Programme

Workshop - MicroLab - Open Educational Resources

Location: ALC 1314.0142 (Harmony Building)

Presenters: Frederiek van Rij (Educational Support and Innovation), Martijn Blikmans (University Library), Mira Buist-Zhuk (University Library)

Free, high-quality, and adaptable materials that both educators and students can freely access, reuse, and improve are already abundant, and their supply is only rising. But, how do you find them and integrate them into your course in a logical and effective manner?

In this MicroLab, you will discover what Open Educational Resources (OER) are, where you can find them, and why they have the potential to transform your courses. With a map of your own course in hand, you’ll have time to explore the possibilities for how OER can enhance your teaching.

If you are an educator interested in levelling up your course through greater student engagement or are simply frustrated with the limited options available due to the copyrighted status of the textbook you use, this MicroLab is perfect for you.

Experts from ESI and UB will provide you with information and support, and you’ll not only learn about OER but will also work to integrate them into your teaching. After this workshop, you will have a deeper understanding of the potential of openly licensed materials.

Please note that this session has its own, separate sign-up form.

Opening: Keynote - Transdisciplinary Education for Shaping Responsible Futures

Location: Senaatskamer, Academy Building

Presenter: dr. ir. Klaasjan Visscher  is a teacher, researcher and educational innovator who works on innovation processes in organizations and society. He is co-chair of the ComeniusNetwork. His current research and teaching focuses on transdisciplinary innovation and education and the embedding of new technologies in organizations and society. Klaasjan won a Comenius teaching fellowship with an educational role-play simulation on the societal embedding of new technologies and a senior fellowship on transdisciplinary and responsible challenge-based education. Further, he is a research fellow at DesignLab and Programme Director of the Transdisciplinary master-insert 'Shaping Responsible Futures', which won the Dutch Higher Education Award 2022. 

Transdisciplinary education has great potential for shaping a future generation of responsible change-makers. While working on grand societal challenges in local contexts, students learn to collaborate with other students, practitioners, and societal stakeholders from different backgrounds. Moreover, they develop a growing awareness of the value, values, and limitations of their own discipline, the disciplines of others, and the experiential and local knowledge developed outside academia. Designing, implementing, and embedding transdisciplinary education is challenging for teachers and other educational innovators. This keynote sketches an outline of transdisciplinary education, shares experiences from the Shaping Responsible Futures program (winner of the Dutch Higher Education Award 2022), and poses many unanswered questions.

Live-stream Best Practice Awards Ceremony

Teaching Academy Groningen has the pleasure of hosting the Best Practice Awards Ceremony. Rector Magnificus prof. dr. Cisca Wijmenga will personally award the winners during the Ceremony that will end the first day of the Education Festival 2023.

To register, please fill out the registration form at the top of this page.

Keynote - Educational Logistics: Getting to Know What Students Need

Location: Harmony Building, Expositieruimte

Presenter: dr. Jan Riezebos, professor in Educational Innovation at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Groningen and Academic Leader of the Teaching Academy Groningen. He was awarded the national Comenius Leadership Fellowship in 2022 for a university-wide project on inclusive education.

Students need a learning environment that allows them to explore, develop, and learn. But what they need differs due to the increasing diversity among students. Lecturers need to respond to this increasing diversity but face severe challenges in order to do so. This keynote will explore these challenges and discuss how educational logistics may help to support them in getting to know what their students need.

To register, please fill out the registration form at the top of this page.

Workshop - Creating Value Of Student Diversity Through Teaching Innovations: Kick-off Comenius Leadership Fellow Project

Location: Van Swinderen Huys, Glazen zaal

Presenters: Dik Maandag (UG Senior Policy Advisor), Jellina Timmer (educational advisor & trainer), Rina de Vries (Educational Development Officer of Diversity and Inclusion)

In this session, we present the Comenius Leadership Fellow Project ‘Creating value of student diversity through logistical innovations.’  The aim of our project is to develop tools and training to support teachers in managing and benefiting from student diversity in their courses. To achieve this aim, we need input from the teachers themselves.

We would like to inform you about the project and learn from you what is needed. What dilemmas or problems do you as a teacher encounter? What kind of training would you prefer? Also, what recommendations of good practice can you give? We hope to welcome you to our session!

To register, please fill out the registration form at the top of this page.

Workshop - First Steps To Decolonising The Curriculum

Location: Harmony Building, Marie Loke Zaal

Presenters: Iva Pesa (Assistant Professor in Contemporary History), Milena dos Santos-Bendixen (BA student in History), Sepideh Yousefzadeh (Assistant Professor of Global Health), Donya Ahmadi (Assistant Professor of International Relations)

What does it mean to decolonise your curriculum? Would you want to? How would you even start?

