DCU students were unable to access their Loop accounts from Monday October 5th, the first day of online learning, as the website was down.
The site encountered a “technical issue” according to DCU which “resulted in the system being unable to respond to requests in a timely fashion, at which point the university made the decision to take Loop temporarily offline to resolve the matter.”
Loop was restored on Tuesday evening however students were warned that it was still experiencing difficulties so pages would take longer to load.
The site, which is based on the learning management system Moodle, is intended to act as the connection between DCU students and their lecturers for online learning.
On Loop students can get access to Zoom links and class readings as well as many other resources to help with the transition to online.
Alternative arrangements were made to allow class lecturers to contact their students via email in order to provide them with the links to their Zoom classes rather than through Loop as originally intended.
According to William Kelly, Deputy Registrar and Dean of Teaching and Learning at DCU, the reason for the site being taken down was that Loop was unable to manage the number of students using it at once.
In an email sent to all students he said: “This problem stems from the huge volume of users (approx 16,000 students) accessing Loop at the same time seeking class details and zoom links for lectures and tutorials.
“In preparation for some on campus teaching in line with Covid 19 safety restrictions and to provide a more personalised teaching experience, this year’s timetable is designed for many smaller groups/pods” said Kelly.
These smaller groups resulted in more classes running at once compared to previous years.
Due to Covid-19 all courses in DCU are online only with some exceptions for modules that cannot be taught remotely.
DCU Students’ Union (DCUSU) expressed students’ disappointment about the issues they have experienced with Loop and accessing their lectures.
In a statement DCUSU recognised that some students may feel that “the quality of education they have received thus far does not reflect the level of fees they have paid.”
Kelly informed students that the “team in ISS (Information Systems Services) has been working throughout the night with our Loop support partners to identify a possible solution to the ongoing issues” but “a workable solution has yet to be found.”
He also said that their other alternative if Loop will not work to the capacity needed is to “take into account the way that classes are structured this year.”
Aoibhín Meghen
Image Credit: App Sliced
Note: This article was reuploaded on 21/03/2021 due to a fault with The College View website