that we will have tutors who are experts in those modules. We'll do our best to help you as best we can.

If you are not sure if we have a tutor who can answer your question why not email it to academiclearning@cit.ie.

At the moment we have tutors available to help you out with the following subjects:

• Writing Skills
• Maths and Stats
• Programming
• Accounting
• Microeconomics
• Macroeconomics
• Economics Data and Analysis
• OOP
• Business Maths and Business Statistics
• Mechanics 
• Thermofluids
• Physics
• Chemistry

If you are not sure if we cover your module why not drop us a line on academiclearning@cit.ie.

At the moment their are two separate booking systems: Maths and everything else.

Booking Maths

To book a Maths appointment you need to have access a module called 'Maths Online' on canvas.  If it doesn't already appear on your canvas dashboard the instructions on how to self enrol are here.

For a step by step explanation of how to book have a look at this page.

Booking All Other Subjects

To book all the other subjects use this form. Some people find this form a bit tricky (depending on if you are using a phone). When you select the subject you need to scroll down to pick the day and time. Then you may need to scroll down again to put in your name and then click 'book'.

If you have any trouble with either of these systems please let us know. Just email us on academiclearning@cit.ie.