E-learn Weblog of Willem van Valkenburg

Before Covid we regularly organised an Erasmus Exchange week, last one in January 2020, to share our expertise and practice on online, blended and campus education. During Covid we were too busy with all the emergency remote teaching, but this fall we have decided to pick it up. We have noticed in the last couple of months that the requests to visit our campus and hear more about our operations are picking up, so there is an interest. We did change the format because we are also organising an multiplier event for the Erasmus+ project Digitel Pro.

TU Delft Exchange Day

On 5 October 2022 a TU Delft Exchange Day on Education will be hosted at the TU Delft Teaching Lab for (international) higher education institutions.
Are you from an higher education institution and interested to learn more about education innovation and development at TU Delft? Please let us know through the registration form by clicking the button below.

Indication of the Programme Components

• Welcome & Opening by Rob Mudde, Vice Rector Magnificus/Vice President Education
• Teaching Academy and Teaching Lab by Annoesjka Cabo, Academic Director Teaching Academy
• "Engineer of the Future" by Hans Hellendoorn, Pro Vice Rector Magnificus Joint Education Affairs
• "Innovation in Engineering Education" by Remon Rooij, Delft co-leader 4TU Centre for Engineering Education
• Teaching & Learning Services by Franca Jonquiere, Manager Teaching & Learning Services
• Extension School by Arno Smets, Director of ES Education TU Delft Extension School
• NewMedia Centre: Media Production & Media Facilities for Education by Michel Beerens, Head NewMedia Centre
• Wrap up  + Drinks & Bites

Registration via our website.

DigiTeL Pro Multiplier Event

The DigiTeL Pro partnership brings together advanced "Schools" in research, innovation, and good practices in synchronous hybrid (KU Leuven), blended (TU Delft), and online and distance learning (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Open Universiteit (OUNL) and UNINETTUNO). 

The event on October 6th 12:00 - 17:00 offers you an excellent opportunity for an update of last developments, primarily for course and curriculum developers and for all those who support teaching staff and learners, and secondly for leaders who direct these processes in higher education. Relevant post-COVID issues are addressed, e.g. active learning, interaction and collaborative learning, inclusiveness, and assessment and feedback. 

The event will cover:

• Outcomes/findings on the three formats of education Synchronous Hybrid, Online, and Blended Education, shared by experts of the DigiTeL Pro partnership;
• Insights into how these theoretical formats support course design in your institution;
• Opportunities to discuss how to apply models and guidelines in practice

Please find more information on the event, such as the agenda and the registration form, on our Eventbrite page.

Location

Both events will be in the TU Teaching Lab. The Teaching Lab is the physical home of the Teaching Academy (the network for and by lecturers at the TU Delft). It is a dedicated space with special rooms for all TU Delft lecturers to connect, to share developments and innovation in education, to experiment with educational practices, and to spotlight lecturers.

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).

Full story »

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.

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

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.

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/making-blended-education-work/1Part of the EMBED project is the development and running of a MOOC about blended education and using the EMBED framework. Last week the enrolment opened on FutureLearn for our MOOC "Making Blended Education Work":

On this course, you’ll explore emerging practices in blended learning and get introduced to a maturity model developed in a partnership of seven European higher education organisations.
You’ll work through debates related to the conceptualisation and practice of blended learning, as well as examples of blended designs at course, programme, and institutional level.
This course offers a platform to share your experience of blended learning, evaluate and advance the maturity of your blended learning practices, and innovate blended learning methods in the wider context of digital transformation.

This course will introduce concepts of blended learning, blended teaching, and blended education and you will learn more about the EMBED framework to assess the maturity of blended learning practices in course, programme, and institution levels at higher education. It also includes topics that look into critical dimensions of blended learning, such as relations between beliefs and practice, institutional culture and leadership, and post-digital thinking.

This course is designed for higher education institution leaders, particularly those involved in leading the design, implementation and research into blended learning (e.g. those leading learning technology teams, those directing academic programmes, and heads of academic departments). The course also covers topics relevant to learning technologists, practitioners, and researchers who are interested in blended learning related research and implementation strategy.

The course starts on May 11th and will run for 5 weeks. The expected study load is 2 hours per week. You can enroll on Futurelearn.

In January 2020 we are organising the second Erasmus Exchange Week from January 28 to 31 in the TU Delft Teaching Lab:

The Delft Teaching Academy invites both academic and administrative staff members from Higher Education Institutions to our Teaching Lab, the home of our teachers; a place where we bring educational activities together under one roof, accelerate initiatives and strengthen collaborations with peers. At TU Delft, we approach education like we approach research: experiment, learn and share findings. 

Programme

In a four-day programme we’ll dive into a wide range of topics. From online and open education to teacher training and the best way to support our TU Delft teaching community. During our Erasmus+ Exchange Week, we aim to exchange ideas, evidence and expertise. We’ll share our vision on education and focus on the variety of available services and programmes to help teachers improve their education. We’ll give demonstrations of our spaces for experimentation, collaboration and exposure. And we are very much interested in your own institutes’ vision and practices!

