dr. S. (Sake) Jager

An overview of the projects in which I am currently involved as project manager or assistant project manager is given below:

• Virtuele Internationale Samenwerking (VIS): VIS is an initiatief by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science to promote online collaborative learning. The funding and support programme is intended to give students in Dutch universities and universities of applied sciences the opportunity to engage in international experiences from the Netherlands, in a form where physical, financial, cultural or other conditions pose fewer or no obstacles for participation. Together with my colleagues Gerdientje Oggel and Juan Albá Duran I participate on behalf of UG in the consortium which provides the support and training programme on behalf of the ministry. As the coordinator Virtual Exchange in the Faculty of Arts, I am also the contactperson for participants and colleagues interested from the Faculty of Arts.

• Teaching and Learning Innovation Project: The T&LI project is an internal project in the Faculty of Arts to promote Active Learning, by increasing the informed use of technology, while at the same time contributing to reducing teacher workload. I am coördinator for Cluster 3, the cluster including the educational programs BA Communication and Information Studies, BA Information Science, BA Dutch Language and Culture, BA Minorities & Multilingualism, BA Linguistics, MA Communication and Information Studies, MA Dutch Studies, MA Linguistics, Research Master Linguistics, MA in Dutch Teaching and MA in Frisian Teaching. We are running the project along the lines of course redesign and teacher professional development. Website internal to cluster.

• EVOLVE : EVOLVE was an Erasmus+ Forward Looking Cooperation Project which aimed to mainstream Virtual Exchange (VE) as an innovative form of international learning in Higher Education institutions across Europe and beyond. As project coordinator and principal investigator of this project I was responsible for the overall planning and execution of tasks and deliverables in this project. 
  
  EVOLVE (Evidence-Based Online Learning through Virtual Exchange) was carried out by a consortium of universities (Groningen, León, Grenoble, Open University UK, Jan Dlugosz PL, Padova, Warwick, Malmö), two virtual exchange providers (Soliya and Sharing Perspectives Foundation) and two large university networks (Coimbra Group and Santander Group). 
  
  The project has provided an innovative online training and coaching programme (‘Co-Laboratory’) for university educators and other facilitators planning to design and integrate VE in their courses. For recognition of competences and skills acquired, a digital certification system was implemented based on the Open Badges standard. The training was offered to the participants in Europe and beyond. The impact of the implemented VEs was measured through state-of-the art research targeting outcomes at learner and educator level. The project results and findings have been shared with policy and decision makers in universities, university associations and national and European policy networks, thus raising awareness for VE and contributing to establishing it as an innovative educational practice.
  
  The project was run from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2020. All the results have been made available as Open Access on the website for the project https://www.evolve-erasmus.eu. 

• ENVOIE : ENabling Virtual Online International Learning. UG eLearning project to develop online international exchange as university-wide practice.  Participation by professors and associate professors from all faculties in UG. Support by education supporters, intercultural communication trainers and eLearning experts from the faculties, Educational Support and Innovation. In the second phase, the project was also responsible for coordinating the VIS-initiative (see above)
  Website: https://www.rug.nl/envoie.
  
  
• Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange : Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange was the European Commission’s flagship programme which aimed to expand the reach and scope of the Erasmus+ programme via Virtual Exchange, that is: technology-enabled, sustained, people-to-people dialogues which use new media platforms -
  involving young people from Europe and the South Mediterranean. I was involved in this project as a board member of UNICollaboration, a professional organisation for telecollaboration and virtual exchange.
  Website: https://europa.eu/youth/erasmusvirtual_en. The project provided online international experiences to almost 30.000 youth and students across Europe and beyond.

• Pro Active Language Learning (PALL): A UG project aimed at designing new language teaching modules for each language in the department of European Languages and Cultures. The modules are based on a shared vision of teaching and use a common set of learning outcomes and language teaching and assessment methods in which the same or similar technologies are used across the board for each language. 

