Over the past few decades, education systems, especially in higher education, have been redefined. Such reforms inevitably require reconsideration of operational notions and definitions of quality, along with a number of related concepts. This reconsideration aligns with the core of higher education reforms: improving efficacy and compatibility with emerging social demands while adapting to competitiveness and accountability trends. As primary players in the teaching and learning process, online tutors have a protagonistic role and, therefore, must be equipped with a suitable set of competencies and attributes in addition to content knowledge. This quantitative research aims to analyze the perceptions of 250 online tutors working in European higher education institutions, distributed in 5 knowledge areas: Business, Education, Humanities, Sciences and Health. This descriptive and exploratory nonexperimental study reveals the technological and pedagogical skills and competencies that online tutors consider fundamental for effective online teaching and proposes professional development actions to ensure quality online teaching.
The current way of organizing education is not tenable in the coming decade. We need to address how we teach, how we organize schools, how we increase the effectiveness of learning, how we construct classrooms, and how we deploy new technologies. Lean management philosophy has been successfully applied across many industries – from manufacturing to healthcare, financial services, and construction. Recently, interest in Lean has steadily increased in the education sector, as it was originally introduced in that area’s administrative and support processes. Currently, the introduction of Lean and its potential in education is gaining wider exposure because of massive looming changes – for example, the introduction of technology in education (as EdTech within the traditional system and as MOOCs), demographic changes, budget pressure, new pedagogies, the entrance of more and more private providers, and changing demands of society and industry on the curriculum. What is missing is a joint framework that will allow schools, teachers, directors, and boards to harness the potential of these developments and then execute a strategy. Lean Education (LE) offers the potential to streamline the execution of strategy and teaching. It accelerates the development of new courses and studies that are closely aligned to the needs of students. It supports the integration of new technologies without overburdening teachers and staff. Lean in the Classroom brings all these elements together into a coherent framework so schools can make necessary changes in one concerted effort. Teaching, professional support, managing the daily work, and changing the way schools function are brought together as a schoolwide strategy to organize learning in a way that serves our students by making the most of their talents. This book is the first to define LE in all its aspects: course design, actual teaching and learning processes, school management, and the organization of supporting processes. It is firmly based on the Lean management philosophy in conjunction with pedagogy. The book draws on both scientific research in the field of Lean management in general and Lean education in particular. In addition, it is predicated on many years of hands-on experience applying Lean both inside and outside the education sector.
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31-12-2019The consortium would like to contribute to structural reduction of post-harvest and food losses and food quality improvement in Kenyan avocado and dairy value chains via the application of technical solutions and tools as well as improved chain governance competences in those food chains. The consortium has four types of partners: 1. Universities (2 Kenyan, 4 Dutch), 2. Private sector actors in those chains, 3. Organisations supporting those chains, and 4. Associate partners which support category 1 to 3 partners through co-financing, advice and reflection. The FORQLAB project targets two areas in Kenya for both commodities, a relatively well-developed chain in the central highlands and a less-develop chain in Western-Kenya. The approach is business to business and the selected regions have great potential for uptake of successful chain innovations as outcome of research results. The results are scalable for other fresh and processed product chains via a living lab network approach. The project consists of 5 work packages (WPs): 1. Inventory , status quo and inception, 2. Applied research, 3. Dissemination of research outputs through living lab networks, 4. Translation of project output in curricula and trainings, and 5. Communication among partners and WPs. The applied research will be implemented in cooperation with all partners, whereby students of the consortium universities will conduct most of the field studies and all other partners support and interact depending on the WPs. The expected outcomes are: two knowledge exchange platforms (Living Labs) supported with hands on sustainable food waste reduction implementation plans (agenda strategy); overview and proposals for ready ICT and other tech solutions; communication and teaching materials for universities and TVETs; action perspectives; and knowledge transfer and uptake.
