Discipline: Toxicology
Institution: Athlone Institute of Technology
Email: amobrien@ait.ie
Twitter: @amobrien28
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/DrAnneMarieOBrien
Orcid iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7943-8598
About Me: I am a lecturer in Athlone Institute of Technology. I have been lecturing in Athlone since 2006 and prior to that I worked with the Irish Health Service Executive (HSE) as a researcher with the cardiovascular strategy. I have a Masters in Toxicology and PhD in biochemistry as well as PgDip in learning and Teaching. I am involved with a number of programmes in AIT including a new Pharmacology programme.
Interest in TBL: I have always been interested in exploring different pedagogies for active and immersive learning and as such I have been an early adopter and leader employing flipped classrooms and Student response systems in AIT. I came across TBL initially in 2017 when Peter Balan came to Athlone to do a series of workshops. Then in 2019 Rebecca Mc Carter and Simon Tweddell facilited a 3 day work shop in AIT. I was instantly hooked. This tied in and tied up so many of the approaches I had used before.
Since then I have implemented TBL in my own teaching, I have had tremendous support along the way from the whole TBL community but particularly from Rebecca McCarter who mentors me as part of my TBL consultancy journey and also from Simon Tweddell who has always been very generous with his time and knowledge. My enthusiasm for TBL has not diminished but has grown over the last few years and I have co facilitated a number of TBL 101 work shops in AIT with great success culminating in over 24 faculty and non-faculty staff completing the fundamentals of TBL workshop series (May 2021) facilitated by Rebecca Mc Carter.
We now have a thriving TBL community of practice in AIT to mentor and facilitate staff who have an interest in learning more about and using TBL as part of their teaching strategy. TBL is imbedded in many programmes across the college and we hope to see this continue and grow, particularly as we transition to University status in October 2021.
Any publications/presentations on TBL:
O’Brien, A, M. (2017) Clickers in a Flipped Lab: Feedback to Enhance Engagement in First Year Science. In: Technology-Enabled Feedback Approaches for First-Year: Y1 Feedback Case Studies in Practice: Y1Feedback. Available from: https://www. y1feedback.ie
O’Brien, A.M., O’Hanlon, D., Harding, N. and Mckeown-Bennett (2021) Interprofessional Team Based Learning: A story from Athlone (Institute of Technology). Presented at EdTech Winter Online Conference 2021 Paradigm Shift: Reflection, Resilience and Renewal in Digital Education.
O’Brien, A. M. (2021) Online Team Based Learning (TBL) for facilitating a Scientific Research methods module: Presented at EdTech Winter Online Conference 2021 Paradigm Shift: Reflection, Resilience and Renewal in Digital Education.
O’Brien, A. M. and O’Hanlon, D. (2021) Staff TBL workshop delivered through TBL via online platform (LAMS): Responding to the Covid19 challenge: Presented at EdTech Winter Online Conference 2021 Paradigm Shift: Reflection, Resilience and Renewal in Digital Education.
O’Brien, A.M. (2021) Research methods delivered via Team-Based learning (TBL) using Learning Activity management System (LAMS) integrated with Moodle: Presented at the 20th Annual meeting of the team-Based learning Collaborative TBLC Virtual march 3-5