In this interactive workshop, diverse teachers from a variety of disciplines will showcase how they approached this question. Students will share their perspectives on the decolonised version of a curriculum and its impact on their studies. Structured peer discussion will identify the main challenges and solutions, leading to a clear path for taking the first steps to decolonise your curriculum. This session is applicable to teachers, program managers, and anyone involved in curricula work.

To register, please fill out the registration form at the top of this page.

Online session - From Learning Communities To Living Labs?

Location: online (link will be provided)

Presenter: Katya Byelova (project leader of the Learning Communities at the Faculty of Economics and Business) and Denise Leidelmeijer (project manager WIJS)

The topic of this online session is the ongoing transition from Learning Communities to Living Labs at the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB). Learning communities at FEB are extracurricular activities, mostly in cooperation with external organizations, that give students the opportunity to dive deeper into a topic of their interest, or gain more insights and relevant skills. Living labs, while partially overlapping with the concept of learning communities, focus even more on real-life challenges and multi-stakeholder participation.

In this session, we share current experiences in the context of extracurricular activities (based on the example of recent LCs) and inspire new interdisciplinary collaborations within and beyond FEB.

Join this session If you would like to learn more about the concept of Learning Communities/Living Labs and perhaps start one yourself (potentially in collaboration with FEB)!

To register, please fill out the registration form at the top of this page.

Workshop - Assessment And Feedback Across Cultures

Location: Harmony Building, Expositieruimte

Presenters: dr. Rob Bakels (Chair of the UMCG Committee for Language and Culture), dr. Grazyna Drzazga (Faculty Development Consultant and trainer), Estelle Meima (Curriculum Developer), and Catherine Meissner (Curriculum Developer)

Educationalists claim that the goal of assessment is to demonstrate learners' achievement and, in this way, guide them in their learning journey. For students, on the other hand, assessment often feels like a trial of whether or not they are smart, talented or even suitable for a profession they have chosen. If a student is unfamiliar with the Dutch assessment standards, their reaction to the assessment, its results, and feedback might be very strong.

In this round table discussion, the participants will be invited to share their experiences with several aspects of assessment and feedback, which may be challenging for students from other cultures, such as the form of test questions (MCQs, open-book, open questions), the Dutch grading system, and ways of giving feedback. The main goals are to share best practices and gain more insight into what we can do to meet diverse student needs.

To register, please fill out the registration form at the top of this page.

Workshop - Fostering Student Well-Being and a Sense of Belonging in Your Teaching

Introducing the Community of Practice Well-Being @ the UG

Location: Van Swinderen Huys, Glazen zaal

Presenters: prof. dr. Joke Fleer is a talent track professor in Health Psychology (UMCG), focused on stress management and personal development in (PhD) students. She is also a Leader of TAG's Community of Practice Well-being.

During this session, we will introduce our community of practice and share the work we have done so far. Expect an interactive session, in which we showcase some practical tools for teachers. For instance, the ‘Sense of Belonging Toolkit’, with concrete ideas on what you can do as a teacher to increase your students’ sense of belonging. Another useful tool that we will present is our overview of educational interventions that faculties of the UG already have implemented to improve their students’ well-being and that they are willing to share. Next to that, we do want to take some time to discuss the role of the teacher in fostering student wellbeing: where does our responsibility start and where does it end?

The well-being of students and staff is a concern for all faculties of the UG. We, as the community of practice Well-Being @ the UG, want to contribute to the well-being of students and staff of the UG, by creating a breeding ground for educational knowledge and expertise that helps to create a culture of well-being at the UG. After the session, there will be time to have a drink to get to know each other better. We invite you to join us!

To register, please fill out the registration form at the top of this page.

Keynote - AI-ssistence In The Classroom: Why The Future Will Be Wild, No Matter What

Location: Zernike Campus, Duisenberg, 5433.0209B

Presenter: dr. Simon Friederich is an Associate Professor at the University College Groningen. His areas of expertise are philosophy of science, epistemology and risks and sustainability.

Unless you have lived under a rock for the last few weeks, you have heard people talk about ChatGPT, the “Large Language Model” by OpenAI that is sending shock waves through higher education. Students – and teachers – can use it to create all sorts of writing. That includes cheating on homework in ways that teachers cannot detect.

If you’re a teacher who wonders why such a disruptive thing was created in the first place, what may be coming next, and how you could react, then this talk is for you.

Besides reviewing what ChatGPT is, I will do two things: First, I will discuss what OpenAI is really up to. What’s their vision? What are they working on now? And what’s coming next for academia?

Second, I will share some thoughts about how we might react to these challenges, for now. This is actually far from clear: Because these systems are so transformative, the skills that our students will need on the job market are going to change. It makes no sense to try to just keep what we have and just make it more cheating-proof. My hunch is that a combination of embracing what’s coming with completely keeping it out seems the best strategy. But I’m also curious to hear your ideas!

