Previous editions: UG Best Practice in Teaching & Learning Award

Teaching team: Prof. dr. Marc Hertogh
Course title: Seminar Policy Analysis
Best practice: Teaching Policy Analysis in the Real World: Students Give Advice to Dutch House of Representatives

The law in practice and employability are some of the key focus points in educational innovation at the Faculty of Law. These are also the main Best Practices in the seminar Policy Analysis by Marc Hertogh, professor of Socio-Legal Studies. Students participated in a real-life law-making trajectory, for the Dutch House of Representatives. Contrary to previous years, where students invented a fictional policy problem on their own, this year a real-life problem was used.

Students stepped into the ongoing law-making process of the new Whistle-blower Protection Act in the Dutch House of Representatives. Through drafting policy advice addressed to the members of the House of Representatives and attending a round table meeting in The Hague with members of the House, students got a taste of how policymaking works as well as a look into their possible future working field. Together with peer feedback presentations of the students and tight and dynamic deadlines, this made for a very interactive and dynamic learning environment. In the end, some of the recommendations of the students were incorporated into the law-making process and taken into account when the law was dealt with in the House of Representatives. This way the students got to make a real societal impact during their learning experience.

Teaching team: Dr. Tamás Görbe
Best practice: Interactive knowledge clips

Why do you create knowledge clips for your courses? How do you make them worth watching? What are the potential benefits and drawbacks of having them? Do these clips really help students? How do you spend your lectures then?

These are just some of the questions colleagues ask when they find out I'm making interactive videos for my students. I will answer these questions as well as some others that may help you transform your courses and boost student engagement.

Teaching team: Dr. Tassos Sarampalis and Laurent Krook, MSc
Course title: Research Methods: Theory and Ethics
Best practice: Student-centered assessment procedure

The course: ‘’Research Methods: Theory and Ethics” of the Department of Psychology is followed by 700 students each year. The teachers are aware that a course about research methods can be difficult for students, but treat this as a challenge. They want to motivate and be relevant for every student. The way they do this is complex but rests on a foundation of basic values: 

• Communication (clear, personal, continuous, relevant)

• Freedom (students have the option to choose what they read, what assignments to take, and which grade to aim for) 

• Respect (discussion is valued and different needs and interests are accommodated)

• Engagement and interactivity (weekly communication between students and teachers)

• Relevance (material is useful to everyone, regardless of interests) 

These values can be found in the didactics used. There are weekly quiz assignments to promote continuous engagement, teachers use various scaffolding strategies, and they organize an optional Journal Club. But the values can also be recognized in the assessment procedure. In a specifications grading scheme, students can select which grade to aim for. This is in accordance with the value of freedom.

The values that this course is based on are crucial for student-centred education and the weekly assignments are in line with evidence-based assessments. Furthermore, the course provides a context in which psychological research methods are (societally) relevant, interesting, useful, and engaging. For these reasons, we see the course as a best practice in teaching and learning.

Teaching team: Dr. Lieuwe Zijlstra
Course title: Young Scientists at UCG
Best practice: Evidence-based version of research internships

“Young Scientists at UCG” was developed in 2019 and is an evidence-based version of research internships employing methodologies from different disciplines, aimed at realising the full academic potential of students and using blended learning. During the internships, students are members of the Experimental Philosophy Lab Group. This group was founded to embed students in a collaborative structure conducive to their academic development. Students are encouraged to think as researchers and engage in all aspects of the research process, integrating knowledge and skills acquired in other courses: literature review, hypothesis development, experimental design, data collection and analysis, manuscript writing, and presenting at (inter)national conferences.

Students work in research teams producing scientifically and socially relevant research combining philosophy and the empirical sciences. The students consider disciplinary boundaries, produce interdisciplinary research, collaborate with students and scholars internationally, organise lab meetings, think critically, perform independently, and are trusted to be responsible for their learning process. So far, internship students have presented their research at different faculties at academic institutions including the UG, Utrecht University, University of Amsterdam, Granada University, Yale University, and at research meetings at Harvard and MIT, which exemplifies the high-quality research students can produce. Though tailored to the UCG program, these internships can run equally well in other faculties.

