TEU Update 9 October 2025

Thank you to all those who contributed to and participated in our Teaching & Learning week 2025. From our keynote speakers on Monday to our very last session on Friday afternoon, we were delighted to support and facilitate key conversations on inclusion, diversity and best practice in T&L design. A brief summary of the week is now available, and presentations and recordings can be located on our T&L week Loop page. For those who attended, we also welcome your feedback to inform future events.

Thank you again and looking forward to T&L week 2026!

Have you used or are you interested in Peer Observation of Teaching and its role in reflecting on your teaching practice? Have you wondered how students might be part of that process? If so, the TEU will soon commence a HEA funded project on a co-designed peer observation of teaching scheme between faculties in DCU. We are seeking a volunteer group of staff who, in partnership with students, will participate in a workshop designed to gather shared insights into the elements and design of a model for Peer Observation of Teaching (PoT). You can find further details in this expression of interest form.

Participants will receive a digital badge and those involved may later also be part of a collaborative publication. Should you have any queries, please contact martina.crehan@dcu.ie

Date & Time: Wed, Oct 29, 2-3pm

As we reach the mid-point of the semester, staff will be turning their attention to assessments and grading. We will hold another Turnitin Similarity Training Session in Week 8 to support staff in the migration to Turnitin Similarity.

Please click here to register for this session.

Ready to get started with grading in Loop? This practical online workshop will get you up to speed. We'll show you how to use Loop Assignments for a variety of assessment designs, including facilitating group projects. You'll learn how to implement different Rubric types to make grading consistent and give students useful feedback. We'll also cover some good practices for managing grades in the Loop Gradebook. This workshop is aimed at new and intermediate Loop users.

Details: Thursday, 23 October 2–3 PM on Zoom. Registration is required. (The recording will be circulated to all registrants.)

Using Loop to support your students’ academic integrity

When students are under time pressure or lack direction when it comes to assignments, they are more likely to make academically dishonest decisions about their work, as they feel like they have no other option.

Think about ways in which you can help your students uphold academic integrity:

Check your assignment brief to see if you have comprehensively laid out what you want students to do, and amend if necessary - when updating a Loop resource, choose the “Content change notification” checkbox in the settings so students get a notification it’s been updated.
Check in with your class group to see if they have questions about the assignment - this could be a quick chat at the start of class, or through a Loop Discussion Forum, or through a Loop Board (which has the added benefit of keeping student posts anonymous to one another, but not to you).
Signpost students to the learning support resources already linked on their Loop programme pages.
For specific assistance around citing and referencing, direct your students to the Library LETs tutorials, which are available to all students from the Quicklinks block on their Loop Dashboard.
Use the Loop Checklist tool to give students a list of tasks or milestones they should be meeting throughout the semester. These could be online tasks such as “Complete Loop Quiz by X date” or offline tasks such as “Identify a key reading from the Library not on the module reading list”. Students can check off their tasks/items which helps illustrate their progress and motivate them to continue on (many thanks to SS&D for funding this tool).

Quiz Tip: Monitor Progress with Quiz Reports

Use Loop’s built-in quiz reports to track student performance and identify question-level trends. If a significant number of students are getting a particular question wrong, it might indicate either an issue with the question itself or a gap in the teaching material. This data is valuable for making improvements to both your quiz design and your instructional approach. See the Loop Staff Support Page: Quiz Reports for more info.

Check your Turnitin Similarity text-matching settings

If you want student submissions to Loop Assignments to be text-matched, you must ensure these settings are applied before students start submitting.

Join us for this online session exploring the versatile classroom engagement tool Vevox. Vevox is useful during class for gauging comprehension in real time, sparking discussion, and encouraging students to contribute when they might hesitate to speak up verbally.

Realtime polls can also support academic integrity by checking students’ understanding of core concepts in preparation for upcoming assessments and exams. More in formation about Vevox is available in this resource on the Loop Staff Support Page.

Details: This session will take place Thursday, October 30th at 2 pm online. Registration i s essential. The session will be recorded and circulated afterwards to all registrants.

Next Week (13-17 Oct) marks the National Academic Integrity Week. Please find below the various activities held by DCU, National Academic Integrity Network (NAIN), and the International Centre for Academic Integrity to celebrate the week.

The National Academic Integrity Network (NAIN) has compiled a list of events across Irish HEIs and around the globe to celebrate the week. Please click here for more details.

Monday, Oct 13, 11- 12pm, Designing for Integrity with Integrity, talk by Professor Rajiv Jhangiani

Extending the concept of academic integrity beyond the traditional, narrow focus on student academic misconduct, this session will consider how the fundamental values of academic integrity may be reflected in the design of learning environments as well as broader institutional policies and supports.

Register to attend on Zoom OR

Register to attend in person in St Patrick’s Campus, DCU, SPC.F218

Wednesday, Oct 15, 10- 11am, Pedagogy of Care – Actions to Support Students to Uphold Academic Integrity

In this TEU online session, we will begin by exploring some of the reasons why students engage in academic misconduct. Following that, John McKenna (School of Computing) and Colum Foley (DCU Business School) will share easy-to-apply actions, including using Loop features, to help students uphold academic integrity. Each of their sharing is designed to address a specific reason for academic misconduct in order to prevent it. Their actions also reflect the pedagogy of care. The aim of the session is to inspire participants to adapt and apply shared actions within their own teaching contexts.

Please click here to register for this online session.

Wednesday, Oct 15, All-Day Events

The International Centre of Academic Integrity (ICAI) will hold all-day online events, participated by academics and students all around the world, to celebrate the International Day of Action for Academic Integrity. Please click here to register for the events.

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.