TEU Update 28 May 2026

On May 21st, we celebrated the 2026 President’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching, and it truly was a celebration of inspiring educational practice across Dublin City University. Many congratulations to the recipients of awards in the following categories:

Teaching Support - Emma Stapleton, DCU Library
New Lecturer - Emma Farragher, School of Language, Literacy & Early Childhood Education
Team Teaching - Professional Doctorate and MSc in Elite Performance (Sport) Teaching Team: Áine McNamara, Robin Taylor, Stephen Behan, Jamie Taylor and Rosie Collins
Distinctive Approaches to Innovation in Teaching - Neil O’Boyle, School of Communications
Distinctive Approaches to Assessment & Feedback - Darren Clarke, School of History & Geography
Overall Academic Award - Yalemisew Abgaz, School of Computing

In his opening address Professor Daire Keogh mentioned the importance of connection and connectivity in our educational practice, and this is certainly exemplified in the practice of all of our nominees in their work of connecting students not only to their disciplines and their future professional practice but also in establishing communities of care and personal connection.

We also congratulate all those who were nominated and thanks to all those who attended the event and contributed to a wonderfully positive atmosphere.

EdTech Conference Keynote Livestreams

Although registration for the Irish Learning Technology Association #EdTech26 Conference in St Pat’s on 3 & 4 June has closed, you can still participate by registering to watch one or more of the three keynote livestreams taking place across the two days:

You can read the keynote abstracts at the conference website.

Register to join us at DCU for the Digital Accessibility 26 Conference 24th June

"DigAcc26: Preparing the Future" brings together practitioners, researchers, accessibility specialists, learning technologists, educators, developers, policy makers, and institutional leaders to explore the evolving future of digital accessibility across education and beyond. On 24th June, DCU will serve as a local hub for the conference. Participants from the greater Dublin area are welcome to join us at DCU to engage with the conference sessions together.

We will be hosting attendees starting with coffee at 9:30 AM through the end of the day's sessions at 4 PM (programme available here).

Please take a moment to register your interest in attending and we'll follow up with specific location information for the day.

Focus on: Feedback with students

Engaging in consultation and feedback with students

As consultation days approach, take a look at this resource, created jointly by the TEU and the Counselling Service, which offers some advice around managing difficult consultations/feedback with students. It also offers advice on assessment design and management and student inclusivity, which might prove useful for planning assessment next semester.

Exploring a student’s performance in assessment

The My Feedback report on Loop gives lecturers a one-stop-shop of students’ continuous assessment performance. It allows lecturers to choose a particular module and see how the class performed in relation to the module’s assessments (‘assessment breakdown’). It also showed how an individual student performed in the module’s assessments (‘student breakdown’) and their relation to the class average. This might prove useful as lecturers prepare for consultation days with students.

Access the My Feedback report from your Loop Dashboard by selecting the icon in the right-hand Quick Links block, or alternatively choose the blue “My Feedback” button on the right-hand side of any of your Loop module pages.

Need help scheduling your consultation days? Try the scheduler tool in loop

The Scheduler tool allows you to set up time slots for meetings with students on Loop. Students can select their own time from a list of slots you provide, or you can manually assign them a particular time slot, and the Scheduler sends automatic reminders to students. Logging meetings in this way on Loop gives you an electronic record of the meetings, a place for notes, and you can also assign a grade to the meeting.

Learn more in this resource on the Loop Staff Support Page.

Loop Grade Visibility

Many of you may wish to make grades in your Loop Gradebook visible to students around promulgation of results. A minor Loop bug may leave grade items still invisible to students even though they appear visible to you. Hiding and then showing the grade items in your Gradebook once more should resolve the issue - a case of “turning it off and on again”.

SoTL Spotlight

If you are thinking of undertaking educational research/Scholarship of Teaching & Learning in the near future, you should check out our recently revamped SoTL website pages. You’ll find an overview of our SoTL Spiral approach, a selection of curated resources and professional development opportunities, and lists of suggested sharing and dissemination opportunities. Enjoy!

ECIU CBL/MM Community of Practice

The final ECIU CBL/MM Community of Practice of the academic year will be held on Thursday June 4 at 12 noon. Adina Imanbayeva, University of Twente, will discuss Challenge Up, a digital CBL advisor developed by educational advisors, researchers, and CBL practitioners from UT. Challenge Up aims to support educators in starting with CBL from scratch or further developing an existing course. Participants will discuss the relevance of this tool for their practice. The meetings follow a set pattern whereby an individual presents a question from their own context and the group, via a reflective team approach, discusses potential solutions or ways forward.

Please register your interest here and a Team link will be sent to you in the week commencing June 1.

Where to Find Help and Support

Submit a request at DCU Help for Loop queries

More complex query or prefer to chat? Join a Loop drop in clinic
Find comprehensive resources on our Loop Staff Support Page - enrolment key is 'staff'

For advice on teaching practice, including on the use of technology, email teaching.enhancement@dcu.ie
Request a workshop or extended consultation

Stay in the loop Professional and technical staff - Join Group to stay informed on TEU activities, including Loop communications and professional development opportunities.