Digitalization is everywhere, and most certainly also in higher education. The innovation projects of UT’s second cohort of Teaching Fellows, supported by UT’s 4TU.CEE leader Cindy Poortman as well as Cornelise Vreman-de Olde and Robin van Emmerloot, all centered around this theme. During the closure event on 10 October 2024, the five fellows presented their projects in an interactive workshop, allowing participants to experience a wide variety of digital innovations.
For example, Bas Kolloffel’s clever use of VR-glasses adds an unexpected and helpful dimension to presentations skills trainings. And Jurnan Schilder took the use of video tools in higher education to a next level. Alternatively, Pascal Wilhelm focused on procrastination of students sometimes overwhelmed by the digital world around them. Jan Buitenweg presented a new tool that proves useful at two levels: it not only helps lecturers in their curriculum design, but also assists students to set out their individual study path within it. Finally, Pieter Roos showed how the interactive practice platform Grasple, until now exclusively used in mathematics and statistics education, can also be employed for engineering courses such as fluid mechanics.
Throughout the event, participants were asked to give their opinion, digitally of course, on a list of propositions dealing with digitalization in higher education. The response then sparked a plenary discussion joined by UT’s Rector Magnificus Tom Veldkamp. Together with the audience, he discussed how digital innovations can really support and improve our education, without becoming goals in themselves.
