Trinity Electives
Trinity Electives are stand-alone modules taught and assessed in one semester with no prerequisites, which may be taken by undergraduate students from across the University in their Senior Freshman and Junior Sophister years.
Trinity Electives add breadth to the undergraduate curriculum by providing students with meaningful and distinctive learning experiences beyond their main discipline(s)/subject(s) and with opportunities to develop the Trinity Graduate Attributes. Trinity Electives seek to connect student learning with Trinity research activity and enable students to engage with the societal impact of research through innovative teaching methods. A wide range of Trinity Electives is already available to be viewed here.
Credit Range: 5 ECTS
Developing your Trinity Elective
Trinity Electives enable multidisciplinary exploration and must adhere to the following principles. They must:
- examine current and/or past critical issues using techniques and approaches from multiple disciplines;
- expose students to new domains of knowledge, methods of enquiry and epistemologies, and the wider implications/consequences of the challenge/topic;
- foster reflection, inquisitiveness, skills of analysis and critical thinking;
- engage students in learning opportunities in diverse/heterogeneous groups;
- provide students with opportunities to develop the Trinity Graduate Attributes.
Trinity Electives are designed to take account of the following:
- The need to ensure meaningful engagement of students from multiple disciplines with the content at the appropriate intellectual level;
- The need for the Trinity Elective to be thematically coherent, i.e., not a series of ‘show and tell’ lectures or a sequence of multidisciplinary topics.
The delivery of Trinity Electives ensures that students:
- are exposed to a range of teaching, learning and assessment methods including innovative methods;
- take an active and self-regulated approach to their own learning.
Trinity Elective Proposal Development Timeline
The approval process for Trinity Electives(TE) is captured in the graphic below. Proposals are submitted to the Trinity Elective sub-committee through SharePoint for consideration. Once approved by the sub-committee the TE module proposal is recommended to USC, and then to Council through the USC minutes.
The image below presents a timeline for submission of Trinity Elective proposals for consideration by Trinity academic committees. Please note that you can obtain the proposal form by contacting conlonc2@tcd.ie. Prof. Áine Kelly, Chair of Trinity Elective sub-committee, is available to discuss the development process.