The institutional adoption of learning analytics in the Netherlands is still low. This chapter presents a study on the challenges that Dutch higher educational institutions encounter when adopting learning analytics. The literature describes possible challenges regarding assets, data governance, data literacy, data quality, organizational culture, pedagogical grounding, privacy and ethics, and technical issues. Eight interviews with practitioners from four universities verified that all these challenges are causing problems for Dutch institutions as well. The practitioners provided recommendations on how to overcome these adoption challenges. Higher educational institutions need to demonstrate the value of learning analytics, provide users with training, clearly identify users' needs, and establish a ‘one-stop-shop' that acts as a single contact point within the organization. Combined with recommendations already present in the literature, this helps accelerate the successful adoption of learning analytics by Dutch higher educational institutions.
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A survey conducted in 2012 among publicly financed higher education institutions in the Netherlands revealed a growing awareness of the strategic relevance of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Education. However, hardly any policy or strategy related to OER and Open Education had been formulated by any of the higher education institutions involved. At the same time, most of the institutions expressed a need for a strategic approach of OER and Open Education. To meet this need, SURF, the collaborative organisation for ICT in Dutch higher education and research, and more particularly its Special Interest Group on OER, gave ten Dutch higher education institutions the opportunity to assist in developing a strategic approach of OER and Open Education, organising strategy workshops. Every workshop was tailored to the specific needs and problems of the institution concerned. To be able to do so, an approach had been formulated which started with a semi-structured interview. The objective of this interview was to find out why the institution had decided to participate in the workshop and what it wanted to achieve, and to identify the driving forces within the institutions for conducting the workshop. The next step was to design the workshop. This was done in close cooperation with the institution concerned. The third part of the process was conducting the actual workshop. In the last phase, findings and conclusions were formulated. Almost all participating Dutch higher education institutions were inclined to formulate a strategic view on OER and Open Education. The workshops have provided detailed insights into the perceptions and expectations of Dutch higher education institutions involved with regard to OER, MOOCs and Open Education. One such insight is that although most participants are aware of the existence of OER, MOOCs and other forms of Open Education and feel some sense of urgency, many of them do not have any idea how to apply these concepts in their own institutions, let alone know where to start. Another insight is that many of the people who attended the workshops did so because they felt that their institution should develop MOOCs. In most cases it turned out that by discussing the pros and cons of MOOCs as well as the (in)appropriateness of other forms of Open Education for their institutions, the participants developed a broader view of Open Education. In this article the process and approach followed will be presented, as well as lessons learned and conclusions drawn. We conclude that the strategic workshops can be considered a success, thanks to the effectiveness of a tailor-made programme embedded within a fixed process framework. The positive attitude and willingness to share knowledge on the part of the participants contributed greatly to the results. One prerequisite for success is that various sections from the institution participate in the workshop, and that a range of perspectives be presented. The importance of a neutral platform as a basis for an open discussion must not be underestimated.
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Public higher education institutions (PHEIs) have widely acknowledged a positive relationship between internationalization and their institutional competitive advantage enhancement. Although some concerns have been raised by practitioners and researchers about whether institutional competitive advantage can be enhanced given the current ways of pursuing internationalisation, surprisingly this relationship has not yet been investigated. This study aims to define this relationship with the empirical data collected through 73 interviews at 16 Dutch PHEIs. This research contributes to the current education literature in three areas. First, this study provides evidence that internationalisation has been seen by the majority of interviewees as the means by which universities gain a competitive advantage and enhance their overall performance in the local and global competition. Second, three foundations have been identified upon which this relationship is established. Third, the data analysis along the sector and job functions gives new insights into how research universities and universities of applied sciences view this relationship differently, and where the gap is between the senior management level and faculty level in enhancing their competitive advantage through internationalisation.
