News

The Joint interdisciplinary Project (JiP) has run very successfully for a second time this academic year with 50 students from 8 different faculties. Eleven companies were involved in coaching and evaluating of students on a company brief. The JiP education programme consists of working on a design case provided and coached by a company. The brief with the problem is related to minimally 2 of the sustainable development goals (SDG) and solved in an interdisciplinary team of engineers, designers and scientists during a 10 weeks full-time education quarter. Students are based in the company part of the time and become acquainted with many key persons in the company, such as the CEO/Head R&D. During the process, there is a kick-off, including teambuilding, skills drill and most importantly: technical business courses such as business model canvas, agile working, technical innovation, risk assessment and critical assumption testing. During the 10 weeks, three major reviews with academic staff and company coaches for the assessment of the work are taking place. The course is finalised with a public defense, open to a wide audience. 

On Monday January 27th the 4TU.CEE at TU/e organised a workshop to inspire TU/e teachers to propose new projects on innovation in education. The workshop was organised with reference to the call for proposals 2020. During the workshop four previously funded projects were exhibited. The project owners presented posters on their projects in a market setting and answered questions of participants. The four projects are:

A group of 15 honours programme students from TU Delft visited South Korea in the summer of 2019. The goal of this study trip was threefold: to learn (a) to what extent innovation is integrated into education and how it is used to improve it, (b) what major technological developments are embraced by Korean companies, and (c) how the engineering culture in South Korea differs from the engineering culture in the Netherlands. Over the course of 2 weeks the students visited several institutions that are at the forefront of the developments, including Samsung, Hyundai Heavy Industries, the Dutch embassy and the Korean Institute for Science and Technology.

Gunter Bombaerts and Andreas Spahn of TU/e recently published an article in the European Journal of Engineering Education. The article describes the use of basic needs and motivation with self-determination theory to redesign a course. The research was sponsored by 4TU.CEE.

A toolbox for teachers on the topic of internationalisation is now available online. It has been developed for 4TU.CEE by experts on internationalisation from UT, WUR and TU/e. It brings together their knowledge and experiences. Here you will find good practices and materials, inspiration and ideas when teaching in an international classroom. The toolbox addresses the following topics/main questions:

In recent years, there has been an increasing trend in the number of students entering Dutch Universities. The Dean of Education at WUR requested the local 4TU.CEE staff to look into what is currently known about teaching and assessing large groups of students. The findings are bundled in a publication which provides helpful strategies and resources for lecturers.

4TU.Centre for Engineering Education will host the Engineering Education conference of SEFI2020 in Twente (20-24 September). The theme is Engaging Engineering Education and we expect many 4TU colleagues to showcase and discuss their finest educational work on this platform, also you can get inspired by meeting and discussing with 400 international colleagues. Formats are oral presentations, poster sessions, workshops, seminars and a doctoral symposium. Both full conference and day tickets will be available. Read more about the different themes and ways to present in the call for contributions.

COMET is a two-year research project funded by the 4TU.Centre for Engineering Education. The project focuses on the future of engineering ethics education at TU Delft. It is both retrospective and prospective: looking back at the successes and challenges from the last 20 years of integrating ethics into the curriculum at TU Delft, and identifying and proposing best practices for ethics education going forward. Researchers Janna van Grunsven, Taylor Stone and Lavinia Marin are involved in the project.

CESAER, the European association of leading specialised and comprehensive universities of science and technology has published a discussion paper on ´S&T education for 21st century Europe´. The paper is written by Aldert Kamp, 4TU.CEE leader at TU Delft and director of Education for the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, in collaboration with CESAER’s Task Force S&T Education for the 21st Century. The paper explores the trends in engineering sciences and technology, education and society, and provides orientation how universities of S&T and CESAER can change education in Europe to the better.

An article on the motivational effects of games in engineering education written by Andreas Hartmann and Lisa Gommer of the University of Twente has been published in the European Journal of Engineering Education.

Earlier this year a Teaching Cultures Survey was conducted amongst 4TU lecturers to gather their views about the status of university teaching at their university. 33% of our academic staff members have responded. The outcomes are taken very seriously at all 4TUs as part of the professional development of teaching career paths. The findings have been compared with peer universities around the world. In the Netherlands the Teaching Cultures Survey was introduced and sponsored by 4TU.CEE.

Ineke ten Dam will temporarily take over 4TU.CEE coordinating activities at the University of Twente. Ineke has long-standing experience in education as a teacher, teacher trainer, consultant and manager. Twelve years of this experience are in the context of ITC, the geoscience and earth observation institute and now the UT faculty with an international profile. The last seven years Ineke worked as the programme manager of the Technical Medicine programme. Her interest areas are innovation, quality enhancement, e-learning, internationalisation and intercultural education. Ineke will also initiate new routes for students to be trained for tutor roles in several courses, so-called learning assistants. Input from international partners and best practises in Twente and other TUs will help define a first training in Spring 2020 to be executed with all relevant parties.

‘Create the future of education in 24 hours’, that was the challenging task for TU Delft educators, innovators and students during the Education Hackathon that took place on 3 and 4 October. Winner of the challenge is team Meysa that designed the Teacher’s Toolbox. A highly customisable online platform, which gives teachers the opportunity to become creators of their own educational games and share them with their peers.

First year students at Eindhoven University of Technology study obligatory courses in mathematics, such as Calculus (approximately 1800 students) and Linear Algebra (approximately 120 students). A survey was carried out by Birgit Pepin (4TU.CEE leader at TU/e) and researcher Zeger-Jan Kok to find out how first-year mathematics/engineering students have selected and used digital, traditional, social and general resources for their learning of these subjects. The survey provides insight in study behavior of students and helps in designing blended learning environments in an informed way.

TU Eindhoven has fundamentally redesigned its basic course on ethics with help of the flipped-classroom concept and challenge-based learning to increase students’ motivation. A group of 180 students participated in a pilot, which was led by Gunter Bombaerts. Inspiration was taken from Nottingham Trent’s SCALE-UP. Key to challenge-based learning are of course the external parties that bring in their real-life case-studies. Pilot results show that intrinsic motivation, autonomy and competence with students are significantly higher in the co-creation case compared to the other approach not using challenge-based learning. The external stakeholders were also enthusiastic about the approach.