To register, please fill out the registration form at the top of this page.

Workshop - Striking Successes & Fabulous Failures in Blended Learning

Location: Zernike Campus, Duisenberg, 5433.0209B

Presenter: dr. Benjamin Bewersdorf is a tutor and senior lecturer at the University College Groningen and currently leading the Community of Practice for Blended Learning at TAG.

Did you ever experiment with using technology as part of your teaching and are very proud of the result? Or did you have an exciting idea for the use of technology in teaching that turned out to completely flop in practice? Both are stories worth sharing!

For this workshop, you will bring and share your favorite story on teaching with technologies and hear from others.

During the workshop, we will have open floor discussions on your ideas and give feedback to each other. When you leave, you will know more about teaching with technology and have more suggestions to make your ideas work in your own courses.

Let your stories inspire others, let yourself be inspired, and let us work together to turn fabulous failures into striking successes.

To register, please fill out the registration form at the top of this page.

Online session - Where Teaching and Research Meet (TAG meets YAG)

Location: online (link will be provided)

Presenters: dr. Naomi de Ruiter (YAG Interdisciplinarity Working Group) in collaboration with dr. Marline Lisette Wilders (TAG Community of Practice Leader Interdisciplinary Education)

A teacher on Monday, a researcher on Tuesday? Would you like to merge your split identity more in your daily practice as an academic?

In this online session, we will present the outcomes of a discussion between the Young Academy Groningen (YAG) and TAG concerning the question ‘how can research and teach feed into each other (more) in a way that benefits both research and teaching?’ We will present best practices and ideas, but also obstacles to do so, generated during a lunch-workshop between the YAG Interdisciplinarity Working Group and the TAG Community of Practice Interdisciplinary Education.

To register, please fill out the registration form at the top of this page.

An educational expedition into new A.I. Territory

Location: Zernike Campus, Duisenberg, 5433.0209B

Presenters: Jetse Goris is a teacher who pioneered a human-centred design approach to innovating health care and medical education at the University Medical Center of Groningen. His work culminated in the founding of the UMCG Innovation Support Center.

For whom? Students, academic teachers, and education experts. Calling all explorers for an educational expedition into new A.I. territory. In 2022 Teachers and students alike, forayed into the Terra Incognita of Artificial Intelligence for education. The expeditions into the lands and tribe of OpenAI’s ChatGPT gathered a lot of attention.

This afternoon we will share stories of our first explorers. We will learn from insights from previous expeditions into neighbouring technological territories like teaching and learning online and active learning classrooms. We will explore the different ways in which AI tools can be applied to amplify the strengths of our Academic Education. We will learn more about our own ways, values and Academic culture through our interaction with foreign A.I. artefacts. We will end this leg of the expedition by discussing how the values, intentions and interests of commercial Tribes like OpenAI match our own.

What will this Educational Expedition offer you?

• Deepen your knowledge about the possibilities and risks of A.I. in academic education.
• Learn about the new A.I. tools for education from experts and fellow travellers.
• Inspiring ways of looking beyond just the technology: We’ll discuss values, the intent of designers (of AI tools) and the reflective opportunities new technology offers.

Feeling adventurous? Join us on 29 March for an educational expedition into new A.I. territory!

To register, please fill out the registration form at the top of this page.

Keynote - Academic Culture and Well-Being: Exploring Well-being in Academia From a Systemic Perspective

Location: Harmony building, 1314.0026

Presenter: dr. ir. Salome Scholtens is a UG teacher and trainer on personal and professional development focusing on the development of competencies needed for successful collaboration.

Recently, students who gave a presentation on their group work told me that the project was running behind because the whole group suffered from ‘academic burnout’. Nowadays, most academic teachers have experience with students suffering from stress-related complaints. There are many publications evidencing high study- and workload, and mental health problems within academia. Therefore, well-being has become a focus of our university, a Taskforce well-being has been put in place and many faculties have appointed a well-being officer.

More broadly within academia, there is an increasingly loud call for a shift towards an academic culture that fosters well-being. However, what does academic culture have to do with an individual’s well-being and burnout? What should the university do to create a culture that fosters well-being? During this keynote lecture, we will explore well-being in academia from a systemic perspective and especially investigate together our beliefs about our academic culture. The session invites the participants to share and reflect on their ideas about well-being and gives them the opportunity to broaden their perspective on academic well-being.

To register, please fill out the registration form at the top of this page.

When students become teachers: Putting the Teaching into Teaching Assistants

Location: Harmony Building, 1315.0049

WORKSHOP FOR TEACHING ASSISTANTS

Presenter: Irene Douwes-van Ark is an educational developer and a PhD-student, researching the academic development of university teachers.