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Energy transition is key to achieving a sustainable future. In this transition, an often neglected pillar is raising awareness and educating youth on the benefits, complexities, and urgency of renewable energy supply and energy efficiency. The Master Energy for Society, and particularly the course “Society in Transition”, aims at providing a first overview on the urgency and complexities of the energy transition. However, educating on the energy transition brings challenges: it is a complex topic to understand for students, especially when they have diverse backgrounds. In the last years we have seen a growing interest in the use of gamification approaches in higher institutions. While most practices have been related to digital gaming approaches, there is a new trend: escape rooms. The intended output and proposed innovation is therefore the development and application of an escape room on energy transition to increase knowledge and raise motivation among our students by addressing both hard and soft skills in an innovative and original way. This project is interdisciplinary, multi-disciplinary and transdisciplinary due to the complexity of the topic; it consists of three different stages, including evaluation, and requires the involvement of students and colleagues from the master program. We are confident that this proposed innovation can lead to an improvement, based on relevant literature and previous experiences in other institutions, and has the potential to be successfully implemented in other higher education institutions in The Netherlands.
Aeres University of Applied Sciences has placed internationalisation as a key driver in its overall strategy. By prioritising the internationalisation of education and educational consultancy the university has created solid opportunities for students, lecturers, and partners at regional, national, and international levels. Currently, more strategic development on internationalisation in applied research at Aeres is needed. There is an opportunity to utilise highly proficient researchers, state-of-the-art facilities, and an impressive national research portfolio, and for this, there is a need to develop international research agenda, a key priority for AeresResearch4EU. To address this need, Aeres University of Applied Sciences aims to strengthen its internationalisation efforts with its research activities, opening the door to many opportunities, and most importantly, creating an international research agenda spanning the university's three locations. The main objectives of AeresResearch4EU are to analyse the existing research strategy and professorships and develop them towards a global research agenda for the European Union. By focusing on international research projects, Aeres can further enhance its reputation as a leading institution for applied research in agriculture, food, environment, and green technologies. AeresResearch4EU aims to create new partnerships and collaborations with researchers and institutions across Europe, allowing Aeres to contribute to developing innovative and sustainable solutions to global challenges. With its strong commitment to internationalisation and its focus on applied research, Aeres University of Applied Sciences is poised to become an essential player in the European research landscape.
Collaborative networks for sustainability are emerging rapidly to address urgent societal challenges. By bringing together organizations with different knowledge bases, resources and capabilities, collaborative networks enhance information exchange, knowledge sharing and learning opportunities to address these complex problems that cannot be solved by organizations individually. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the apparel sector, where examples of collaborative networks for sustainability are plenty, for example Sustainable Apparel Coalition, Zero Discharge Hazardous Chemicals, and the Fair Wear Foundation. Companies like C&A and H&M but also smaller players join these networks to take their social responsibility. Collaborative networks are unlike traditional forms of organizations; they are loosely structured collectives of different, often competing organizations, with dynamic membership and usually lack legal status. However, they do not emerge or organize on their own; they need network orchestrators who manage the network in terms of activities and participants. But network orchestrators face many challenges. They have to balance the interests of diverse companies and deal with tensions that often arise between them, like sharing their innovative knowledge. Orchestrators also have to “sell” the value of the network to potential new participants, who make decisions about which networks to join based on the benefits they expect to get from participating. Network orchestrators often do not know the best way to maintain engagement, commitment and enthusiasm or how to ensure knowledge and resource sharing, especially when competitors are involved. Furthermore, collaborative networks receive funding from grants or subsidies, creating financial uncertainty about its continuity. Raising financing from the private sector is difficult and network orchestrators compete more and more for resources. When networks dissolve or dysfunction (due to a lack of value creation and capture for participants, a lack of financing or a non-functioning business model), the collective value that has been created and accrued over time may be lost. This is problematic given that industrial transformations towards sustainability take many years and durable organizational forms are required to ensure ongoing support for this change. Network orchestration is a new profession. There are no guidelines, handbooks or good practices for how to perform this role, nor is there professional education or a professional association that represents network orchestrators. This is urgently needed as network orchestrators struggle with their role in governing networks so that they create and capture value for participants and ultimately ensure better network performance and survival. This project aims to foster the professionalization of the network orchestrator role by: (a) generating knowledge, developing and testing collaborative network governance models, facilitation tools and collaborative business modeling tools to enable network orchestrators to improve the performance of collaborative networks in terms of collective value creation (network level) and private value capture (network participant level) (b) organizing platform activities for network orchestrators to exchange ideas, best practices and learn from each other, thereby facilitating the formation of a professional identity, standards and community of network orchestrators.