Teaching team: Prof. dr. Marjo Buitelaar, Dr. Jelle Wiering, Dr. Brenda Bartelink, and Dr. Brenda Mathijssen
Course title: Religion, Diversity and Identity
Best practice: Ethnographic research into present-day diverse cities

The course ‘Religion, Diversity and Identity’ focuses on how religious pluralism features in the “super-diverse” city. After being familiarized with theoretical frames that study pluralism and diversity in the study of religion, as well as with the emergence of new forms of spirituality and religion in Europe and North America, the course focuses on ethnographic research into present-day diverse cities. Students will study the interplay of various factors in building a shared, meaningful existence by small and scattered economically differentiated and legally stratified groups of urban residents with different cultural/religious backgrounds and transnational connections. After a series of preparatory class meetings in which these issues will be addressed, the students together with supervisors will spend a week doing ethnographic fieldwork in one of the big cities in the Randstad to carry out research in small groups. 

Teaching team: Prof. dr. Martin Lenz
Course title: Structured Questions
Best practice: Stimulating active and self-directed learning

If you ask students whether they have questions about any given text, you’re often met with an embarrassed silence. It’s hard to admit that you’re confused. Although asking questions is a crucial activity, how to do this is hardly ever explained. By teaching to structure and analyse questions, I attempt to achieve things: 

1. Countering embarrassment by suggesting that genuine questions require confusion;

2. Showing how confusion generates the motivation of a question by having students spell out what (passage) precisely causes confusion;

3. Showing that confusion is often the result of (frustrated) expectations as a reader;

4. Detailing how to analyse such expectations as hidden theoretical assumptions;

5. Having students estimate what possible answers might look like, e.g. by estimating how assumptions in the text differ from one’s own assumptions.  

While stimulating active learning, most steps can be achieved without requiring new information, but rather by developing an understanding of how one’s confusion arises. Accordingly, students are encouraged to enter into a dialogue with both their own hidden assumptions as well as with others, for instance by articulating how their background assumptions might differ. This approach is designed to stimulate self-directed learning and exchange as well as allow the student to benefit from seeing diversity in assumptions.

Teaching team: Dr. Frans Sijtsma and prof. dr. Dimitris Ballas
Course title: Scientific Reading, Debating and Reflecting
Best practice: Reading and discussing a selection of curated books

The course Scientific Reading, Debating and Reflecting (SRDR) is offered within the Research Master in Spatial Sciences programme. It consists of a different format than any other course as it is spread out over the complete academic year and is not related to one period only. Students of the Research Master have the freedom to design their own program and follow courses they find interesting, however, during the course, SRDR students have fixed moments to get back together and share their experiences. Therefore, SRDR holds a special position within the curriculum in which students grow together in their academic process.

By suggesting the class read a selection of curated books on topics covering economics, anthropology, sustainable development, and social inequality, and sharing these in class, each student was given the opportunity to share their thoughts and reflections. This inspired many in-depth discussions, creating connections among students and brought a great atmosphere of learning, unlike any other course. The course is used as a development tool throughout the year in which young researchers can share their experiences and connect their readings to real life.

Teaching team: Dr. Vass Verkhodanova
Course title: Speech Sounds
Best practice: Inspiring a diverse pool of students to acquire deep, nuanced understandings of complex phenomena

The course Speech Sounds is integral in the Masters of Voice technology. The scope of the course involves the interface between phonetics/phonology and speech technology. One major challenge is the diverse profiles of students, some coming from the social sciences, others from computing sciences, and still others from different fields.

