The closing date for summer course applications is Friday 24^th March before 4pm. 

Late applications will not be considered in any circumstance.

Adjustments to Summer Courses Programme 2023

1. Asynchronous

The former asynchronous model will remain an option for summer 2023. However, it is open to providers to opt to:

• move to rebalancing the composition of the courses, for example, to 13 hours online and 7 offline;
• offer online courses of shorter duration, for example, 4 weeks;
• implement a lower ratio of tutor to participants, for example 1:50.

2. Synchronous Pilot

Some providers already offer synchronous delivery as part of their summer course programme. This includes the very successful EAL course co-ordinated by ESCI that ran in summer 2022.

The Department welcomes the suggestion from the INTO and many of the other providers to run a pilot of summer courses with a synchronous component in 2023.

The Department will be in touch with providers to progress this suggestion.

Teacher Education Section, in collaboration with the Inspectorate, will gather and review findings from the synchronous pilot and the findings from this pilot will inform future developments in this area.

3. National Priorities

No changes are proposed to National Priorities outlined in the 2023 Handbook.

4. Summer 2023 Inspections

It is our intention to increase the number of inspections of online courses during 2023. The Department will also publish a composite report on the 2023 summer courses.

5. Revised 2023 Handbook

These adjustments will be reflected in a revised 2023 handbook (see below).