The Hanzehogeschool Groningen (HUAS hereafter) is a University of Applied Sciences that is strongly inspired by the challenges of the North Netherlands region and firmly embedded in the city of Groningen in particular. HUAS has a strong track record in education, and practice-based research, and is dedicated to enhancing innovation and entrepreneurship. HUAS currently has 31,000 students Bachelor and Master students in 70 teaching programs. The 3.000 member of staff forming 17 schools and 7 centres of applied research collaborate to offer a cutting-edge teaching-based research. HUAS took the challenge to develop a strong research capacity with 67 professors, and an increasing number of researchers at various levels, supported by dedicated technical and administration support staff. PhD research thesis are co-supervised in collaboration with various universities in the Netherlands and abroad. HUAS positions itself as an Engaged and Versatile university, both in education and research. In line with this, the overall strategic ambitions of HUAS are to develop suitable learning pathways with recognised qualifications; to conduct applied research with a visible impact on education and society; and to be an adaptive, versatile and approachable organisation. HUAS links these strategic ambitions to three strategic research themes: Energy, Healthy Ageing and Entrepreneurship and four societal themes: strengthening a liveable and sustainable North Netherlands; transition to a healthy and active society; digital transformation; and energy transition and circularity. These four challenges define the focus of HUAS education and research.One of the societal themes is explicitly linked to the region: strengthening a liveable and sustainable North Netherlands. North Netherlands is a powerful, enterprising region with the city of Groningen as the healthiest city in the Netherlands. The region is a front runner in the energy transition, has a European exemplary role in the field of active and healthy ageing, and as an agricultural region, has many opportunities for the development of the circular economy and consequently the development of biobased construction material to mitigate climate change. Cooperation with different groups and stakeholders in the region is central in HUAS’s strategy. HUAS is part of extensive local and regional networks, including the University of the North and Akkoord van Groningen. As such, HUAS is well- connected to the research ecosystem in North Netherlands.HUAS has the ambition to better align, connect & develop on a local as well as a regional, national and international levels. Many of the challenges the North is faced with are also relevant in the EU context. Therefore, HUAS is a strong advocate and actor on engaging in European projects. HUAS monitors regularly the EU’s priorities and aligns its research between these priorities and its immediate societal needs. The EU provides a range of funding opportunities that fulfil our ambition as a research and teaching university and responds directly to our challenges from social, energy, and digital transformation. Indeed, over the last decade, HUAS has been successful in European programmes. In the Horizon 2020 programme, HUAS was part of five approved projects. In Horizon Europe so far two projects were granted. HUAS has performed particular well in the EU societal challenge for a secure, clean and efficient energy system. Examples of this are Making City (https://makingcity.eu/) focussing on the developing Positive Energy Districts, and IANOS (https://ianos.eu/) about the decarbonisation of islands. In addition to EU research and innovation schemes, HUAS has a considerable track record in projects funded by the Interreg schemes. In particular, these types of projects have strong links with region, and partners in the region. Currently, EU participation and involvement of HUAS is mainly concentrated in one field: sustainability & energy. In order to further disseminate to other parts of the university, only a well-designed strategy will allow the various research centres to better reach European fundings and satisfy the university’s ambitions. However, so far, no structured mechanism is in place internally to guide the research community and regional stakeholders how to reach European collaboration with confidence. Therefore, this pilot project aims to develop a strategic framework to enhance the participation of all parties at HUAS, including a pilot project that will lead to improvement and validation.
Business relations between Brainport organisations and their partners based in China have been growing rapidly. This postdoc project explores the Sino-Dutch corporate communicative strategies in the intercultural and geo-political context. Adopting discourse analysis and design-based research methods, the research aims to develop effective communication strategies for organisations in Brainport. Probing the geo-political, intercultural and digital challenges, the project provides a framework and insights in terms of corporate communication in the intercultural settings. Based on the results, the publications, the teaching activities, and the public talks, this research will generate future research leads and more societal discussions on the interplay between intercultural and business communicative strategies. Furthermore, this research engages the teaching activities through lectures and workshops at Fontys School of Business and Communication. Engaging the students in various learning activities, I will encourage the learning groups to participate and experiment in a hybrid learning environment at Fontys. I will lead a research project team in our minor China and World Economy, and encourage the learning group to participate and experiment in a hybrid learning environment at Fontys.
