Are you passionate about finding out how university teachers can be best supported to redesign and innovate their own education? And what the effects of such redesign processes are on what happens with the learning and learning outcomes of students, as well as the professional growth of the teachers themselves?
Then this vacancy might just be something for you!
Recently, Wageningen University and Research (WUR) decided to implement a new Learning Management System (LMS), called Brightspace. This implementation brings the opportunity for teachers to innovate and adapt their courses. On the one hand by using new options provided by the LMS, and on the other hand by tackling challenges and bottlenecks they encounter. For example, as a result of growth in numbers and diversity of the student population, new demands emerging from the new educational vision of the university (encouraging for more active and self-directed, flexible learning) and emphasis on new skills and content. The university has decided to support such innovation via a so-called Redesign Lab. The Redesign Lab brings teachers of multiple courses that seek to radically innovate their courses together. They follow a series of steps, starting from analysis of the current situation, via goal formulation to actual implementation, in which they regularly meet in a small professional community, added with support staff and educational experts. The process of the Redesign Lab and the resulting processes and outcomes with both students and teachers will be intensively monitored and evaluated. Different research methods are anticipated in order to achieve this, for example observation of Redesign Lab sessions of professional community groups, analyses of created course materials and the use of LMS functionalities, interviewing various stakeholders in the process, and potentially other available data. The evaluation aims to deliver various outcomes, such as:
- sets of recommendations for teachers and support staff,
- inspiration for teachers to innovate their courses,
- tools for teachers and other stakeholders,
- and scientific outcomes such as a report and potential journal publications.
The evaluation study is the aim of the proposed postdoc project. The ELS chair group conducts the study, and the project resides under the 4TU Centre for Engineering Education, that disseminates and stimulates educational innovation in the wider 4TU context. As postdoc, your supervision lies by senior staff of ELS.