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This s paper discusses collaboration between teachers in project-based learning (PBL) environments in the engineering context. PBL is a challenging active learning methodology, not only for students but also for teachers. Challenges for teachers include, for example, the need to search for new knowledge demanded by the PBL project theme and the difficulty of aligning their own disciplinary area with interdisciplinary areas in a project. PBL compromises common assumptions of teachers, such as the considerable control over the classroom, reliance on their expert knowledge, predictable programmes to teach, the course assessment, the individual work, among others, whereas, probably, the most challenging aspect of PBL from a teacher perspective is teamwork of the teaching team. Teacher may well feel uncomfortable with sharing knowledge and being exposed and/or assessed by their students and peers. At the same time, PBL requires teachers to think about student achievement and success in first place instead of using more mono-disciplinary course based approach.In this paper, the authors will present evidence through literature review and experience in PBL contexts that such collaboration is highly recommended, if not mandatory, for the PBL success. The paper will also advocate that teacher collaboration is important as an example for students to engage in collaboration.Keywords:Engineering Education; teachers’ collaboration; Project-Based Learning (PBL).

In the Erasmus+ project EPIC, students from different degree programmes, degrees, universities and countries work together in groups on authentic problems for the industry. The goals of EPIC are to explore how this approach can increase students’ learning and make them better prepared for both national and international labour markets. As student numbers are relatively low, EPIC allows for experiments with different ways of project organisation, such as the number of students per group and the level of integration of their contributions. Students participate in an EPIC semester, bringing different characteristics into their project team. Their level, e. g. bachelor or master and first year of more advanced, the degree programmes they are enrolled in, e. g. technical programmes, creative programmes or busines programmes, and the amount of time they invest in the project is different for each student, apart from the country of their university and their own (cultural) background. Especially with the students coming from different backgrounds and educational traditions, it is crucial to prepare them for effective and efficient groupwork during the EPIC semester. To support this, a platform called MECEPIC was developed that combines different features: exploring and outlining the background of each participating student and the added value of each student for the project, the project management and a peer assessment system that allows for reflection on the contribution of each individual student to the joint outcomes of the project. This paper aims to evaluate the use and the impact of the platform. An analysis of the data on project management and peer assessment as filled out by the students in the platform shows that it contributed to a more focused starts of the students as a team, streamlining the project and staying in control of the project deliverables and also showed that the peer assessment requires a strong involvement of supporting teachers and/or tutors. &nbsp

The present study is concerned with the modularization of courses in engineering education, in particular mathematics modules in/for physic education, at a Dutch university of technology. One of the project objectives is to develop and validate a framework to support teachers with their modular course design; another to provide supporting tools for students to navigate through a modularized system. This paper draws attention to the first stage of the project, which focuses on a state-of-the-art literature review regarding modularization. After a thorough literature review conducted in a systematic manner, with specific keywords, all relevant research papers were categorized under the following three dimensions: instructional activities and learning materials for modular courses; assessment procedure; and supporting systems needed within modular systems. According to the results from selected countries (e.g. UK, Ireland, Australia, Netherlands, and Germany), we have chosen to highlight those where modular system experiences were shared from the point of new instructional methods and learning materials created. Another group of articles were concerned with feedback mechanisms and assessment tools used in the modular courses. The last group concentrates on the ways how both students and instructors are supported in a modular system. This study reports on an overview of articles in terms of the three key criteria required to develop and validate a framework to support teachers at TU/e with their modular course design.

Although cultural diversity of students is inspiring, teachers need to consider the variation in educational and cultural backgrounds as well as the different characters of the students. One strategy can be the application of student-centred learning. However, this may affect students that have been accustomed to different teaching strategies. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to assess the appreciation of international students for different teaching methods. A survey and a workshop were held to ask students for their experiences with different teaching methods before coming to ITC, their appreciation of student-centred learning, and to determine personal character traits. We found that differences between nationalities were rather small, although there were some suggestions that there are differences in attitude between individuals from different continents. The workshop revealed that teachers should better explain and justify their teaching methods as students do not always understand the reason why certain teaching methods are chosen. Besides, with a mixed group of cultures, teachers must stay aware that students sometimes prefer to give polite rather than honest indications on their learning.

