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DCU President’s Awards for Teaching and Learning 2020
DCU President’s Awards for Teaching and Learning 2020

DCU President’s Awards for Teaching and Learning 2020

Recipients of the DCU President’s Teaching and Learning Awards for 2020 were announced at a virtual event held earlier today.

The annual awards recognise the excellence, innovation and commitment of staff involved directly or indirectly with teaching at DCU. This year, close to 500 individual nominations were received, with a total of 53 nominations shortlisted. 

Opening the ceremony, Professor Brian MacCraith, DCU President, commended all DCU teaching staff on their efforts, particularly over the last few months:

“Like all of our President’s Awards events, we’ve been obliged to hold this ceremony online due to the COVID-19 emergency. And perhaps, in this case, it’s almost appropriate. I say this because, for everyone involved in teaching at DCU, life changed almost overnight on March 12 and everyone has had to rethink, realign and redesign everything they do to adapt to the online space.  You have coped with technical glitches, unwanted background noise, unreliable broadband, and more. You have juggled family demands with the needs of your students. You’ve worked harder than ever on preparing for the new term, with the many changes and challenges that it will bring. 

On behalf of DCU and on behalf of our students, I want to express again my gratitude to you all for the manner in which you have risen to the challenge, while maintaining DCU’s proud record of delivering a transformative learning experience.”

Recipients of the 2020 Teaching and Learning Awards are as follows:

Teaching Support:

The Teaching Support award, which recognises those who make an outstanding contribution to the support of teaching without being ‘frontline’ teaching staff, was awarded to Suzanne Stone, Teaching Enhancement Unit. 

“Suzanne has provided outstanding support for academic staff attempting to enhance the learning experience for their students. Her enthusiasm has made a huge difference to my willingness to embark on new challenges. Her Loop assistance hours have been critical for getting staff to engage with Loop and Loop Reflect, but Suzanne’s impact extends well beyond this!”

Team Category:

In the Team Category, which provides an opportunity to recognise core staff teams that provide an exceptional, innovative, or transformational contribution to the student experience, the award went to the DCU Life Module team, DCU Business School. 

Team members of DCU Life Module include Dr Roisin Lyons, Dr Peter Robbins, Dr Catherine Faherty, Prof Colm O'Gorman, Dr Shadi Karazi, Dr Philip O'Donnell and Karen Maguire.

Distinctive Approaches to Teaching:

The award was presented to Dr Martin Brown, School of Policy & Practice

“Martin has managed to do the impossible for me - he has made quantitative research understandable! He has a very effective way of presenting class material and keeps everyone engaged throughout the class.

I find his classes exciting and inspiring. His academic expertise paired with a clever sense of humour make him a most brilliant teacher.”

Distinctive Approaches to Assessment & Feedback:

This award went to Joanne Lynch, DCU Business School

“Ms Lynch is a large part of the reason I want to work in marketing. She's made a lasting impression on how I will approach marketing in the future. Her dedication to passing on her knowledge to students is beyond compare.”

Distinctive Approaches to Innovation in Teaching:

The award in this category was presented to Dr Stephen Blott, School of Computing

“CA282 is a new module that is everything that was missing from a Computer Applications student's education. Steve has gone above and beyond in developing ‘einstein’, the tool that evaluates hundreds of student's work. I truly believe that I learned how to programme well because of Steve Blott.  He is very modest about the impact his use of educational technologies has had. The best lecturer I've ever had.”


New Lecturer Category: 

The New Lecturer Category recognises relatively new lecturers and tutors for achieving excellence in teaching. The award was presented to Orla Bourke, School of Communications.

“Orla brings her considerable industry experience to the classroom in a manner that allows all her students to flourish. She has consistently sought to make significant additional time both to improve her own teaching and her students’ experience.”


Overall winner:

The Academic Category recognises all the nominees who have excelled in their teaching and learning practice at DCU. The overall winner of this category was Ann Marie Farrell, School of Inclusive & Special Education.


“Ann Marie is a one of a kind lecturer because she not only talks the talk but she also walks the walk. I feel that she is such an inspiration and we are so blessed to have such an amazing lecturer!”


To view a recording of the event, visit https://www.dcu.ie/teu/presidentsawards