Lecturer Vass Verkhodanova masterfully balances this complex issue through highly innovative and hands-on approaches like learning in mixed groups, intense feedback/feedforward protocols, and willingness to adjust lessons or parts of lessons on the fly (while still achieving learning outcomes). This makes it difficult to summarize her achievements since for Vass there is no single “recipe” for success, but rather, it is about her mindset as a teacher. Specifically, a mindset which combines scientific rigour, a passion for the topic, and, above all, a commitment to learning. Vass realizes that achieving learning outcomes is not a matter of ticking boxes in a syllabus, but of inspiring students to acquire deep, nuanced understandings of complex phenomena, while recognizing that those understandings may come in different shades depending on the background of the student. In essence, this comes down to respect for intellectual diversity and responsiveness to student needs.

Teaching team: Dr. Evelien Croonen and Dr. Michael Wyrwich
Best practice: Small Business & Start-Up Safari

The Small Business & Startup Safaris are part of the Master in Business Administration, more specifically the profile Small Business & Entrepreneurship. Our ‘Safaris’ provide students with the opportunity to engage in ‘experiential learning’ by visiting multiple small business owners and entrepreneurs in their own ‘habitats’ during one day. Throughout a study year, we have both a “Small Business Safari”, where students visit owners/managers of existing businesses (in October), and a “Startup Safari”, where students visit owners/managers of new/young ventures (in March).

Safaris can be used in all kinds of fields, and their benefits for students are threefold. First, students can deepen their knowledge by comparing theoretical insights gained during their study programs with insights from practitioners who are active in their fields. Second, students can network with these practitioners, for example for study assignments, internships, or jobs. Finally, the student community is strengthened because they go on an inspiring ‘learning adventure’ together. To achieve these benefits, we adopt a specific set-up for the Safaris where the field visits are accompanied by two plenary sessions; one before the actual field visits to introduce the central theme to the students and one afterwards to have the students reflect on their field observations.

Teaching team: Drs. Berdien Kooistra-Akse, drs. Iris van Zuijlen, dr. Hanneke Hoekstra, drs. Catharina Urbach, Evelien Langendijk, dr. Henri Lohr, prof. dr. Marco Cune, and Elly Douma
Course title: Dentistry
Best practice: Team-based learning

Team-Based learning (TBL) is a proven effective, activating form of work in which students learn actively and collaboratively. TBL is applied within the dental program on a 5-week theoretical education cycle. The cycle starts with an overview of the content, an explanation of the various topics and how best to learn them. In the following 5 weeks, various learning and teaching activities take place. The cycle concludes with a TBL session provided by a subject matter instructor and a moderator. During the TBL session, students gain insight into their level of mastery of the material by taking a test first individually and then in the subgroup. Application of the learning takes place through a vocational assignment that students also complete in the subgroup and then discuss between subgroups. Three to four days after the TBL session, students take a final summative knowledge test.

Team-based learning as a form of work contributes to greater understanding and use of knowledge among students and requires them to take an active role. It provides an opportunity for the instructor to explain complex theoretical concepts effectively and even more clearly. TBL thus lends itself well as a possible working form for various courses.

Teaching team: Dr. Benjamin Leruth and Dr. Léonie de Jonge
Course title: Democratic Innovations
Best practice: Designing and running a real-world democratic innovation

Within the framework of a Master’s course on Democratic Innovations, students have to design and run a real-world democratic innovation with internal and external stakeholders to address an existing societal problem at the local, provincial or national level. This topic is chosen by the students themselves. This year, they selected the housing crisis in Groningen.

To run such an experiment, students first hear from academics and practitioners experienced in running democratic innovations, both from within and outside the University. The cohort is then divided into separate “task forces”. Each task force is in charge of designing and executing one element of the democratic experiment (outreach, management, moderation). Each task force kept a collective logbook to collect notes and reflections on the progress of the experiment. Ultimately, each task force submitted a final, group-written report of 1,500 words, reflecting on the experiment (e.g. what went right, what went wrong, and what should be improved). The report and design-build on a database of democratic innovations taking place around the world (Participedia).