A blueprint for challenge-based modular on-demand digital education (CMODE) was designed to: (a) provide students with a challenge-based learning environment that is learning-centered, rather than teaching-centered; (b) change the teacher’s role from lecturing and knowledge providing to guiding, coaching and motivating; and (c) to provide on-campus contact hours that are complementary to an online learning environment. These goals of CMODE are formulated to increase student motivation for learning by providing them with additional freedom and responsibility, while aiming to exploit the potential advantages of challenge-based and blended learning. Based on this blueprint, a pilot program was created in 2019 for the bachelor Mechanical Engineering course ‘Dynamics and Control of Mechanical Systems’ at Eindhoven University of Technology. A practical challenge was created, which could be completed by handing in six deliverables. The online learning material consisted of six theory modules—aligned with the six challenge deliverables—that contained short weblectures, examples, quizzes and exercises. Finally, a new format for on-campus contact hours was implemented to improve complementarity with regards to the online learning environment. Using a questionnaire and the student evaluations, in combination with the exam and challenge grades, we evaluated how CMODE affected students’ learning and motivation. Preliminary results show better grades than the previous year, while students mention that they feel more motivated to stay on track with their learning.

The main challenge for the new generation of international geo-information specialists is to provide accurate, relevant, and actionable spatial information services to society. Consequently, educators need to organize their education in such a way that students students not only to master content, but also acquire essential skills and competencies to collaborate, communicate, and think in a critical, creative, and innovative manner. The concept of Challenge-based Learning (CBL) provides a flexible and effective educational framework for finding a collaborative solution to real-world, open-ended, technology-driven challenges in interdisciplinary teams. A perfect example of a task that our students will face in their professional life, is providing adequate geo-information services to application fields outside of their expertise. At the Faculty Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, University of Twente, the classrooms are highly international (from 75% to 100% non-European) and from multiple application fields. MSc students are highly motivated, especially when they can tackle challenges linked to their home countries. By operationalising the CBL concept we want to enable students to co-define their learning path, to enhance 21st-century skills in an international classroom, and to exchange experience with peers and experts, while acquiring essential domain knowledge. In spring 2020, we will embed a CBL approach in an online elective called “Weather Impact Analysis”. In this concept paper, we show how, by using the CBL approach, students obtain deep domain knowledge and skills, while at the same time they acquire 21st-century skills necessary to succeed in a rapidly changing society.

Programming tutorials are self-regulated learning activities where students are responsible for their own work pace and learning experience. They are working on programming assignments under supervision of teaching assistants (TAs), where help seeking is an essential skill. Especially, the ability to formulate specific questions contributes to higher test results. In addition, the likelihood of seeking help can be increased by electronic measures, as it is perceived as less threatening. During programming tutorials at the University of Twente the queue management system TA-help.me is used. In order to improve the quality of the learning process, this system was expanded by the following features: 1. Students had to choose a category to which their question belongs. 2. Students had to formulate their question or select a previously asked question. The extentions resulted from a Creative Technology Design process. For evaluation, quantitative data were gathered to measure the quality of the help seeking of students and the acceptance of the tool. Furthermore, TAs were interviewed to check if the tool improved the efficiency and quality of the help seeking and giving. The data indicate that the amount of improvident help seeking reduced, the categories were perceived as useful by the students. Furthermore, adding categories to the questions offered the TAs the opportunity to select topics and to spread their attention more effectively. Typing out the questions did, however, not increase the amount of more specific questions asked. Future research includes how to guide students to ask better questions.

To be able to contribute to societal challenges, engineering students need to learn how to interact with societal stakeholders and incorporate their viewpoints in technology development. This proves to be difficult, especially when it concerns newly emerging technologies, which are characterized by uncertainty and ambiguity. This paper presents a novel educational method – Theatrical Technology Assessment – which combines insights from Constructive Technology Assessment and improvisational theater in a role-play simulation that enables engineering students to explore the socio-technical dynamics and alternative futures of emerging technologies. This method is tested with bachelor students at the University of Twente. Students were involved as players of the role-play simulation, but also as co-designers and role-instructors. The pilot study corroborates that a role-play simulation is a powerful means for students to learn about the complexity of societal interactions around emerging technologies. They learn about differences in stakeholder perspectives and ways to anticipate or transcend these, and about general patterns in socio-technical dynamics.