Are you a teaching assistant or will you become one in the future? Do you want to gain some knowledge and practical skills in how to become a better teacher? Then this workshop is meant for you!

In this workshop, we will discuss some basic principles of good teaching. Derived from theory, you will learn some practical skills on how to engage and activate your students in the classroom.

Workshop - Scholarship for Education - Applying Insights From Educational Research

Location: Jantina Tammeszaal (University Library)

Presenters: dr. Maaike Engels (educational researcher, advisor & trainer, TAG grant coordinator), Helena Barachino (PhD student TAG), Piermarco Consiglio (PhD student TAG)

Do you want to improve your teaching practice in an evidence-based way, but lack inspiration on how to do it? Or do you want to apply insights from educational research, but do not know where to start? Join our workshop!

In this workshop you will get inspired by examples of research in higher education and learn how to apply this to your own teaching. For instance, what are research principles for educational intervention testing? What is wellbeing and what intervention can you use to improve students' well-being? What works and why?

During the workshop, we will have two Pecha Kucha presentations and two rounds of activities where you learn how to apply the insights to your own teaching practice.

Get ready to learn, share, discuss and connect educational research with your teaching!

To register, please fill out the registration form at the top of this page.

Online session - Is English Always Inclusive: Multilingualism In The Classroom

Location: online (link will be provided)

Presenters: dr. Aurélie Joubert is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Arts, where she teaches Language and Society (in French). She specialises in the topic of French language policies. Estelle Meima is a Curriculum Developer connected to the University of Groningen. Her focus is English language testing & assessment.

In this session, we would like to encourage a conversation on challenging the monolingual mindset in the classroom. While speaking one language in the classroom has its communicative advantages and is considered to be the manner to integrate a population or reach a wide audience, recent research shows that English does not automatically equal inclusivity. At the same time, facing the demands of a globally connected world through the medium of English, educational institutions need to reflect on the growing linguistic diversity and variety of linguistic competence that students bring with them to the classroom. Research has also shown that teachers who acknowledge the students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds foster better learning. This change of approach can be initiated top-down with clear institutional language policy, and also bottom-up, starting in classroom practices. The session will end with sharing the best practices as regards linguistic diversity classroom management and a reflection on the need to review institutional language policy.

To register, please fill out the registration form at the top of this page.

Workshop - Participatory Theatre – Embodying Your Pathway as a Teacher

Location: Harmony building, 1314.0026

Presenter: Marco de Carvalho Filho is an internal medicine specialist and clinical teacher at the UMCG. He is passionate about medical education and active methodologies and is deeply influenced by Critical Pedagogy and The Theatre of the Oppressed.

Have you ever had a troublesome experience as a teacher? A situation that left a taste of “I could do better”? Would you like to come back to that situation and try it again? Augusto Boal, a Brazilian dramaturg engaged with the ideas of critical pedagogy, understood theatre as a rehearsal for life; the stage as a safe space to engage in meaningful reflections on our reality and enact social change. In the last ten years, a group of educationalists, doctors, and actors have been working on a methodology based on participatory theatre to nurture the professional identity of diverse groups, including teachers.

In this workshop, we will showcase this methodology by exploring the role of emotions in delivering and receiving feedback. The session will invite you to exercise your body and mind, engage with improvisational games and prepare a scene based on your lived experiences. The activity will end with a debriefing and discussion about how to implement this technique in different contexts.

To register, please fill out the registration form at the top of this page.

Poster Presentations & Closing Drinks

Location: Academy Building, Bruinszaal

Host: prof. dr. Jan Riezebos, Academic Leader TAG

Good educational ideas are at the core of our festival. During the poster afternoon on Thursday 30 March, the ideas of our UG colleagues will take the spotlight. In the period leading up to the festival, everyone could send in their innovative educational ideas during our call for proposals. These proposals will be featured at the festival, where you can discuss them with their authors. A visit to the poster market is a tour exploring the innovative educational approaches our university has to offer. The poster market will be the festive ending of the Education Festival and a chance to visit a brand new UG building: the House of Connections. The closing event will provide an opportunity to not only discuss the past week full of events but also grab a bite and a drink with your colleagues!

To register, please fill out the registration form at the top of this page.

Education Day ‘Inspire and Connect’ at the Faculty of Economic and Business

Location: Duisenberg, Zernike Campus: Plaza + Skibril + Blauwe Zaal

All UG staff interested in educational innovation is cordially invited to FEB’s Education Day ‘Inspire & Connect’ on Thursday 30 March 12:45-16:00, followed by drinks in the Duisenberg Plaza till 17:00. During the event you can visit several inspiring rounds of presentations and discussions highlighting education innovations, including AI, serious gaming and diversity in teaching. The exact programme of the event and the registration form will follow soon.