E-learn Weblog of Willem van Valkenburg

Earlier this year the Dutch government changed the way professional learners can get funding for their professional development. It used to go via a tax reduction. Since this year life long learners can apply to receive 1000 euro subsidy for their training.

Off course they made the process quiet cumbersome and the yearly budget is limited. The budget is released per time period. The next batch will open on July 1st and it is expected that the budget will be used within a day.

TU Delft online courses

Since last week we have deployed the integration on the website of TU Delft Extension School to apply for this subsidy. Below you see the different steps:

Currently we have six courses that you can enroll in and apply for the STAP budget:

More information on our STAP page: https://online-learning.tudelft.nl/stap/

The TU Delft (Extension School and Teaching & Learning Services) is one of the leading partners in the Digitel Pro partnership. The DigiTel Pro partnership brings together advanced “schools” in research, innovation, and good practice in synchronous hybrid (KU Leuven), blended learning (TU Delft), and online and distance learning (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, The Open Universiteit (OUNL), UNINETTUNO). It will also focus on the student readiness for online learning (DCU-NIDL, Dublin).

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Ten years ago Open Education Global started withe the Open Education Awards. To celebrate this, David Kindler, Marcela Morales & Paul Stacey have written an interesting book to provide an overview of 10 years of Open Education Awards.

"Starting in 2011, as part of its stewarding role, Open Education Global has provided annual recognition to outstanding contributions in the global open education community, recognizing exemplary leaders, distinctive Open Educational Resources, and open projects and initiatives. As part of the 10th anniversary of these awards, OEGlobal is publishing this Education For All book collecting all ten years of award winners into a single volume. This book is a celebration of their achievements. We plan to update this book each year as a living document."

Awards for TU Delft

In these 10 years the TU Delft has received many awards for our open education activities:

• Leadership Award for Anka Mulder (2014)
• Educator Award for Felienne Hermans (2018)
• Student Award for Dirk Ulijn and Bart Meeuwissen (2019)
• Open Website Award for TU Delft OCW website (2014)
• Outstanding Course Awards for Sanitary Engineering (2012), Introduction to Aerospace Engineering I (2013), Delft Design Guide (2013), and The Human Controller (2015)
• Open MOOC Awards for Solar Energy (2014), Introduction to Water Treatment  (2014), Delft Design Approach (2015), Solving Complex Problems  (2015), Pre-University Calculus (2016)
• Open Curation / Repository Award for Grasple (2019)
• Open Policy Award for our Strategic Framework "Impact for a Better Society" (2018)

The initiative of the Open Education Awards are a great way to recognise the open education activities around the world and helps individuals in advancing their career.

The book can be download via https://awards.oeglobal.org/book/.

The DigiTel Pro partnership brings together advanced “schools” in research, innovation and good practice in synchronous hybrid (KU Leuven), blended learning (TU Delft) and online and distance learning (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, The Open University of The Netherlands, UNINETTUNO). It will also focus on the student readiness for online learning (DCU-NIDL, Dublin).

Experts develop online courses on models and guidelines for the design, development and delivery for each of these three predominant formats in a post-Corona perspective. The courses will be in line with the most recent research and innovation.

The courses will be launched on Thursday 18th of November 2021, 14.00-16.00 CET.

Please join the Launch of our Course Programme on:

• Synchronous Hybrid Education: based on settings that have in common that both on-site or 'here' students and remote or 'there' students are included simultaneously;
• Blending your Education: with a deliberate mix of synchronous and asynchronous methods: based on a course design with a conscious combination of online and offline learning activities;
• Online Distance Education: based on a course design with a continuous physical separation between teacher and student. 
• Student Readiness for Digital Education: giving students the digital edge to succeed as an online learner at university and ​setting them on the path to achieving their learning goals.

During this launch you will be able to meet the team leaders in dedicated break-out sessions.

Participation in the course programme, starting early 2022, will enable you as educator to make the transition from emergency online teaching during Covid-19 to fully professional teaching and learning in digital higher education. This first mutual acquaintance will ensure that the courses connect with your real needs and expectations. At the end of the session you will be able to continue interaction with the team leaders up till the start of the course.

