DEPARTMENT OF LEARNING, DATA-ANALYTICS AND TECHNOLOGY (LDT)

At the department of Learning, Data analytics and Technology (LDT), we specialise primarily in the science of learning and teaching, and in supporting people’s continuous growth in health and wellbeing.

How do people learn, and keep learning throughout life and across changing conditions? If our ability to learn is a key to successful tech innovation and a sustainable future, which technologies, learning support systems and materials do we need most? What about the process of (data-driven) decision-making, in which we increasingly interact with, and learn from, machines and automated data flows – how does this interaction work, and how can we improve it? How can we innovate and accelerate the development of Adaptive Learning and Decision Support Technologies? How can we harness Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence to produce new algorithms for advancing adaptive technologies? At the LDT Department, we want to make a difference in the science of learning and in other domains, such as health, smart industry, sociotechnological transformation, and resilience for smart cities, sustainable communities and safe societies (the five research domains of BMS).

Jan-Willem van ‘t Klooster, Managing Director BMS Lab:

"Because of the outstanding high-tech facilities available at the BMS Lab – from VR Driving Simulators and physiological response testing rooms to the Computer Brain Interfaces Testbed – the learning, teaching and problem-solving that goes on in departments like LDT is challenging, relevant and a lot of fun."

Our education

Our goal at the LDT department is to equip people, organisations and society with the knowledge, abilities, tools and support systems they need to learn, adapt, and learn again, in order to contribute together to a fair, sustainable, digital society. Our university is known for its High Tech Human Touch philosophy, and our faculty is specialised in merging social sciences with technology and engineering. In this setting, it is only natural that our courses cross many disciplinary boundaries.  

  • Get an impression of the programmes and modules in which we are involved
    • We are responsible for the Master’s programmes Educational Science and Technology, which attract many international students
    • We are heavily involved in the Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes Psychology
    • We teach most of the courses on methodology and statistics for the various Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes connected with our faculty
    • Our ELAN Teacher Development section leads the UT’s teacher professionalisation programmes for physics, chemistry, mathematics, design and citizenship (for teachers at secondary schools)
    • We are involved in many other programmes at the university, including Industrial Design, Creative Technology, the Honours Programme, and Business Administration
    • We host students from various disciplines in their Master’s courses
    • We are at the core of the UT’s Shaping2030 talent development principles with our focus on Life Long Learning

Our research and researchers

The research we engage in at the LDT Department crosses many scientific disciplines and societal domains. With a focus on teaching and (individual or group) learning processes in schools, companies, and online, we work on the design and improvement of learning tools, and on the development of new methodologies. The overall goal is to make teaching and learning processes more effective, efficient, and engaging. Our research benefits teachers, students, employees, school managers, and educational policy makers: from the youngest generations of digital natives to veteran professionals in need of up- and re-skilling. Our activities impact many societal domains: the LDT programme is interwoven with our faculty’s five research themes as well as with the central research themes of our university: Personalized Healthcare, Digital Society, Smart Materials, Resilience Engineering, and Intelligent Manufacturing.

some of our research projects

Hit the gas!
In this project, Learning Communities composed of (future) installation workers and experts from various educational programmes are organized around paid market  assignments related to the energy transition. The goal is to accelerate learning and innovation in this sector, as the energy transition requires (future) installation workers to adapt to new ways of working and to proactively develop new practices.

MATCH project
In the MATCH project, we have developed a way of measuring the extent to which teachers can adapt their teaching to differences between students. By means of a cognitive task analysis – consisting of classroom observations, interviews, and several expert meetings – we assess teachers’ skills and knowledge with regard to providing differentiated instruction when using teacher dashboards and adaptive learning systems.

Go-Lab
The aim of the Go-Lab Initiative is to facilitate the use of innovative learning technologies in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, with a focus on online labs and inquiry learning apps. Our university is one of several participants in the project.

GoPro Learning Communities
This project aims at using action cameras to bridge the gap in learning between theory and practice, contributing to fast, effective and engaging skilling and upskilling. 

Behavioural Data Science Incubator (BSDI)
The Behavioural Data Science Incubator, an initiative of our faculty, aims to spark innovation and collaboration in data science that involves human behaviour, by supporting researchers and promoting good research practices in all steps of the research cycle, from data gathering and governance to model building, training and validation, and visualisation and reporting. The BDSI brings the best of social sciences and data analytics together. 

Brain Computer Interfaces Testbed (BCI)
Computers that can adapt to the user’s state of mind, or to the teamwork of a group, are not as futuristic as they may sound. At the Brain Computer Interfaces Testbed (BCI), we are involved in exploring the possibility of your computer automatically adapting your workload to your stress level, or advising your team on more effective task management on the basis of team performance. 

Virtual Reality Driving Simulator and Recognice Lab
Using the BMS Lab’s advanced Virtual Driving Simulator, we are studying trust in self-driving cars as well as, for instance, how to help learners master the art of driving more quickly and effectively. Another typical research tool we use at LDT as the Recognice EEG Lab: here, we use everything from one-way mirrors and eye trackers to flexible furniture and an immersive beamer setup to study the physiological responses of people in all kinds of different settings.

Creating value for society

As a part of the ultimate people-first university of technology, here to empower society through sustainable solutions, the LDT Department aims to create real value in everything we do. Our societal impact takes many shapes. We help improve teaching and learning processes in schools, businesses and organisations across a variety of sectors, from healthcare, industry and transport to public governance. A few hands-on examples:

The Go-Lab ecosystem is presented at a portal (www.golabz.eu) that houses the world’s largest collection of online labs (over 900) in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). In this ecosystem, teachers and designers can create Inquiry learning Spaces (ILS’s) for learners, combining online labs with multimedia material and personalised inquiry learning and learning analytic apps.  Go-Lab also offers a user community in which created ILS’s can be shared.

PRO-U is the professionalisation programme of the UT for in service-teachers and schools. It is about measuring the quality of education in our region. The UT cooperates with the Dutch school Inspectorate by means of a digital tool.

PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) is an international comparative study that tests the skills and knowledge in mathematics, science and reading of 15-year-olds. About 80 countries participate. The research is supervised by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the results are used by schools and governments.

In POSITIVE, a project on POsttraumatic Stress In posT IntensiVE care patients and next of kin, a digital PTSD-ICU screener is being developed, together with Medisch Spectrum Twente and ZGT hospitals to facilitate post-hospitalisation patient care.

Our board members

Chair
prof.dr. S.E. McKenney (Susan)
Full Professor
Member
prof.dr. T.H.S. Eijsink (Tessa)
Full Professor
Member
prof.dr. M.D. Endedijk (Maaike)
Adjunct Professor
Member
dr. S.M. van den Berg (Stéphanie)
Associate Professor
Secretary
dr. C.L. Poortman (Cindy)
Associate Professor

Our departmental sections