The importance of professional skills in future engineering jobs is beyond discussion. Increasing numbers of universities have integrated training for such skills in their engineering curricula to prepare students to become highly qualified employees. HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht also implemented professional skills training in the IT Bachelor program to help our students develop towards successful and highly demanded IT engineers. However, these courses consistently score low in our student satisfaction surveys. To find the cause of this negative evaluation, we previously studied the motivation, attitude and anxiety of IT students towards learning soft, or professional, skills. This former quantitative study indicates that our IT students tend to have a positive motivation and attitude toward learning professional skills, while ’anxiety’ in learning professional skills increases from the first to the third year. In this qualitative study, we try to find causes for the increasing anxiety among IT students. We interviewed six third and fourth year IT students and after analysing these interviews we found that these students have experienced the need for professional skills during their internship. Besides, they emphasize the need of obtaining these skills for future employment. From the analysis of the interviews, it also appears that IT students rather felt difficulty in obtaining communication skills then anxiety. A possible cause for this difficulty mentioned by students was the character of students and the influence of the teacher. To overcome this difficulty obtaining communication skills, students suggested that training skills in an authentic engineering situation is more effective than doing exercises with simulated cases. However, the results of this study did not yield a conclusive insight in the cause of increased anxiety, hence further research is needed.
Information about a research study on how data science and artificial intelligence can contribute to modern education aimed at identifying and developing talents of students. Het verslag is gepubliceerd onder de titel: Future skills of journalists and artificial intelligence in education
Purpose: This paper aims to present the findings from a European study on the digital skills gaps in tourism and hospitality companies. Design/methodology/approach: Mixed methods research was adopted. The sample includes 1,668 respondents (1,404 survey respondents and 264 interviewees) in 5 tourism sectors (accommodation establishments, tour operators and travel agents, food and beverage, visitor attractions and destination management organisations) in 8 European countries (UK, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands and Bulgaria). Findings: The most important future digital skills include online marketing and communication skills, social media skills, MS Office skills, operating systems use skills and skills to monitor online reviews. The largest gaps between the current and the future skill levels were identified for artificial intelligence and robotics skills and augmented reality and virtual reality skills, but these skills, together with computer programming skills, were considered also as the least important digital skills. Three clusters were identified on the basis of their reported gaps between the current level and the future needs of digital skills. The country of registration, sector and size shape respondents’ answers regarding the current and future skills levels and the skills gap between them. Originality/value: The paper discusses the digital skills gap of tourism and hospitality employees and identifies the most important digital skills they would need in the future.
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Digital transformation has been recognized for its potential to contribute to sustainability goals. It requires companies to develop their Data Analytic Capability (DAC), defined as their ability to collect, manage and analyze data effectively. Despite the governmental efforts to promote digitalization, there seems to be a knowledge gap on how to proceed, with 37% of Dutch SMEs reporting a lack of knowledge, and 33% reporting a lack of support in developing DAC. Participants in the interviews that we organized preparing this proposal indicated a need for guidance on how to develop DAC within their organization given their unique context (e.g. age and experience of the workforce, presence of legacy systems, high daily workload, lack of knowledge of digitalization). While a lot of attention has been given to the technological aspects of DAC, the people, process, and organizational culture aspects are as important, requiring a comprehensive approach and thus a bundling of knowledge from different expertise. Therefore, the objective of this KIEM proposal is to identify organizational enablers and inhibitors of DAC through a series of interviews and case studies, and use these to formulate a preliminary roadmap to DAC. From a structure perspective, the objective of the KIEM proposal will be to explore and solidify the partnership between Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUas), Avans University of Applied Sciences (Avans), Logistics Community Brabant (LCB), van Berkel Logistics BV, Smink Group BV, and iValueImprovement BV. This partnership will be used to develop the preliminary roadmap and pre-test it using action methodology. The action research protocol and preliminary roadmap thereby developed in this KIEM project will form the basis for a subsequent RAAK proposal.
Het Hanze Innovation Traineeship Pilot project is geïnitieerd op de Hanzehogeschool Groningen door drie onderzoeksgroepen (lectoraten) die zijn ingebed in het Marian van Os Centre of Expertise Ondernemen (CoEO). De trainees worden gecoacht in een Community of Learners en begeleid door een diverse groep van onderzoekers van de volgende onderzoeksgroepen van de Hanzehogeschool Groningen: (1) International Business, (2) Marketing/Marktgericht Ondernemen en (3) User-Centered Design. Het doel van het programma is om regionale MKBs in Noord-Nederland te ondersteunen om duurzaam te innoveren met de hulp en ondersteuning van trainees en onderzoekers van de drie onderzoeksgroepen. De trainees worden begeleid bij het ontwikkelen en implementeren van een door onderzoek ondersteunde innovatie tijdens een afstudeerproject en een 12-maanden durende traineeship bij het bedrijf. Bij de start van het programma ondergaan de MKBs een innovatie-gezondheids-check die wordt herhaald nadat de traineeship is afgerond. Over het algemeen zouden de bedrijven hun bedrijfsprestaties en innovatiecapaciteit moeten kunnen verbeteren door middel van het programma. Verder zal de onderzoekssamenwerking tussen de onderzoeksgroepen van de Hanzehogeschool en de MKBs leiden tot een beter inzicht in innovatiebarrières en succesfactoren. De opgedane kennis over regionale MKB-innovatie zal in alle sectoren en industrieën worden geprojecteerd. De uiteindelijke projectresultaten zullen dienen voor het besluitvormingsproces van toekomstige innovatie traineeship programma's
The key goal was to further develop, secure and disseminate knowledge and concepts concerning the role of high realism in Virtual Reality. It followed the Digital Media Concept professorship to create and examine the effects of high quality worlds and characters in VR. Key focus was on the effect of high versus low realism in (existing and non-existing) digital environments as well as digital characters and avatars (digital representations of human users) and embodied agents (digital representations of computer programs that have been designed to interact with, or on behalf of, a human). This means on the one hand getting better equipment and skills to digitize and create high realistic avatars in VR. And on the other hand this means that a better understanding of the concept of realism and quality is needed. This encompasses a whole range of terms that varies from realistic resemblance, to high fidelity appearance and (real-time interactive and authentic) behaviour based on high AI programming. Research showed that very important is congruency in realism between elements within a VR world. Furthermore it showed that high realism is not always needed to stimulate ‘real’ (VR) behaviour. High immersive experiences and impulse behaviour also functions in virtual environments that have lower levels of realism. Studies have been conducted within the field of health, entertainment, advertising, architecture and journalism. An example is the VR game Descend, see link (used to examine the effect of realism through resemblance).Partners: Radboud University, Enversed, Stanford University, University of Oregon, Cornell University, several companies