Please find more information on the launch and the registration on our Eventbrite page.

This week I chaired my last board meeting of Open Education Global as president of the Board. Last year already my term as elected board member ended and this week also term as president ended.

I'm proud to see in what an excellent shape Open Education Global is in. In this blog I would like address a couple of reasons why I say that.

New strategy

Recently we published our the new strategy of OE Global: Open for Public Good. In this strategy we position OE Global as an open education steward within the education ecosystem. OEGlobal’s primary role is as a connector. We foster knowledge exchange, advance sus- tainable systemic change and open policies, amplify impact, and connect local open edu- cation efforts to global ones.

Our goals for open education are:

• Open Education is Socially Just
• Open Education is a public good
• Open Education is inclusive
• Open Education is Accessible, Affordable, and Adaptable
• Open Education is Collaborative, facilitated by community and stewards
• Open Education is impactful.

OEGlobal sees these goals for open education coming together dynamically with the learner at the centre and the whole greater than the sum of the parts.

I recommend everyone interested in open education to read the full strategic plan.

Financial Sustainable

Last year the Hewlett Foundation renewed our core operating grant for 2021-2023. We also secured other grants. Not only did our yearly budget almost double in the last 3 years, it is also secured for a couple of years. This brings OE Global in a financial stable period and means we can focus on executing our strategy.

Great staff

Earlier this year 3 employees decided (for various reasons) to leave the organisation. We managed to hire some great new staff members. Together with our Executive Director Paul Stacey I'm convinced that they will be able to further develop the organisation and execute our new strategy together with our board and our members.

President Patterson

It is always great to step down if you know that your successor will do an excellent job. In my last board meeting, the board elected Lena Patterson as president of the board. Lena has been a part of the eCampusOntario team since the organization opened shop in August 2015. She worked closely with the government to establish the consortium model in Ontario and now heads up a growing project team in her role as Senior Director, Programs and Stakeholder Relations. Lena focuses on cross-pollination, collaboration and the promotion of open education, access and innovation in online and technology-enabled teaching and learning across the province.

I have full confident that Lena will take OE Global to the next phase with the new strategic plan. I'm also happy that our two appointed board members, Catthy Casserly and Martin Dougiamas, will continue to serve on the board.

Concluding remarks

It is great time for Open Education Global and it even has a brighter future. I hope to see everone at the OE Global Conference online and hopefully in Nantes.

I continue to participate in the board as past-president. That is an non-voting position.

Open Education Global and the Université de Nantes, hosts of the Open Education Global 2021 Conference, are pleased to announce that the Call for Proposals is now open!

This year, the Open Education Global 2021 Conference will be entirely focused around the UNESCO OER Recommendation.

This important focus aims to engage the global open education community around the five action areas of the UNESCO OER Recommendation. These action areas are:

• Capacity Building,
• Policy,
• Access,
• Sustainability, and
• International Cooperation.

Due to the extraordinary times we currently live in, Open Education Global 2021 will take place over two separate but linked events: the online conference and the in-person congress.

Proposals in six languages

With the focus of the Open Education Global 2021 on the UNESCO OER Recommendation, the call will accept proposals in all six of the UNESCO official languages. There are two separate submission processes, one for Webinar Presentations and Interactive Activities, and a second for proposals of Social Activities.

The Call for Proposals to the Online Conference is now open. Submit your proposal at this link: http://bit.ly/oeglobal21.

In-person congress in Nantes

The In-person Congress (5-7 October) will happen over three days at the Université de Nantes in Nantes, France. The congress will specifically consist of specialized and thematic sessions, learning labs and more. All activities are aimed towards providing various agreed starting points from which practical recommendations will be proposed and adopted. Rapporteurs will send out reports on outputs from the online conference which will serve as inputs to the Congress.

The Université de Nantes is located in a beautiful natural environment situated in the heart of Nantes. Situated as the Loire River enters the Brittany Coast, Nantes is the sixth largest city in France and is a 2-hours from Paris. Nantes is renowned for its vitality, culture, economic development and quality of life. The Université de Nantes has two campuses in Saint-Nazaire and La-Roche-sur-Yon.

I look forward to seeing you all online and hopefully also in person in Nantes!