Teaching team: Dr. Erin Wilson, Dr. Tina Otten, Linde Draaisma, Henk van Putten
Course: Climate Change, End Times, Sustainability
Best practice: Preparatory podcasts, real-life discussions in a blended environment

This course focuses on climate change and religion in an interdisciplinary setting. The main goal is to discuss with students what the different theological, religious, philosophical, and spiritual traditions are with regard to climate change and eschatology. The focus lies on the five world religions’ perspectives on these themes, as well as additional philosophical and ethical perspectives. Students learn to develop their own arguments and vision for sustainability and to evaluate different approaches to the climate crisis.

The course achieves these goals by presenting a weekly podcast to students which the teaching team has made together with scholars from many different disciplines, in addition to weekly readings, presentations, and a policy plan and essay where students argue their own perspectives. This course is unique in its combination of topics, a student called it “the most interesting course I have ever followed”, and because of the interdisciplinary background of both the teachers and the students, it was named this “eye-opening course”. The preparatory podcasts together with the real-life discussions provided an accessible and fun blended learning environment that gave students the tools to start thinking about topics they had never even considered before.

Teaching team: Elisabetta Costa, Antenor Hallo de Wolf and Bartjan Pennink
Course title: MA International Humanitarian Action
Best practice: Viking simulation

This simulation exercise is based on the Viking 11 simulation exercise, developed by the Folke Bernadette Academy - the Swedish agency for peace, security and, development - in collaboration with Swedish Armed Forces. Moreover, the exercise has been moderated and altered by the NOHA Management assignments during some rounds we did run the simulation.

The simulation exercise takes students to the imaginary country of Bogaland, in which civil war, social stratification, perceived injustice, an unequal provision of public services, and different religious beliefs hold sway over daily functioning of the country. In 2010, a Cease Fire Agreement was signed between warring factions belonging to the chief Bogaland provinces: the Kasurian provinces and the Mida provinces. But don’t be mistaken: to date, 402.000 people are still unaccounted for. These people are not registered in either one of the provinces or neighboring countries. Also, statistics are still very unreliable and many people are still on the move because of the unstable situation that lasts, even despite the CFA.

This unstable situation is what students will be looking into. Students will dive right in when dealing with their first assignment. During this simulation exercise, the pace is high and the situation changes rapidly!

Teaching team: N. El-Baz, Dr. M.M.M. Gresnigt, Drs. F. Schuring, Dr. M.J.G. van Heuvelen 
Best practice: E-Learning Modules 

In the curriculum development of our medical programmes, both student representatives and the programme leaders identified a greater need for extra support in the form of dynamic and adaptive content. In 2016, this led to the start of an e-learning team, which started developing e-learning principles, frameworks, and content.

E-learning opened a new door for learning: microlearning – a form of learning in which small learning units are periodically offered to students. Students can compose personal learning paths, in which the content is tailored to their needs. An e-learning module can be developed in multiple variants, to establish interprofessional interaction. Lecturers can also develop their own e-learning module by means of our own low-threshold authoring tool Versatest. The comprehensive set of tools allows for quizzes, videos, and other forms of content visualization. The modules are very accessible: they work on PCs, tablets, and phones, and most are available in multiple languages. The content is modularly organized so that the revision process can be safeguarded. Furthermore, user data collected from the modules can be used to improve the quality of the courses.

Teaching team: Steffen Eriksen
Course title: Asset Pricing and Capital Budgeting
Best practice:  Blended learning 

Steffen Eriksen took a completely different direction when it came to fully online teaching. As the coordinator of this course, he would stream his lectures live on Twitch. This provided a whole new layer to interactive teaching and personalization. After the stream ended, the lectures would be edited, and later uploaded on his YouTube channel for students to watch again. All the weekly practicals took place on a customized Discord server Steffen had created, where students would meet online, talk and write to each other, or talk and write with the student assistants who were present on the server as well. The server also served as a contact point between the teachers, coordinator, and students assistants. For the Q&A/review session, he would invite one of the other instructors to join him in the live stream on Twitch, answering the questions from students.

