Society and (higher) education have changed rapidly in recent decades. For example, since knowledge has become more volatile, life-long learning has become increasingly important. Higher education itself has been subject of change in the last decade as well. Particularly in the wake of social-constructivist theories, many institutes have transformed their learning approach to a model in which students are involved in different activities at different moments. Thus, student populations are becoming more heterogeneous. For example, they have different tutoring needs. This leads to an increasing workload for teachers. At the same time, students have changed in their expectations. A young generation of students, who grew up with ICT embedded in their daily lives, have become used to the almost instant availability of knowledge and accessibility of people through the internet. The aim of this research paper is to propose a solution for the extensive and diverse tutoring needs that have arisen in these novel societal and educational settings. Peer tutoring is indicated to be a promising replacement for teacher guidance in certain contexts. An important problem in its implementation, however, is how peers should be matched and how the tutoring itself should be organised. Instant messaging is proposed as a possible vehicle for solving these problems. Our study focuses on developing a system for automated allocated peer tutoring through instant messaging. A first version of the system was made available to two groups of students, one in distance education, the other in regular education. A selection of students participated in interviews, providing data on the feasibility and acceptance of this implementation of allocated synchronous peer tutoring. The interview data indicate that students are positive towards system-allocated peer tutoring, but that the context in which it is implemented is crucial.
Society and (higher) education have changed rapidly in recent decades. For example, since knowledge has become more volatile, life-long learning has become increasingly important. Higher education itself has been subject of change in the last decade as well. Particularly in the wake of social-constructivist theories, many institutes have transformed their learning approach to a model in which students are involved in different activities at different moments. Thus, student populations are becoming more heterogeneous. For example, they have different tutoring needs. This leads to an increasing workload for teachers. At the same time, students have changed in their expectations. A young generation of students, who grew up with ICT embedded in their daily lives, have become used to the almost instant availability of knowledge and accessibility of people through the internet. The aim of this research paper is to propose a solution for the extensive and diverse tutoring needs that have arisen in these novel societal and educational settings. Peer tutoring is indicated to be a promising replacement for teacher guidance in certain contexts. An important problem in its implementation, however, is how peers should be matched and how the tutoring itself should be organised. Instant messaging is proposed as a possible vehicle for solving these problems. Our study focuses on developing a system for automated allocated peer tutoring through instant messaging. A first version of the system was made available to two groups of students, one in distance education, the other in regular education. A selection of students participated in interviews, providing data on the feasibility and acceptance of this implementation of allocated synchronous peer tutoring. The interview data indicate that students are positive towards system-allocated peer tutoring, but that the context in which it is implemented is crucial.
From the article: "Whilst the importance of online peer feedback and writing argumentative essays for students in higher education is unquestionable, there is a need for further research into whether and the extent to which female and male students differ with regard to their argumentative feedback, essay writing, and content learning in online settings. The current study used a pre-test, post-test design to explore the extent to which female and male students differ regarding their argumentative feedback quality, essay writing and content learning in an online environment. Participants were 201 BSc biotechnology students who wrote an argumentative essay, engaged in argumentative peer feedback with learning partners in the form of triads and finally revised their original argumentative essay. The findings revealed differences between females and males in terms of the quality of their argumentative feedback. Female students provided higher-quality argumentative feedback than male students. Although all students improved their argumentative essay quality and also knowledge content from pre-test to post-test, these improvements were not significantly different between females and males. Explanations for these findings and recommendations are provided"
MULTIFILE
The HAS professorship Future Food Systems is performing applied research with students and external partners to transform our food system towards a more sustainable state. In this research it is not only a question of what is needed to achieve this, but also how and with whom. The governance of our food system needs rethinking to get the transformative momentum going in a democratic and constructive manner. Building on the professorship’s research agenda and involvement in the transdisciplinary NWA research project, the postdoc will explore collective ownership and inclusive participation as two key governance concepts for food system transformation. This will be done in a participatory manner, by learning from and with innovative bottom-up initiatives and practitioners from the field. By doing so, the postdoc will gain valuable practical insights that can aid to new approaches and (policy) interventions which foster a sustainable and just food system in the Netherlands and beyond. A strong connection between research and education is created via the active research involvement of students from different study programs, supervised by the postdoc (Dr. B. van Helvoirt). The acquired knowledge is embedded in education by the postdoc by incorporating it into HAS study program curricula and courses. In addition, it will contribute to the further professional development of qualitative research skills among HAS students and staff. Through scientific, policy and popular publications, participation in (inter)national conferences and meetings with experts and practitioners, the exposure and network of the postdoc and HAS in the field of food systems and governance will be expanded. This will allow for the setting up of a continuous research effort on this topic within the professorship via follow-up research with knowledge institutes, civic society groups and partners from the professional field.
The automobile industry is presently going through a rapid transformation towards autonomous driving. Nearly all vehicle manufacturers (such as Mercedes Benz, Tesla, BMW) have commercial products, promising some level of vehicle automation. Even though the safe and reliable introduction of technology depends on the quality standards and certification process, but the focus is primarily on the introduction of (uncertified) technology and not on developing knowledge for certification. Both industry and governments see the lack of knowledge about certification, which can ensure the safety of autonomous technology and thus will guarantee the safety of the driver, passenger, and environment. HAN-AR recognized the lack of knowledge and the need for novel certification methodology for emerging vehicle technology and initiated the PRAUTOCOL project together with its SME partners. The PRAUTOCOL project investigated certification methodology for two use-cases: certification for automated highway overtaking pilot; and certification for automatic valet parking. The PRAUTOCOL research is conducted in two parallel streams: certification of the driver by human factors experts and certification of vehicle by technology experts. The results from both streams are published and presented in respective but limited target groups. Also, an overview of the PRAUTOCOL certification methodology is missing, which can enable its translation to different use-cases of automated technology (other than the used ones). Therefore, to realize a better pass-through of PRAUTOCOL's results to a broader audience, the top-up is required. Firstly, to write a (peer-reviewed) Open Access article, focusing on the application and translation of PRAUTOCOL's methodology to other automated technology use-cases. Secondly, to write a journal article, focusing on the validation of automatic highway overtaking system using naturalistic driving data. Thirdly, to organize a workshop to present PRAUTOCOL's results (valorization) to industrial, research, and government representatives and to discuss a follow-up initiative.