The TU Delft Extension School and Teaching & Learning Services are pleased to be a member of the DigiTeL Pro Strategic Partnership (Professional Development for Digital Teaching and Learning) supported by funding through the Extraordinary Erasmus+ Coronavirus response. This project involves seven European university partners and is being led by EADTU.

Partners

Next to EADTU and TU Delft, the other 7 partners are:

• Belgium: KU Leuven
• France: Fédération interuniversitaire de l'enseignement à distance (FIED)
• Italy: Universita Telematica Internationale (UNINETTUNO)
• Ireland: Dublin City University
• Netherlands: Open Universiteit
• Spain: Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)

Summary of the partnership

The COVID-19 crisis has made universities switch to digital education and to re-organize their campus. In the May 2020 surveys of the European Commission, it turned out that in the first (semi-) lockdown period, 95,1% of the universities organized online and distance learning and 82,7% even online exams. All institutions set-up massive support for organizing online lectures, tutorials and videoconferencing with diverse pedagogical approaches. At all levels, emergency decisions were made.

In the second wave of COVID-19, many universities wanted to keep students on campus for face to face teaching. After a few weeks only, this seemed impossible as Europe coloured red again. Universities allowed only half or one fifth of the students in face-to-face lectures, while others attended online. Now, most universities have to go in a complete lockdown again with online and distance education. Teaching staff feel this as a disruption, requiring an extreme workload to adapt to the situation. Students started to manifest for the right of having “quality education”. Watching a video or following a lesson via zoom is no longer felt as a solution as it was in the first wave.

This is where the DigiTeL Pro Strategic Partnership (Professional Development for Digital Teaching and Learning) comes in. It brings together excellent groups of experts from universities, well-known for research and innovation in digital education and having developed good practices in digital solutions during the Corona crisis.

They are prepared to valorise their expertise in continuous professional development courses (CPD) in order to reinforce the ability of universities to provide high quality, inclusive digital education. They are at the edge of expertise in teaching and learning scenarios, connecting with main trends in practices observed during the crisis, and in the student learning experience:

• synchronous hybrid learning: based on settings that have in common that both on-site or ‘here’ students and remote or ‘there’ students are simultaneously included (synchronous hybrid learning (KU Leuven-imec);
• blended learning: based on a course design with a deliberate combination of online and offline learning activities (EMBED strategic partnership, TU Delft, KU Leuven);
• online and distance learning: based on a course design with a continuous physical separation between teacher and learner, synchronously and asynchronously (OUNL, UOC, UNINETTUNO);
• student readiness for digital learning (NIDL, Dublin City University);
• Institutional policies and strategies: based on maturity dimensions in institutional policies and quality assurance approaches for digital education (EADTU, EMBED and e-xcellence partnerships).

In the DigiTeL Pro partnership, these groups interact and cooperate for cross-development and improvement. Objectives are:

• to explore and forecast educational needs of teaching staff and learners within and after the COVID+ era;
• to exchange expertise between researchers and innovators on synchronous hybrid, blended and online distance learning, optimizing models and guidelines for short-term and future CPD;
• to design, plan and develop continuing education courses enabling anyone involved in course and curriculum development in adapting to hybrid, blended and online distance learning;
• to empower student readiness for digital learning by an online course and integrating the “student voice” in all learning scenarios;
• to reinforce the ability of universities to provide high quality, inclusive and scalable digital education.

By doing this, DigiTel Pro enables universities and EUI alliances to respond to the unstable reality in which we are living, keeping all learners included and leaving nobody behind in this disruptive challenge.

The partnership will design, develop and implement three CPD courses on respectively synchronous hybrid, blended and online teaching and learning for anyone involved in digital course and curriculum development for leaders steering this process. They will optimize models, guidelines and pedagogies leading to mature and high quality education. A course has a modular structure and will be designed in alignment with the needs of universities, strong educational concepts and relevant learning objectives.

This will accelerate the Modernization Agenda and the digital transformation of education systems across Europe (the new Digital Education Action Plan and the report on the European Education Area 2025), supporting ultimately the Green Deal.

Project details

In December the Executive Board approved the proposal to continue with the TU Delft Extension School for Continuing Education. Extension School will be an independent organisational unit within the University Corporate Office. We can continue to grow our portfolio of online courses for professionals.

Educate the World

The mission of the Extension School continues to educate the world and improve our campus and online education. In practice this means we will continue to offer courses on edX.org with an open license, publish the course content on our OpenCourseWare website and use our online courses in our campus education, often in a blended way. We will strengthen our research and innovation activities to learn more about online education and share that with our campus education.

Continuing Education

We will grow our portfolio for professionals with new courses focused on six themes: Energy Transition, Sustainable Cities, Future of Transport, Quantum Computing, Artificial Intelligence and Medical Technology.

Job openings

We have seven job openings:

• Manager Business Development
• Manager Education Support
• Learning Experience Coordinator
• Portfolio and Product Manager
• Quality Assurance Officer
• Research Coordinator
• Administrative Officer

More information on these positions including information to apply is available on our Vacancies Extension School page.

Do you think ICT can play an important role in solving educational issues? And do you have the skills and desire to take blended learning at TU Delft to an even higher level? We are looking for you.
As part of our strategy to support teaching in developing blended learning, TU Delft is hiring 7 blended learning advisors.

Job description

ICT offers us a range of possibility to create an optimal learning environment: from the complexity of interactive videos, mobile technology and anti-cheating software to the simplicity of chat tools and pdf-documents. Now more than ever, we need pandemic-proof tools that can guarantee the best education, regardless of our class sizes or location.

If you have the skills and inclination to take on this task, then you will work for one of our eight faculties (we are looking for no fewer than seven Educational Advisors!), and along with our lecturers, you will look at how their courses can be improved and which tools to use. In this way, you help create blended and online formats and contribute to increasing student interaction.

 In addition to aiding lecturers, you will advise the education management of your faculty about what blended learning at the TU Delft has to offer. You will give lunch lectures, workshops and presentations. Moreover, with conversations at the coffee machine, you will also create awareness about the added value of blended learning. Your role is to manage expectations: you are a promoter, but you always choose realistic outcomes. After all, the use of ICT is a means to achieve a goal - better education - and not an end in itself.

As an Educational Advisor, you work for one of our faculties, but you are part of the Teaching and Learning Services team, the central group of Education Advisors within the TU Delft. Together, you exchange knowledge, discuss what can be improved and you lay the foundation for new tools for supporting teachers. In an informal atmosphere, you can help to build a strong community of people with a mission: to make our national and international top university even more innovative.

Apply

Interested in joining our Teaching & Learning Services team? Please apply via tudelft.nl/jobs.

Since 2013, over 250 TU Delft lecturers have been developing and delivering online education. Thanks to their enterprising efforts and the dedication of the TU Delft Extension School (ES) support staff, TU Delft has contributed to educating the world and enhancing campus education.

Open and online education at TU Delft has had a positive impact on various areas beside benefiting campus education, from widening access to high quality education for hundreds of thousands, to contributing to our University’s international standing, from developing educational innovation and conducting pedagogical research, to forging industry collaboration.

This impact report gives a good overview of our activities and the impact we have had.

Key benefits

Online education gives academic staff new tools for research, valorisation and dissemination, as well as community building. For many lecturers, it also creates an opportunity to improve campus courses, innovate their teaching, and it adds to their professional development. It contributes to enhance networks and international recognition, in both academia and industry. Additionally, the findings from the research we conduct in online learning are applied to inform best practices in teaching, and to improve the learning experience on campus and online. 

The support given by ES instructional designers and learning developers to academic staff - be they tenured professors, first year associates, or even student Dream Teams – has also resulted in a variety of educational innovations, such as new tools, animations, online labs, simulations, assessment methods, serious games and various technology applications.

Looking ahead

​​​​​​​In recent years, our online offering centred on key topics – energy transition, sustainable cities and the future of transportation – that are relevant to the University’s mission of contributing solutions to grand societal challenges. Looking ahead, we uphold our mission of providing quality education to people of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities, by continuing to offer our MOOCs with an open licence. At the same time, we focus on further growing a continuing education portfolio of modular and stackable programmes for working professionals.

Read the Extension School Impact Report 2020.