Overall, the course managed to engage the students and made it the favourite course of many, as evident from the recent course evaluations. It has also come to our attention that Steffen has implemented a similar approach in the other course he has been coordinating. He made the best from online teaching, going beyond Blackboard. Integrating the best tools, making the best course has shown himself as one of the best teachers.

Teaching team: Dr. Chris May
Course title: Biopsychology
Best practice: Student Development of an Open Educational Resource

Biopsychology featured what Chris May called a “Signature Project”, where in a team of 4 — 5, students created, composed, and curated an online portfolio dedicated to an interdisciplinary exploration of a topic of the group’s choice. The Project was to be grounded in neuroscience and incorporate peer-reviewed research.

All Signature Projects were then linked together by the instructor to create an open educational resource (OER). This Signature Project is an example of Open Pedagogy, in which the student is involved in creating an OER for their own and others’ benefit.

General Requirements:

• The Project must integrate at least two disciplines, with one of them being neuroscience. The other(s) can be anything else!
• The Project will be hosted online using a platform of the student’s choice, possible examples include Google sites, weebly, notion.so, padlet, wordpress, webador, and wix.
• Each student must write 1300 – 1700 words, excluding references. Thus, the length of the Signature Project for a team of 4 will be 5200 – 6800 words and for a team of 5 will be 6500 – 8500 words.
• Each student must review at least two peer-reviewed research articles in the Project, and will present one to the class.

Teaching team: Dr. Sepideh Yousefzadeh
Course title: Responsible Activism and Global Health
Best practice: The use of art and problem-based learning

The course Responsible Activism and Global Health is a 2nd-year course offered under the Responsible Humanity major of the bachelor programme Global Responsibility and Leadership at the University College Fryslân. It is an innovative course where problem-based learning is at the core to stimulate active and dynamic interactions among students, which is supported by peer-to-peer feedback and team exercises. The lecturer carefully monitors the learning process and interferes when required rather than passively providing knowledge. This unique pedagogical approach provides students space and encouragement to be the leaders of their own learning process and be creative in planning, contributing to, and finalizing assignments.

The creative process is further supported by the use of “art” in a final assignment, where students are invited to use art (e.g. visual arts, performance arts) for a social cause where they can exercise responsible activism. Workshops on how to use arts in this process are integrated in the course via the involvement of professional local artists. The course is therefore both inter and transdisciplinary with the integration of the disciplines of arts and global health, and the participation of non-academic experts.

Teaching team: Viktor Venhorst and Daniele Mantegazzi
Course title: Statistics
Best practice: Stimulating student belongingness 

The Faculty of Spatial Sciences is happy to nominate the statistics courses taught by Viktor Venhorst and Daniele Mantegazzi. Our bachelor students follow two statistics courses during their first and second years. The students consider the statistics courses quite demanding; especially, during the previous COVID-19 periods. Nevertheless, the lecturers are able to provide clear and well-structured course designs for their students resulting in consistently good course evaluations.

Despite statistics being a challenging course, due to its excellent management, communication, and integration of various elements these courses are a great example of what a best teaching practice can be. Furthermore, the teachers understand that during busy and challenging (COVID-19) times students need extra stimulation, encouragement, and support. An example of this is sending students personal emails when they passed their statistics course to congratulate them after a resit. Active use of Nestor to remind students of attending the lectures or to apply for computer practicals or by sharing ‘golden tips’ are highly appreciated.

