About | UTeachers' Academy | Educational Quality EEMCS

UTeachers' Academy Principes

The proposed principles for the pilot UTeachers’ Academy are as follows.

The network UTeachers’ Academy starts with a small group including teachers from various educational programmes.
The network applies an ‘inclusive approach’ and a ‘scholarly approach’ by which teachers expand their didactic expertise with a research-based approach to their teaching practices. The network is much more than a think-tank.
Within this project we expect an active membership for at least three years.
Sharing results within the faculty is important.
A budget is available for the implementation of the annual programme. However, the budget is limited, besides there are subsidy opportunities ( SURF, Comenius, etc). Please read about it in the full text in PDF (see below).
The network decides on an annual programme.
The objective of the annual programme is to contribute to the professionalization of teachers within the network as well as beyond and the sharing and discussion of experiences both in and outside the network. The annual plan consists of two components. The first and general component is primarily focused on manifesting the network’s objective by inspiring and motivating fellow teachers. The second component consists of pilots related to the improvement of education.
The annual plan will be submitted to an assessment board for approval.
The network is supported by the quality assurance coordinator and the faculty educationalist.

Small group educational topics

In the grid, the current small group educational topics could be found.

Our current topics

Plenary hands-on sessions for all EEMCS employees

Session 1: Quizzard by Marieke Huisman

Why Quizzard?

The use of quizzes during a lecture can be a very effective way to test how well the students have understood the material you have presented. You can, of course, ask students to raise their hands, but experiences show that this lowers the number of people that actually answer. An alternative is to use a digital quiz system. There are various systems around, such as Kahoot and Shakespeak, but these are quite inflexible in how they can be used. Therefore, a group of computer science students developed a quiz application as part of their design project. During this meeting, Marieke Huisman will show you how to use this quiz application. She will show you how to use the system, demonstrate its various features, and how it can be used to create quizzes in an easy and flexible way. The session will be hands-on, so if you would like to try it yourself, bring your laptop. Marieke will bring a pdf with some example questions, but you can of course also bring your own slides with questions (which should be in pdf format). During this interactive session, you will also have the opportunity to ask specific questions and discuss ideas on how to use this in your own education.

Apply in your education

Did you miss the hands-on Quizzard workshop? Marieke Huisman has shown how to use this voting tool, demonstrated its various features, and how it could be used to create quizzes in an easy and flexible way. Relevant information can be found on https://wwwhome.ewi.utwente.nl/~marieke/Quizzard-demo/ . Marieke is happy to demonstrate Quizzard again for those who were not able to attend the workshop. If you like to attend a second demonstration (in September or October), please let us know by sending an e-mail to Karin Veldhuis (k.veldhuis@utwente.nl).

Session 2: Remindo by Yeray Barrios Fleitas and Laura Bergmans

Why digital testing with Remindo?

There are several reasons to consider the possibilities of digital testing in order to assess knowledge and skills of students. A few that might be applicable for your own situation: The grading process becomes more efficient: no more decoding student handwriting, automatic grading of (MC and short answer) questions, and the possibility to have one exam graded by multiple lecturers (at the same time). More insight into the quality of your test through the analysis options. Extensive feedback options; you can give students more personalized feedback. More authentic context (especially when students are using specific software applications during the module/course, e.g. Matlab, Excel). The specific software could be used during the test.

Apply in your education

The TELT team is happy to give you support in implementing digital testing in your own courses.

Session 3: TEM2.0 by Anne Muller and Pieter Rotteveel

Why a session about TEM2.0?

TEM 2.0 will respond to the frequently expressed desire to take a different approach to the 0-15 ECTS rule for modular education. Besides the technical part of this story, the project team TEM2.0 also wants support teachers in other aspects of the TOM model like improve the assessment and stimulate students taking more responsibility for their own learning process. What does this mean for you and for (the development of) the courses and modules? During the session, you will get more information about TEM2.0 and there is room to discuss the consequences and the new opportunities that arise.

Session 4: Meet Seshat by Arend Rensink

Why Meet Seshat?

At this demo presentation, you will be given the opportunity to meet Seshat by trying it out on a recent test you may have set. Think of a test (any test) and join us with that in the back of your mind, and we'll see how ancient Egyptian mythology can meet modern educational methodology!

Seshat, the Egyptian goddess of learning and writing, is the name that has been given to a test quality assurance tool to be introduced at the Computer Science programme, and if successful, more broadly. The idea is to enable teachers to keep track of their testing process through so-called test logs, which systematically record what happened during the multiple phases of the test cycle.

Logging your tests (supported by Seshat through an easy-to-fill-in questionnaire based on the CELT-developed test screening protocol) will remind you of steps you may otherwise forget (such as planning for a colleague to take a look at your test, doing a proper analysis of the test result, or notifying the examination board of any irregularities) and so improve your testing practice. At the same time, the collected logs will give yourself as well as the programme management (and in the background the Examination Board) insight into how these steps are actually carried out, which is a great aid in the mandatory quality assurance process.