Experiences of the first week

In 2019 we organised this week for the first time to streamline all the visit requests we receive. 12 people participated and all were enthousiast about what they learned in the week:

“The TU Delft Exchange Week offered me a unique chance to share best practices and processes with colleagues from TU Delft and around the world. It was truly inspiring!”

“The best thing about visiting at TU Delft was to gain insight into their explicit strategies and approaches for online and blended learning. Highly recommended”

For more information and registration, please check out this page.

Our university is facing growing number of students and are hiring more teachers. This also has a influence on the support staff, so I have been hiring quiet some new people and currently have two positions open:

Last Monday we presented the final version of the Euopean Maturity Model for Blended Education during a pre-conference workshop of the annual ALT conference in Edinburgh.

This model is a framework which can be used to tackle any conceptual or implementation issues regarding blended learning, teaching and education. It indicates which dimensions are relevant for lecturers and educators, but also institutions, policymakers and educational centres. It aims to help, inspire and guide anyone who wants to implement or improve blended learning in their institution. This model consists of three levels:course level, programme level, and institution level. Each level has multiple dimensions, which together should give a comprehensive overview of the field of blended learning and education. The dimensions include indicators which describe the level of maturity. The dimensions and indicators can help to determine your own level of maturity.

Full story »

On 2 September EMBED project will launch the European Maturity Model for Blended Education in Edinburgh.

The maturity model’s aim is to map blended learning practices, conditions, strategies and policies in a systematic manner and, ultimately, to identify tracks for optimization or change. The EMBED partner experts from Delft University of Technology, KU Leuven, University of Edinburgh, Dublin City University, Aarhus University and TAMK will share with you the development and use of the maturity model for blended education. This model embraces all levels of an institution: the design of blended courses, organisational aspects such as staff support, training and institutional leadership, next to policy development and strategies which enable an institution to innovate continuously its blended education, teaching and learning.

The event is free to attend, but you have to register via this website.

Delphi Research Study

The model has been validated with an international group of blended learning experts. In multiple rounds the experts had to reach agreement on a specific dimensions and indicators. For this study, we have defined consensus as follows: at least 75% of experts agree or strongly agree about the importance and validity of the proposed dimension and its indicator(s). In particular, such agreement equals to a score of 5, 6 or 7 on a scale of 0 to 7. Subsequently, the level of agreement is calculated as a number between 0 and 1, as recommended in the literature [1].

Assumptions

For the model we have used these assumptions:

BLENDED LEARNING, TEACHING & EDUCATION
For this framework we use the following definitions:

• Blended Learning = learning as a result of a deliberate, integrated combination of online and face-to-face learningactivities.
• Blended Teaching = designing and facilitating blended learning activities.
• Blended Education = the formal context of blended learning that is determined by policies and conditions with regard to the organization and support of blended learning.

MATURITY
The concept of ‘maturity’ relates to the degree of formality and optimization of the design, evidence-based decision making, documentation and continuous quality improvement which characterize the uptake of blended Learning practices, or the implementation of blended learning conditions and strategies.

QUALITY ≠MATURITY
Quality approaches can be in place within each of the maturity levels. However, maturity does not equal quality. Moreover, it has been observed that repeated blended learning practice at a particular maturity level does not result in an actual increase in maturity.

ALIGNMENT
We assume that instructors or instructional designers are knowledgeable about how to align course objectives/expected outcomes, learning activities, and assessment (both formative and summative). We also assume that they are knowledgeable about the alignment between the course objectives and the target student group.

VALUE OF (INFORMED) DESIGN
We explicitly adhere to a design-focused approach of courses and programmes. Consequently, we see growth in maturity as a result of the ability of (teams of) instructors, instructional designers and others involved to make informed decisions about blended learning courses and programmes. This includes using design principles and/or instructional theories, from blended learning activity design right up to whole programme design (i.e. the organization, planning and documentation of a structured series of courses or units).

VALUE OF EVIDENCE, EXPERIENCE AND CONTINUOUS QUALITY IMPROVEMENT (CQI)
When backed up by research and/or practical evidence a course or programme design is reinforced. The extent to which continuous quality improvement processes and products are embedded in a course or programme determines the maturity level of a blended learning practice. These allow course instructors/designers to continuously improve blended learning courses in an iterative manner.  

ACTION LEVELS AND KEY ACTORS
Three action levels are included in the model: the micro, meso, and macro level. We deem the main actor at the micro level to be the instructor or the instructional designer of a course. At the meso-level different key actors, teams, or bodies for decision making play a role in the decision-making process. Programme coordinators, department heads, deans, and heads of teaching and learning centres are involved, among others.

__
[1] See: Jünger, S., Payne, S., Brine, J., Radbruch, L., & Brearley, S. (2017). Guidance on Conducting and REporting DElphi Studies (CREDES) in palliative care: Recommendations based on a methodological systematic review. Palliative Medicine, 31. DOI: 026921631769068. 10.1177/0269216317690685.