Teaching team: Dr. T.M. Nawar

Best practice: Time travel through humour (and reading primary sources)

Tamer Nawar is a devoted and highly skilled lecturer. He stimulates students to think, and then think again, using his own philosophical acumen and attention to crucial detail as an example. The practice for which we have wanted to award him the Best Practice in Teaching & Learning award expresses this general teaching skill. Over the past years, Tamer has been the initiator and guide of a conversion of our history of philosophy teaching, towards the study of primary texts by close-reading and classroom interactions; this has led to a universally acclaimed reorientation in our bachelor curriculum.

Rather than using secondary sources to provide pre-processed and broad overviews, Tamer teaches by familiarizing the students with the words that were written by ancient philosophers themselves, thereby opening a world of thought that to our modern mindset is alien, almost other-worldly, while at the same time universally human and recognizable. He provides a point of entry to the often complicated thought processes of people who lived many centuries ago. An indispensable method for this experience of time-travel is, perhaps surprisingly, humour: by showing how the ancients were playful in their thinking, how their puzzlement and curiosity are deeply funny, he brings back to life even the most austere and venerable thinkers of old.

Teaching team: Dr. Erin Wilson, Dr. Tina Otten, Linde Draaisma, Henk van Putten
Course: Climate Change, End Times, Sustainability
Best practice: Preparatory podcasts, real-life discussions in a blended environment

This course focuses on climate change and religion in an interdisciplinary setting. The main goal is to discuss with students what the different theological, religious, philosophical, and spiritual traditions are with regard to climate change and eschatology. The focus lies on the five world religions’ perspectives on these themes, as well as additional philosophical and ethical perspectives. Students learn to develop their own arguments and vision for sustainability and to evaluate different approaches to the climate crisis.

The course achieves these goals by presenting a weekly podcast to students which the teaching team has made together with scholars from many different disciplines, in addition to weekly readings, presentations, and a policy plan and essay where students argue their own perspectives. This course is unique in its combination of topics, a student called it “the most interesting course I have ever followed”, and because of the interdisciplinary background of both the teachers and the students, it was named this “eye-opening course”. The preparatory podcasts together with the real-life discussions provided an accessible and fun blended learning environment that gave students the tools to start thinking about topics they had never even considered before.

Teaching team: Elisabetta Costa, Antenor Hallo de Wolf and Bartjan Pennink
Course title: MA International Humanitarian Action
Best practice: Viking simulation

This simulation exercise is based on the Viking 11 simulation exercise, developed by the Folke Bernadette Academy - the Swedish agency for peace, security and, development - in collaboration with Swedish Armed Forces. Moreover, the exercise has been moderated and altered by the NOHA Management assignments during some rounds we did run the simulation.

The simulation exercise takes students to the imaginary country of Bogaland, in which civil war, social stratification, perceived injustice, an unequal provision of public services, and different religious beliefs hold sway over daily functioning of the country. In 2010, a Cease Fire Agreement was signed between warring factions belonging to the chief Bogaland provinces: the Kasurian provinces and the Mida provinces. But don’t be mistaken: to date, 402.000 people are still unaccounted for. These people are not registered in either one of the provinces or neighboring countries. Also, statistics are still very unreliable and many people are still on the move because of the unstable situation that lasts, even despite the CFA.

This unstable situation is what students will be looking into. Students will dive right in when dealing with their first assignment. During this simulation exercise, the pace is high and the situation changes rapidly!

Teaching team: Dr R. van der Ploeg and T. Kretschmer
Course title: Youth and Social Development 
Best practice: Flipped classroom

This course has successfully implemented the idea of the flipped classroom. The intention is that students will actively engage with the material, creating a good understanding of the subject matter and promoting their academic attitude. This has been successful. Another important aspect is that the course has made an important contribution to the realization of connection among students and between students and the program. This is extremely important, particularly under corona conditions, both for student learning and for their well-being.

