Connect with peers, share ideas, and grow together! Educational Communities enables collaboration, innovation, and supports professional learning.
At the University of Twente, a variety of educational communities offer spaces for teachers, support staff, and researchers to connect, collaborate, and grow. These communities bring together individuals who share a passion for educational innovation, teaching practice, and student learning.
Whether you’re a teacher looking to share ideas, a researcher exploring new educational models, or support staff working closely with learning technology, there’s a community for you. If you’d like to learn more about educational innovation grants, visit the grants website.
What are Educational Communities?
Educational communities are a group of people who share a common interest in certain educational topics and engage in regular interaction and collaboration to learn and grow professionally. The following frameworks highlight core principles that shape sustained educational communities in higher education.
Sustained Educational Communities in Higher Education
The figure outlines key features and types of such communities, emphasising the importance of continuity, collaboration, and shared purpose within educational communities in higher education.
The framework is adapted from Lee & Neff (2004). It shows that people are at the heart of educational communities. Here, community members create the social environment in which knowledge is exchanged and transformed. Thus, knowledge base refers to the repository of information, expertise, and content that a community uses and develops over time. Knowledge process encompasses the processes and activities that lead to the creation, sharing, and application of knowledge within a community, while knowledge infrastructure includes the tools, systems, and technologies that support the creation, sharing, and management of knowledge – ensuring that knowledge is accessible and usable.
Reference: Lee, L. L. & Neff, M. (2004). How information technologies can help build and sustain an organization's CoP: Spanning the socio-technical divide? In P. Hildreth & C. Kimble (Eds.), Knowledge networks: Innovation through communities of practice, pp. 165-183. IGI Global Scientific Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-59140-200-8.ch015
Overview of Educational Communities at UT
Below is an overview of educational communities currently active at the University of Twente from different disciplines, faculties, and topics.Accordion
Led by CELT and co-funded by 4TU.CEE, the UT Teaching Community (UT TC) brings together teachers from across UT to exchange ideas, strengthen innovation, and support evidence-informed educational development.
What it offers:
- Monthly inspiration lunches
- Collaboration across faculties
- Teaching innovation projects
- Peer networking & events
For more information related to the 4TU.CEE collaboration and innovation project opportunities at UT:
Contact Information
For assistance or inquiries regarding Educational Communities at the University of Twente, or if you don’t see your community listed in the University of Twente Communities Overview, please contact the CELT Community Expert:
