TEU Update April 3 2025

Date: Thursday, 10th April

Time: 2.00pm- 3.30pm

Place: Glasnevin Campus, DG10, Bea Orpen Building 
 

This hands-on workshop will guide staff step by step in writing a GenAI Teaching Statement for an assessment, module or programme. The statement will provide clear guidance to students on the authorised and unauthorised use of GenAI. Participants will first review the purpose of a given assessment and then determine the extent to which GenAI can (or cannot) be used, based on a GenAI Assessment Scale (Perkins et al., 2024). They will further reflect to justify their choices regarding the allowed (or not allowed) use of GenAI by students, and also learn about different approaches to properly acknowledge the use of GenAI. Participants are expected to leave the session with a draft GenAI teaching statement they can integrate immediately in their assessment/ module/ program. As this is an in-person session, space is limited. Register here.  This session will be repeated if there is high demand.

Should you have any questions, please contact samantha.xu@dcu.ie.  

The Higher Education Authority and National Forum invite contributions from all of Ireland's institutes of higher education on projects, innovations, research, and policies related to Gen AI in teaching and learning. By contributing to this dataset, you will help build a clearer picture of the opportunities and challenges associated with GenAI in higher education, inform policy discussions, and foster collaboration between institutions.

You can find more details about the project and submission here. For inquiries, email josullivan@hea.ie, Teaching & Learning Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence in HEA.

The next webinar in the MoodleMunch series takes place on Tuesday 29 April, 13:00. In this webinar, Dr Emma Coyle from the School of Chemical Sciences will share her experiences and insights of using the Loop “Group Review” tool for students to rate each other’s performance in groupwork scenario, catering for individual contributions to a group output, and giving opportunities to voice issues with group dynamics (DigCompEdu competence 3.3 ‘Collaborative learning’). 

Our external speaker will be Dave Foord from A6 Training, sharing experiences of personalising the learning experience for students through the use of Moodle filter code and Generico filters (DigCompEdu competence 5.4 ‘Differentiation and personalisation’)

Register to attend this webinar on Zoom

The semester is coming to a close, and final Loop Reflect portfolios are due for submission. Students may wish to include images, videos, and other files in their portfolios. Please remind them to store their files in their DCU Google Drive account whenever possible and embed them into their Loop Reflect page from there. This will help conserve space in their Loop Reflect account. For assistance with this, please direct students to the comprehensive resources available on the Loop Reflect Help Page.

Join us on Wednesday, April 30th, at 2pm for a Sipping Point conversation focusing on innovative practice in Healthcare Education and International Climate Politics! Dr. Aoife Burke will discuss her experience using AI as a virtual patient in student-led clinics, while Dr. Danny Marks will share insights from running a UN climate negotiations simulation in class.

Register for this online Sipping Point Session.

Many of you will currently be grading or preparing to do so. Keep these tips in mind for grading on Loop. 

1. Keep your grade items hidden in the Gradebook while grading if you do not want students to see grades while you are still grading.
2. Ensure that grade items in the Gradebook are weighted correctly and all weights add up to 1.0.
3. Organise assignments, quizzes, and other graded activities into ‘Grade Categories’(e.g., Exams, Participation, Weekly Quizzes), which  makes it easier to view things, and helps students clearly see their coursework grade breakdown.

A comprehensive suite of resources on grading and Loop Gradebook are also available on the Loop Staff Support Page in the Assessment section. 

Go, go - Loop Gradebook & Grades Transfer!

Wednesday 16 April, 12:00
Online via Zoom 

This session is aimed at DCU module co-ordinators/lecturers and will show them how to set up their Loop Gradebook to ensure the correct grade visibility, weighting, and overall calculation of student coursework grades. It will also demonstrate the Grades Transfer process to transfer student's Loop grades as their coursework total to the student information system, Banner. (Note: The Grades Transfer feature in Loop will be active once Registry opens Banner’s faculty grades entry.)

Registration for the 16th April event is essential. Session will be recorded and circulated afterwards.

The Loop Team is piloting an experimental quiz question generator that leverages an AI technology to create quiz questions in Loop based on simple prompts from the lecturer. This technology can both aid in the generation of quality quiz questions as well as streamline the process of populating quizzes in Loop, thus saving the lecturer the time of manual question creation. You can see an overview of how this simple-to-use tool works in this document. Interested lecturers can respond via this form to express interest in using the generator feature.

If you require assistance or guidance with teaching and learning or Loop related matters, avail of the below methods.

Support for technical issues
For Loop technical queries, go to help.dcu.ie. You can also attend one of our regular online Loop drop in clinics, details in the TEU calendar. The drop in clinics are particularly useful for more complex queries. The Loop Staff Support Page also provides a comprehensive range of resources on Loop and Zoom. For new users, the enrolment key for this page is ‘staff’. 

Advice on using technology for Teaching and Learning
If you are looking for advice on developing your teaching practice, including but not limited to the application of technology, please contact the TEU team teaching.enhancement@dcu.ie. We will endeavour to respond to you as soon as possible.

Consultancy request form
Interested in requesting a workshop or more extended consultation on a specific topic?  Use this consultancy request form.

TEU mailing list 
Going forward, the TEU newsletter and other updates will be issued to the academic staff mail group.  Anyone else who wishes to receive our communications, please click “Join Group” to be added to our mailing list. This is particularly important if you wish to receive updates on Loop related communications; professional development opportunities such as Advance HE supported journey, etc.