Six UG lecturers to receive the Comenius grant!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.