TEU Update November 7 2024
GenAI Session: Prompting Strategies & Examples for Designing In GenAI
Date: Thursday, 21st November
Time: 10:00 -11:30 am
Place: Glasnevin Campus, DG10, Bea Orpen Building
To support staff in designing in GenAI, we will share effective prompting strategies and demonstrate specific prompting examples during this 90-minute in-person session. Specific examples include using GenAI to create quizzes, generate cases/scenarios, assist students in brainstorming research topics, and create outputs that practise students’ higher-order thinking skills. Participants will have time to practise prompting during the session. Finally, we will also reflect on ethical use of GenAI and how to provide clear guidance of GenAI use for students. Because this is an in-person session, space is limited. Register at this link.
Should you have any questions, please feel free to email samantha.xu@dcu.ie
Join us for an interactive, intermediate-level workshop designed for lecturers ready to enhance their Loop quiz skills beyond the basics. In this session, you’ll explore advanced question types, master the Question Bank for efficient question organisation, and learn to create adaptive quizzes with randomisation and conditional access. We’ll also dive into quiz analytics, showing you how to leverage data to provide targeted feedback and refine assessments. Whether you’re looking to save time or deepen student engagement, this workshop will equip you with practical tips and strategies to make Loop quizzes work more effectively for you.
When: Wednesday 20/11/24 @ 3PM
Where: Online and in person (GLA Bea Orpen DG10)
Focus on assessment and feedback
Almost all students submit their coursework to Loop, which is a highly efficient method for collection. Where their work is in written format, our text-matching tool Ouriginal (formerly known as Urkund) scans it and matches it to external sources on the web and to other sources in DCU’s Ouriginal archive.
When setting a written assignment for students, it is best not to ask them to include a cover sheet with personal details and plagiarism statement at the front of the document, because:
- Their personal details are already presented alongside their submission on the Loop Assignment screen;
- When uploading work to a Loop Assignment, students need to accept an electronic plagiarism statement or else they cannot submit;
- Doing so will prevent Ouriginal text-matching scores from being skewed (because no longer will cover sheets match to each other);
- Doing so will reduce the risk of students seeing each other’s personal details in Ouriginal matched sources.
Ouriginal can be used in a formative manner with students to help them improve their academic writing and avoid potential breaches of academic integrity. This is good practice and one that is recommended to adopt. So long as students upload a draft in advance of a due date, they can inspect the Ouriginal analysis report that is generated, improve their submission and re-upload a newer version.
You may wish to let students know that if they see a small triangle warning symbol next to an uploaded file in a Loop Assignment, it does not mean there is an issue with their submission, but rather that Ouriginal is unable to process the file for text matching, because it is either too short (less than 450 characters) or is a non-text file, such as an image.
Watch this video from the Academic Integrity Hub to learn more about Ouriginal and Loop Assignments, and share this resource with your students so they understand how to use Ouriginal themselves.
Furthermore, if you are inspecting students’ Ouriginal analysis reports, and wish to identify the origin of a source with which a piece of a student’s work has been matched, you can log into the analysis report to do so.
Learn how to do this - and learn about using Loop Assignment and the Ouriginal text-matching service more widely - by checking out the ‘Assessment & Feedback’ section of the Loop Staff Support Page.
Quiz Tip: Ensure Fairness with the Override feature for special accommodations
With the "override" feature, you can allow specific students (or groups of students) additional attempts or extended time as needed, making accommodations easy to manage. This is ideal for supporting students who may need extra time without impacting other students’ quiz settings. You can read more on the override feature here on the Loop Support Page.
Non-DCU Loop accounts for newly appointed external examiners
The new process for requesting a non-DCU Loop account for an outside person does not apply to newly appointed external examiners. With thanks to the Guru Development Unit, the TEU will manually create non-DCU Loop accounts for them shortly after they have been set up on Guru, and they’ll receive an automatic email about Loop access. If you then wish for your external examiner to browse your Loop module page, you can search for them in the “Participants” screen and enrol them with a role of “External examiner”.
Upcoming clinic
The next Loop Reflect clinic will take place as follows:
Friday 15 November, 10am
Join via Zoom
The drop-in clinic is an informal, unstructured space where any student or staff member who has a question about Loop Reflect can come and get guidance. Please circulate the details of this clinic to your students if they are using Loop Reflect this semester.
Clinic details are also in the TEU Events Calendar.
Key Steps to Crafting Accessible Assignments in Loop
To ensure all students can effectively engage with and complete assignments, consider drafting or re-drafting your assignment briefs to include clear, concise instructions using plain language. Check that your content is organised logically with descriptive titles and headers. Take a moment to ensure your provided necessary materials are in accessible formats, such as word docs or PDF that are readable by screen readers. Set reasonable deadlines and offer extensions when necessary to support students with varying needs. Ensure that all links and digital resources are accessible, including video content with captions and audio descriptions. Utilise the Accessibility+ toolkit to check and enhance the accessibility of your assignments, helping to identify and address any potential barriers.
DCU’s Loop partner, Catalyst IT Europe, hosts its community learning event for all its higher education partners on Wednesday 13 November. This event will share stories of digital education and learning technology practice from a range of institutions such as Maynooth University, University of the Arts London, and more. All DCU staff are welcome to attend.
The event will take place online, with a local hub operating in Maynooth University, which DCU staff are welcome to travel to if they wish to attend online in an in-person group.
For more details and to register, visit the Catalyst event page.
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.