Teaching team: Steffen Eriksen
Course title: Asset Pricing and Capital Budgeting
Best practice:  Blended learning 

Steffen Eriksen took a completely different direction when it came to fully online teaching. As the coordinator of this course, he would stream his lectures live on Twitch. This provided a whole new layer to interactive teaching and personalization. After the stream ended, the lectures would be edited, and later uploaded on his YouTube channel for students to watch again. All the weekly practicals took place on a customized Discord server Steffen had created, where students would meet online, talk and write to each other, or talk and write with the student assistants who were present on the server as well. The server also served as a contact point between the teachers, coordinator, and students assistants. For the Q&A/review session, he would invite one of the other instructors to join him in the live stream on Twitch, answering the questions from students.

Overall, the course managed to engage the students and made it the favourite course of many, as evident from the recent course evaluations. It has also come to our attention that Steffen has implemented a similar approach in the other course he has been coordinating. He made the best from online teaching, going beyond Blackboard. Integrating the best tools, making the best course has shown himself as one of the best teachers.

Teaching team: Aline Klingenberg and Jasper Verstappen 
Course title: IT Law Active Learning Classroom
Best practice: Active learning through community education

Changes in IT law mean that, in addition to a solid knowledge base, an IT lawyer must also be able to interpret technological and social developments. Future skills are indispensable. That is why we have chosen the principle of active learning through community education. 

The Privacy & Data Protection master's course is one of the first users of the Active Learning Classroom. This core course provides a solid legal foundation. Through the special lecture room (TEO), current developments are discussed in an open atmosphere, and assignments from practice are made. In Law, ICT, and the Circular Economy, students are challenged to apply knowledge in a technological context. Weekly group presentations, combined with peer feedback, make dialogue a common thread running throughout the course. A final paper lets students apply their knowledge and insights from these conversations to innovative technology and socially relevant questions. 

Students feel involved in their education and current social developments through this education. This best practice contributes to the responsible development of emerging technologies and ensures that the programme is ready for the demands of the future. The growing number of IT Law alumni in image-defining positions shows that this program plays an important social role.

Teaching team: Prof. dr. Liesbeth Veenhoff, Anton Steen, Maarten Linskens and others
Course title: Molecular Biology of Ageing and Age related diseases
Best practice: Integration of scientific writing, active listening and peer feedback

Ageing can be defined as the gradual loss of the ability of the organism to maintain homeostasis. This course focuses on the molecular and cellular mechanisms by which tissue and organ function deteriorate and homeostasis fails, resulting in ageing and age related disease. The course evaluates to what extent the up-to-date knowledge on molecular biology provides opportunities for interventions, also when considering what is learned from evolutionary theories of ageing. It presents the model systems and experimental strategies that are used in ageing research.

This course is supported by a team of specialists in different fields of ageing that will provide lectures and reading material. The course will be further supported by materials from an online course "Why do we age? The molecular mechanisms of ageing". The course not only gives an overview of the research field of ageing but also teaches scientific writing, active listening and giving feedback to peers.

Teaching team: N. El-Baz, Dr. M.M.M. Gresnigt, Drs. F. Schuring, Dr. M.J.G. van Heuvelen 
Best practice: E-Learning Modules 

In the curriculum development of our medical programmes, both student representatives and the programme leaders identified a greater need for extra support in the form of dynamic and adaptive content. In 2016, this led to the start of an e-learning team, which started developing e-learning principles, frameworks, and content.

E-learning opened a new door for learning: microlearning – a form of learning in which small learning units are periodically offered to students. Students can compose personal learning paths, in which the content is tailored to their needs. An e-learning module can be developed in multiple variants, to establish interprofessional interaction. Lecturers can also develop their own e-learning module by means of our own low-threshold authoring tool Versatest. The comprehensive set of tools allows for quizzes, videos, and other forms of content visualization. The modules are very accessible: they work on PCs, tablets, and phones, and most are available in multiple languages. The content is modularly organized so that the revision process can be safeguarded. Furthermore, user data collected from the modules can be used to improve the quality of the courses.