Previous projects:

• e-Learning pilots RUG: From 2013 the University of Groningen has initiated several e-Learning projects. I am involved with:
  • From Pick Axe to Pixel: This project aims to develop a 3D learning environment in the Archeology programme. Students will be engaged in virtual field work with archeological objects presented in 3D, enriched with research data, information about archeological methods, theories and definitions. Principal teacher/researcher is Jorn Seubers.
  • Flipping classroom project Conversation Analysis 1: A flipped classroom model is used to show how researchers carry out analyses of transcribed video data in practice. The project is part of the course Conversation Analysis 1 of the Communication and Information Science and Dutch programmes. Principal investigators are prof. dr. Tom Koole and dr. Myrte Gosen. Project manager for ICTOL André Rosendaal.
  • MOOCs LTABS and Euroculture: Two massive open online courses (MOOCs) are being prepared in the Faculty of Arts. The first, LTABS (Language testing during awake brain surgery) is carried out in the European Master’s in Clinical Linguistics programme, under supervision of prof. dr. Roelien Bastiaanse. The second is carried out in the Euroculture programme together with European partners. It concerns themes around European identity and Europeness. Principal investigators are prof.dr. Janny de Jong and dr. Senka Neuman-Stanivukovic. Both projects are managed by drs. Tom Spits (ESI),
  • International collaboration tasks language and culture: European Languages and Culture students carry out tasks in the foreign language through online communication (telecollaboration) with peers from partner universities.  The tasks are intended to enhance language proficiency and intercultural competences, and to prepare students better for their stay abroad. This form of teaching has been implemented as a structural element in the European Languages and Cultures programme.  Coordinator: drs. Gerdientje Oggel.
  • Joint support for collaborative e-Learning tools: In this e-learning pilot we have acquired knowledge and experience with different kinds of collaboration tools to be used in education. Several tools, including Blackboard Collaborate, Google Hangouts, Skype and Adobe Connect, can be used for online teaching and learning (webinars, videoconferencing, etc.). More information: Dr. Sake Jager.

EUROCALL2014: In 2014, I organised this large international conference on computer-assisted language learning, together with my colleagues Marjolijn Verspoor and Estelle Meima and Mariska Pater (Groningen Congresbureau). Proceedings are available through my publication list.

• X@m! / Implementation of digital testing: As of 2012-2013 digital testing is introduced as a test facility for all faculties of the University of Groningen. Blackboard (Nestor) and QMP are used; in addition, we try to accommodate other forms of online testing. We have at our disposal a testing hall with 288 desktops. From April 2012 to September 2013, I was project manager of this project for the department of Education Support and Innovation of the CIT.

• Idem Dito: A university-wide project in which we have explored suitable digital testing systems for the University of Groningen. Recently completed. I was project manager of this project.

• SpeakApps: We are developing applications for synchronous and asynchronous video conversation on the web. In Groningen we develop modules for Dutch as a foreign and second language. I am responsible for the pilot programme.

• INTENT: We are developing a platform which supports teachers and students in setting up and executing collaboration tasks on the web. Together with colleagues from partner universities I am drafting the functional specifications for the platform. Program development is done by the British Open University.
• EU-VIP: The development of implementation strategies and tools for virtual support of international internships. Together with the Placement Office, and the departments of NOHA, Euroculture and Journalism, I have developed procedures and modules for improving (international) placements. This complemented the project INTERN (see below).

• EMBED: How can we use ICT in standardizing writing assessment on the basis of the CEFR? I was manager of this project.

• INTERN: Project of the Faculty of Arts in which we have improved online support of internships. In addition to modules in Blackboard (Nestor), we have developed an application in which interns can maintain their placement details online.

• ETCetera: Several grassroot projects in the ETC department (European Languages and Cultures). I support several teachers in projects in which students collaborate with foreign students through Skype (see also INTENT).

A list of all ICTOL projects can be found here.