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On Friday, June 15th, a group of lecturers, study advisors counsellors from Wageningen University participated in a one day workshop on ‘How to beat procrastination’. There was a wide array of topics covered that day, including: what are the cultural aspects of procrastination and other factors that influence procrastination and  its psychological roots.

In the CEPHEI project (Cooperative E-learning Platform for Higher Education in Industrial Innovation) a consortium of nine universities joined forces to  build a community of digital learners in university and industry. It aims to develop a cooperative e-learning platform for industrial innovation. The e-learning platform will consist of an open platform, with free online courses, project-based (face-to-face) education at university and it provides a community-building platform.

Fear of Failure is one of those issues that teachers and academic advisors are usually confronted with, when they encounter students who express anxiety or worries concerning the prospect of underperforming. It is an issue that worries those who work with students -and want to help them- but might be wondering how to go about it. Given the ubiquitous nature of ‘fear of failure’ among students, Wageningen University decided to include this topic in the project ‘Diversity and Flexibility’ for the 4TU.CEE Programme 2018. The workshop took place on May 9th at the Campus of Wageningen University and was facilitated by two experts; one in the field of intercultural education, Marijke Van Oppen, and the other on counselling as a psychologist, Jessica Price.

MIT, TU Delft, UTwente, Wageningen University and TU Eindhoven all recognize that 21st century engineering students need more than specialist knowledge alone to be able to work in this fast changing world. They need a wider skills set than their predecessors. Skills like creative and entrepreneurial thinking and the ability to communicate with the outside world for example. These are topics the universities are all currently working on by providing flexibility in the education programmes, more hands on education and interdisciplinary education. On 17 May MIT and the 4TU universities presented their own vision on engineering education of the future. In the discussion it became clear that all 5 universities face similar challenges, one of which is assessment. Read the article that appeared in TU/e Cursor for more insights. The presentations can be found below:

Insights from TU Berlin on professional development of teaching staff and activating large classes (1000+)

At TU/e Johanna Höffken initiated a project to design a USE (User Society Enterprise) learning line on ‘responsible innovation in a global context’ last year. The project aims to explore and implement stimulating learning approaches, which link and integrate university education with the global context. Central in this approach is the idea to truly engage with the context when designing technical solutions. This is why close collaboration with companies and other societal stakeholders is sought throughout the learning line. Höffken and her colleagues received funding from the innovation fund of 4TU.CEE Eindhoven to carry out the project.

The first Comenius Leadership Fellows are granted. Six professionals in higher education will be able to implement their ideals and ideas for educational innovations. One of the scholarships went to WUR and focusses on interdisciplinarity.  A theme that is high on the agenda of 4TU.CEE.  Each professional is awarded a Leadership Fellow of €250,000 for implementing an educational innovation across an entire faculty or even an entire institution. They were selected from 23 proposals.

Recently two 4TU.CEE blogs have been published. Birgit Pepin, 4TU.CEE leader of TU/e speaks in her blog of the position paper OECD and engineering education. In it she summarizes the document by highlighting some of the thoughts that she found most valuable for engineering education, and with the view to the “engineer of the future” and engineering education 2030.

Ready for the next step in your career?  Join the online course ‘Design your next career move’ and use the five-step career-thinking model to explore, design and open up opportunities. The course is now offered all year-round. This self-paced course is aimed specifically at engineers. Whether you are in the early stages of your career or an experienced professional, following a systems approach will give you a unique advantage when planning and designing your next career move.

On 15 June psychologist Jessica Price will give a 1-day workshop designed to support lecturers who struggle with procrastinating tendencies of their students. It will provide you with useful information and strategies that will support you in helping students to develop the mind-set and the capacity to start and finish their projects on time! This free workshop is given at Wageningen University. All 4TU staff is welcome. For more information and to sign up visit our 4TU.CEE website.

What comes next? Is what teachers ask after finishing their University Teaching Qualification (UTQ/BKO). A first group of Twente staff now finalised their SUTQ trajectory by presenting their educational research or design. UT Rector Thom Palstra stressed the importance of educational excellence. SUTQ pioneers will be asked to think along with educational innovations. Career trajectories will allow for more educational emphasis. R&D topics presented included: Serious gaming; using wicked problems; digital testing in maths; flipped classroom; mathematica for quantum physics; plagiarism. Outcomes will soon be available via the 4TU.CEE innovation map.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), considered to be the best university of technology in the world, has reviewed the teaching at TU Delft and three other universities of technology as part of its ‘educational transformation’. For the benchmark, MIT reviewed and analysed the most cutting-edge engineering education currently available and the education expected to lead the field in the future. The fifty experts interviewed sometimes placed TU Delft on the list of current leaders and sometimes on the list of future leaders. As a result, TU Delft appears in the top 10 of both lists (4th and 7th respectively).

A first group of UT teaching staff will finish the new Senior University Teaching Qualification trajectory. Rector Thom Palstra will hand out the SUTQ certificates on March 6. Participants will pitch their personal educational research or design project. Some examples of projects: Wicked problems in spatial engineering (Mark van der Meijde), Serious gaming in civil engineering (Andreas Hartmann), Digital testing in mathematics (Harry Aarts), Flipping the university classroom (Carine Doggen) and Modelling in quantum physics (Jeroen Verschuur). Results of each project will be posted on the innovation map. The second SUTQ trajectory is scheduled to start in May 2018 and is still open for applications.

It is a familiar problem, a class of 200 students and only 20 of them can participate in a field trip. The others will have to do with photos or schematic visualisations to familiarize themselves with procedures and plant processes. It is clear that this is not an ideal situation for deeper learning. A 360 degrees virtual tool could prove to be an alternative for those students who cannot visit the actual plant because of limited financial and organisational resources. At TU Delft such a tour is now being developed for bachelor students in Civil Engineering. ‘Coming March they will be able to take a 360 degrees virtual tour to a Waste Water Treatment Plant’, says Danielle Ceulemans, educational researcher/designer and 4TU.CEE programme coordinator.

Thom Palstra, rector at University of Twente, announced that there will be opportunities for staff to be promoted based on a stronger weight of their achievements in the educational domain. As a first step faculties are asked to consider whom of their associate professors would be entitled for a professorship based on a set of criteria.