News

The 20th of April the faculties of EEMCS and Architecture at TU Delft came together to learn from the evaluation of study success in their respective faculties. Electrical Engineering and Architecture have been used as case studies for the 4TU.CEE study on comparison of implementing bachelor curriculum innovation.

Last April a 4TU.CEE report was released on a study regarding bachelor curriculum innovation at the three Universities of Technology. It describes six case studies of programmes that participated in implementing new curricula in order to motivate students to work harder and improve their study success.

In only a short period of time, from September 2014 onwards, CEE’s core team managed to instigate many projects that contribute to the innovation of engineering education. This resulted in various publications, ranging from reports to conference contributions. Besides initiating research, CEE also regularly invites experts to come and give inspiring workshops and meetings on various topics.  This enabled education staff to learn about innovations, exchange ideas and actively participate.

The successful Tour de Mazur that took place in November last year tasted like more. On March 31st, a follow-up workshop was organised at the University of Twente. Approximately 25 lecturers attended the workshop organised by CEE and CELT. They were inspired in November and are now involved in implementing new ideas related to “Mazur”  themes: Team Based Learning, Active learning with peers, Student engagement, Assessment for learning. View the outcomes of the session here.

On the 1st of April the 3TU-Education Day took place. A strategic day about the relevance and cooperation amongst the 3TU master Education Tracks, Science & Education and Communication, Systems & Control, Construction Management Engineering, Embedded Systems and Sustainable Energy and Technology. As the original purpose of the joint 3TU education, macro efficiency and joint degree, has become less relevant today, the scope and relevance of the 3TU label has been discussed amongst Educational Track Directors and the 3TU Executive Board and members of the 3TU Centre of Engineering Education board.

During a 2-day working visit to Edinburgh University and University of Strathclyde in Glasgow 3TU.CEE exchanged ideas and experience on innovating engineering education. Universities of technology in Scotland face similar challenges as their counterparts in the Netherlands.

Maarten Vansteenkiste, professor at UGent Belgium and international expert on Self-Determination, visited TU/e on 11 March 2016 to talk about increasing students’ motivation. The interactive lecture was attended by some 50 participants, many of them lecturers.

A new website on teaching excellence has been launched by Ruth Graham, an expert in engineering education. On the website www.evaluatingteaching.com   you will find a web-based template that is designed to support the evaluation of teaching achievement. It is designed for application across all university disciplines for all academics whose role involves any teaching. The Royal Academy of Engineering and a worldwide consortium of university partners, including 3TU.CEE, will get together on the 25th of February to provide feedback on the template that is now being tested at a number of universities.

Some 160 education professionals of technical universities from all over the world gathered to exchange knowledge and experience about innovations in engineering education at the European Regional  Meeting of the CDIO network on 25 and 26 January. The theme was “ Inventing tomorrow’s engineering education”.  Aldert Kamp, CEE leader of TU Delft looks back on a very successful conference with many enthusiastic participants. Innovations in engineering education are badly needed to prepare the new generation of students for the rapidly changing changing needs of the 21st century, as was stressed by all four keynote speakers. More attention must be paid to multi- and interdisciplinairy thinking, cross-sectoral collaboration, creativity and innovation skills in both Bachelor and Master education. These subjects are leading themes in the educational research that is done by 3TU. Centre for Engineering Education, the event organiser. Participants intensely worked with these themes in fully booked interactive workshops. The conference took place at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at TU Delft, member of the CDIO network. Challenges

The projects enable lecturers to experiment with ideas they have that can improve education in an innovative way. This year’s theme is ‘Blended Learning & New ways to supervise education’.

“Teachers are often under time pressure. It pays off to do less of that what does not contribute to improving student learning and do more of what does contribute” according to Edström. An important observation was that letting go of the old that does not really contribute is very hard. Still we tend to keep doing things that are less effective for learning, because we do not know what the new will bring. One insight Edström provided was to spend less time on finishing student work for them by giving feedback in a different manner. She also showed us that an oral exam can be just as time efficient as a paper exam, up until 60 students. While generally it is thought that oral exams cost much more time. More teaching tricks can be found in the presentation.

Many universities are struggling with the issue how to balance research and education in career paths. Partly this is caused by a strong focus on research. The lack of good measures for educational achievements is also a reason why education efforts are not valued as much. A snapshot with a needs analysis of the University of Twente was presented based on a number of interviews. Besides a similar pattern of the present situation, there were also clear expectations that change would come. Options to move forward were then presented and discussed. Ruth Graham developed a template for the Royal Academy of Engineering using international examples and literature. The 4-level model for the educational careerside was received well, in particular because measures were included. Starting an Academy for Teaching & Learning like the University of Lund is another option that will be investigated. Ed Brinksma (rector magnificus) concluded that we now have tools to make the next steps in rewarding teaching. 

Eric Mazur inspired lecturers on the subject of team based learning and assessment on 25 November at Twente University. The workshops were fully booked and the lecture was also made widely available by streaming. The lecture can be seen here. Mazur visited 3TU.CEE as part of his Tour de Mazur.

The education day at University of Twente focussed on the theme 'student engagement'. On the day, that took place on the 3rd of November, a variety of plenary talks and interactive workshops inspired around 120 participants.