E-learn Weblog of Willem van Valkenburg

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.

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[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.

Part of our participation in the EMBED project (European Maturity Model for Blended Education) is the organisation of a couple of training events to share our knowledge and to give you the opportunity to learning about state of the art research and innovation in blended and online teaching and learning.

The next training event will be a EMBED training seminar at DCU in Dublin, 4-7 June 2019. This 3-days intensive training session is organized by the project team of EMBED. The “European Maturity Model for Blended Education in Europe” (EMBED) is developed by a consortium of frontrunner universities in blended and online education: KU Leuven, TU-Delft, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Aarhus, Dublin City University and Tampere University of Applied Sciences. It is coordinated by EADTU and funded by the European Commission. For full details on the project we kindly refer to the EMBED website.

The training seminar will be an opportunity to learn about state of the art of blended teaching and education and to apply new concepts on the current context of your university. Participants will further generate feedback on the multidimension maturity model for course design as developed by the consortium (micro) and on the institutional strategies needed in order to implement it (meso). You will also learn about the monitor to assess the maturity of blended and online educational practices at universities. The monitor is conceived as a multi-layered instrument with dimensions and indicators that were newly developed or adapted from previously validated instruments. Its goal is to grasp in detail practices and conditions for blended learning. All instruments are piloted across different institutions, programmes and courses

Foreseen participants are coming from:

• Teaching staff designing or redesigning a course, using new modes of teaching and learning. Teaching staff looking for a stable framework for innovating or assessing courses, in search of a balance between increasing student numbers, enhancing the quality of the teaching and learning experience and cost-effectiveness. Furthermore, teaching staff, developing online learning activities for short postgraduate degrees and continuous education.
  
  
• Teaching and learning departments developing blended and online teaching and learning models; supporting staff in course design teams; identifying patterns of good practice in their institution or in a network; collaborating with learning technology services and organising continuous professional development for teaching staff and program directors, or organising institutional evaluation and research on blended and online education. Learning technology departments providing learning-oriented technology infrastructure, tools and resources and supporting teaching staff. Internationalisation departments, responding to the needs for international blended or online courses and programs, online program collaboration and mobility schemes.
  
  
• University leaders, developing and implementing policies, strategies, frameworks and guidelines making their university continuously innovative; developing drivers and enablers for innovation; organising support services and continuous professional development for staff and program directors; stimulating and activating communities of practice and sharing educational resources; providing learning technology environments and tools; funding grassroot initiatives, program-based projects, institutional evaluation and research

Although the training seminar, including coffee breaks, is free of charge, there are participants costs for lunches and dinners.

The full programme of the training seminar will follow soon. Please register as participant under the EMBED event website here.

We get many requests for visits from academic and staff from other universities to visit our Teaching Lab and hear about what and especially how we have organised our open, online and blended education activities. To make this a bit more efficient for us and more accessible for everyone we are organising a Erasmus+ Staff Week from 11 to 14 June 2019 in the Teaching Lab.

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+ Staff 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!

If you are interested to participate, please register via this website before May 22nd.

For the EMBED project we like to validate a framework for blended education and learning. Therefor we want to ask the opinion of experts in the field of blended education and learning. This blogpost describes the research design and explains how you can participate in this research.

Introduction: The EMBED project

The European Maturity model for Blended EDucation (EMBED) is a strategic partnership between seven1 institutes of higher education in Europe. EMBED will create a reference model for developing and implementing blended learning, embracing all levels of an institution: the design of the blended course (micro level), organisational aspects such as staff support and training (meso level), and institutional leadership, developing policies and strategies making the institution continuously innovative (macro level). The maturity model is a model with criteria and instruments to assess the degree of maturity of blended learning and innovation.

This research

The aim of this research is to validate the maturity framework for blended education. We developed a draft maturity framework, based on an extensive literature research and dozens of interviews. The draft maturity framework consists of two levels; the micro-level (course and curriculum level) and the meso level (institution level). For each level we have identified dimensions to describe the level and indicators to measure the maturity. The next step is to validate the draft maturity framework with experts in blended learning (that would be you).
This validation will be done using a Delphi research. In a Delphi research we ask experts in the field of blended education their opinion about the draft framework. This will be done in two rounds. We will use the input from round 1 to adjust the framework for round 2.

Round 1 (will take place between 21 November 2018 and 12 December 2018)
In the first round you will validate the dimensions of the draft framework. We defined 7 dimensions on micro-level and 9 dimensions on meso-level. We’re asking if you agree with the dimensions and also to give reasoning why you agree, or not. This will be done using an online questionnaire, which will take about 30 till 60 minutes to complete. The questionnaire will be available from 21 November till 12 December.
After Round 1 we will refine the framework based on the input of the participants.

Round 2 (Will take place between 16 January 2019 and 6 February 2019)
In the second round we will present the revised list of dimensions. First we will ask you to rank the dimensions in order of importance. After the ranking we will present the indicators for maturity per dimension. We will ask you to what extent you agree with the indicators and why. In this round we will also use an online questionnaire and it will take about 60 minutes. The questionnaire will be available from 16 January 2019 till 6 Februari 2019.

What do we ask of you?

We ask the following of the participants in this research:

• You have any experience in the field of blended education, learning or teaching. This can be in a role as director, manager, teacher, educational advisor or something else.
• You can spend 60 minutes per round, to fill in the online questionnaire. Round 1 will be from 21 November 2018 till 12 December 2018. Round 2 will be from 16 January 2019 till 6 February 2019.

How can you participate?

If you like to participate with the research for the EMBED project, please enrol using this link:
https://delftxtudelft.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3fPI86ZZiG2D5kx