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Six UG lecturers to receive the Comenius grant!

05 July 2023

Five lecturers from the University of Groningen were awarded a Comenius grant. The Comenius programme plays a vital role in enhancing higher education in the Netherlands. The grant empowers education professionals to directly implement their innovative ideas in teaching. The program has three distinct grants: Teaching Fellow, Senior Fellow, and Leadership Fellow.

Awarded projects

It is an utmost pleasure to congratulate our colleagues who succeeded with their Comenius grant application! Out of nine applications submitted on behalf of the University of Groningen, five were positively assessed. In the 2023 Comenius round, the following projects were awarded: 

Dr ir. Pablo Druetta (FSE) - Teaching Fellow - “Improving the teaching of computational fluid dynamics courses in lecture rooms by means of virtual reality tools”

Computer simulation techniques have improved the way we do and teach engineering in the last decades. These tools have however a drawback: the visualization of a 3D world in 2D screens. Many students have faced this problem, trying to understand the complex physics at the same time they tried to elucidate what was displayed in the blackboards. This leads to a passive learning process and an increase in drop-out rates. Our proposal aims at tackling this problem by means of VR tools, which will ease the visualization and learning process as well as create an active learning environment.

Dr Koen Van Benthem and Dr Thomas Hackl (FSE) - Teaching Fellow - “Teaching coding effectively through interactive formative assessments”

Data science proficiency is a vital skill in industry and academia. State-of-the-art data analysis requires coding, which has a steep learning curve for many students. We will implement a platform to which students in the biostatistics 1 and 2 courses can submit solution scripts. Upon submission, the platform will provide immediate automated individual feedback to the student. This will allow students to improve their analysis through multiple rounds of feedback, independent of teacher availability. Furthermore, it will allow teachers to adjust the course in real time based on an analysis of the submitted scripts and associated feedback.

Dr Liga Klavina (FBSS) - Teaching Fellow - “Access Academic Skills: removing obstacles in the first-year learning community course”

Access to education, as a precondition for a diverse student body, ensures equity and talent utilization. About 30% of the students experience obstacle(s), may it be spaces, materials, group processes, or the academic culture. Learning communities (LCs) allow to provide accessible and inclusive learning experiences. To enable all students can make the most of the benefits of LCs and to increase access to ‘Academic Skills’, the obstacles need to be understood and reduced, using students’ input and evidence-based approaches. This project offers tools to reduce obstacles and to enable educators to manage diversity, increase accessibility and inclusiveness.

Dr ir. Erik Meijles (FSS) - Senior Fellow - “Building student confidence by voluntary formative progress testing”

With this project, we stimulate students’ insight into their learning development and their self-confidence through progress testing at the programme level. We expect to increase student retention of knowledge and skills. Student can view their progress in comparison to programme learning outcomes, their previous results and their peers’ results on an informative dashboard. A second dashboard provides insight into the progress of specific student groups for educational managers and educators. We will share our experiences and the developing process with other educational institutions through open-access output.

Dr Ruby Otter-Drost (UMCG) - Senior Fellow - “Exercise = Medicine: Interdisciplinary learning communities for applied exercise physiology”

Exercise is important for a healthy lifestyle, but this is not easy for everyone. Healthy exercise may be a challenge for the elderly, but also for athletes who exercise a lot. In the Netherlands, physicians and human movement scientists have the expertise but there is no common approach or education in applied exercise physiology. In this Comenius project, we will develop an academic program for students, teachers and professionals in multiple disciplines to learn together about healthy exercise in two subsequent learning communities. This creates a better connection between education and the professional field for the application of Exercise=Medicine.

Congratulations

We would like to extend our congratulations to all colleagues who applied for the Comenius grant in the 2023 round. We wish all laureates good luck with the implementation of their projects. We are looking forward to seeing the effects of their work being applied in the classrooms.

Interested in applying?

The University of Groningen is proud of putting forward innovative and competitive projects each year. If you are considering applying for a Comenius fellowship or other grants available at UG, please consult the Teaching Academy Groningen grant support services. If you are interested in joining the Comenius writing group and receiving help with your application for the 2024 round, please register using the button below!

Last modified:06 July 2023 09.57 a.m.
View this page in: Nederlands

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