E-learn Weblog of Willem van Valkenburg

Before Covid we organised an Erasmus Exchange Week for anyone interested in the teaching and learning activities of the TU Delft, including the Extension School, New Media Centre, Blended learning. Last year we started this again with Erasmus Exchange Days and this year the "normal" programme returns. From April 12 to 14 we are organising the Erasmus Exchange Week again in the TU Delft Teaching Lab.

During this Exchange Week we will cover, amongst others, the topics:

• Online education for lifelong learners, how to support and organise
• a vibrant community of lecturers contributing to innovating Delft Engineering Education
• How to successfully organise a teaching support center
• Cookbook Education Spaces: requirements for standarized fuctionalities and operations
• innovation through multimedia.

Interested in joining us that week, don't wait to register! There are only limited places available.

For European participants, you can use an Erasmus+ staff mobility grant to finance the trip.

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.

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:

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.

Last month the European Commission published the report European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators: DigCompEdu. This report presents a common European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu). The DigCompEdu framework is directed towards educators at all levels of education, from early childhood to higher education and non-formal learning contexts. It can help to guide policy and to adapt training programmes (such as BKO/UTQ).

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The last four years we have worked very hard to establish the TU Delft Extension School. One of major contributions to our success is the creation of an international team of professionals. In our team we have (or had) Dutch, Portugees, Slovenian, Italian, Mexican, Israeli, American, South-African, Canadian, and British nationalities. Although I prefer to keep talent in house, sometimes it is better for them to move on. In most cases this means they move into a leading position in the field of open/online education at another institute (e.g. WarChild, IHE).

It does offer the opportunity to hire some new. So, there is a job opening for a new Learning Developer to join our great team of learning developers.

Job description

As Learning Developer you will be part of a team creating advanced learning modules for open, online, and blended courses for learners, professionals, and students. You will have considerable experience designing and developing online and blended courses. In this role, you will partner with the academic staff to create outstanding courses. Your project management skills contribute to your success in this role as you will be responsible for managing multiple projects.

Your tasks include the following:

• Guiding course teams in the entire process of designing, producing, delivering and evaluating online or blended courses or programmes.
• Devise complex technical methods and processes to meet new and unique eLearning and web requirements and resolve technical problems.
• Work independently and interact effectively with various faculty in the TU Delft organisation.
• Recognise, recommend and participate in the development of standards and procedures that support quality improvement in the Delft Extension School and products for our students.
• Provide project management for learning projects with tight deadlines. These projects bring together people from various departments and backgrounds to develop content, technical specifications and functional prototypes for the Extension School.
• Develop and provide workshops and trainings for academic staff.
• Meet all internal deadlines according to project plan regardless of project limitations.
• Participate in educational innovation projects for online courses and in the new TU Delft Teaching Lab.

Requirements

Applicants should have the following qualifications:

• Master of Education (MEd) in Instructional Design, Educational Technology or related experience plus 1 year recent curriculum design and/or course development experience in online education;
• Keen sense of organisation and attention to detail;
• Demonstrated ability to handle unforeseen difficulties and obstacles with ease;
• Excellent team player attitude and ability to work on complex projects with a group of other course developers;
• Ability to work on a tight, rapidly-changing schedule;
• Experience with using ICT in education, such as digital assessment, e-moderating, online teaching methods and platforms;
• Commitment to consulting and strong communication skills in English; mastery of Dutch is a plus;
• Experience in higher education;
• Experience as a teacher of open or online education is a plus.
• Experience with D2L Brightspace is a plus.

Deadline for your application is 29th of October 2017. More information and to apply go to the university website.

Yesterday we had the official opening of the brand new TU Delft Teaching Lab. It is a laboratory where, as a teacher, you can experiment with new forms of education and/or tools. Together with students and fellow-teachers from all faculties. Try  out new assignments, improved ways of lecturing or the implementation of a new educational concept. All with professional (technical & didactical) support.

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