Universities are embracing 'challenge-based learning' (CBL) to engage students in contributing to real-life societal challenges. In CBL learning takes places through identification, analysis and collaborative design of sustainable and responsive solutions to these challenges. One aspect of CBL is working in interdisciplinary student-teams. Hence, implementation of Interdisciplinary Engineering Education (IEE) is sought, with the aim to train students to bring together expertise from different disciplines in a single context. To support this implementation of IEE, this paper presents a review that synthesizes IEE research with a focus on characterizing vision, teaching practices, and support. We aim to show how IEE is conceptualized, implemented and facilitated in higher engineering education at the levels of curricula and courses. Ninety-nine studies were included for analysis. Results indicate challenges in identifying clear learning goals and assessments (Vision). Furthermore, developing interdisciplinary skills, knowledge, and values needs sound pedagogy and teaming experiences that provide students with authentic ways of engaging in interdisciplinary practice (Teaching). Finally, a limited understanding exists of barriers that hinder the development of engineering programs designed to support interdisciplinarity (Support). This review contributes a level of awareness that allows teachers and educational leadership to take the next step towards interdisciplinarity in CBL.

In the Netherlands, there has been a shortage of qualified technical workforce for many years. This is not only due to the number of students entering engineering degree programmes, but also due to the number of graduates that leave engineering right after their graduation. Around 42% of the engineering graduates does not start working in an engineering job after graduating. Professional identity is a key concept in understanding the study and career choices that students and alumni make. The project Bridge the Gap is aimed at understanding how professional identity (PI) of engineering students develops over time during and after their studies. Part of this project is a study on PI development from an early age on. In order to understand what experiences in life have shaped their study and career choices, life history interviews were carried out with both alumni that stayed as well as alumni that left engineering after their graduation, 13 in total. Life history research is a form of narrative research that is about comprehending the complexities in decision making in the daily life of an individual in order to get insight in a collective experience of a group. The nature of the collected data enables us to have a critical look at assumptions about study and career choices of engineering student and alumni, rather than allowing for generalizable conclusions. This paper describes the value of LHR for understanding professional identity development and career choices in engineering education.

The bachelor programmes at the University of Twente are designed as a series of thematic modules each centred on a project supported by disciplinary units. Ideally, a mathematics course included in a module is linked with other units and is related to the project, thereby encouraging interdisciplinary ways of thinking. Typically, firstyear mathematics courses are largely decoupled from the projects as they are taught to many programmes simultaneously. To explicitly link the service mathematics to other fields, they include the option of contextualized and scaffolded exercises which we call “Cases”. To achieve this explicit link, the design of any Case requires lecturers to communicate to align with both project and mathematical topics, as well as support in the roster. Most Cases were developed in the period 2014-2016. Meanwhile, both the mathematics courses and the modules have evolved, and some programmes dropped Cases altogether. These developments lead to the question of whether their design and use support the intended role and add value. We evaluate each Case on alignment with the relevant mathematics course, alignment with the module and its design, highlighting Biomedical and Civil Engineering examples. We also determine whether the modules still incorporate it and, if not, the reason for exclusion. Preliminary data suggests that their design and use unevenly support the intended role of the Cases. Preliminary conclusions suggest certain Cases need a redesign, but also cause us to reflect on the existence of the need that the Cases are supposed to be meeting.

In The Netherlands, much stronger implicit and explicit gender stereotypes of science and engineering professions prevail than in other countries. Compared to 66 investigated nations, The Netherlands scores highest on gender-stereotypical images of science and engineering and lowest on influx of female students in STEM bachelors. To increase the number of students opting for science and engineering studies, many actions have been taken, one of which is the option to choose a Research and Design track at specific secondary schools (the O&O track at the Technasium schools). Although such efforts have resulted in a higher percentage of girls choosing a STEMoriented track in secondary school, still only 27% of the girls that start a BA university program enrolls in a STEM-study. Possible reasons for this may relate to the implicit and explicit gender-stereotypical attitudes that prevail in The Netherlands and to a lack of female STEM role models. In this paper, we present the results of a qualitative interview study with pupils and teachers from Research and Design tracks at different secondary schools in The Netherlands. Results show that even in the Research and Design tracks at secondary school, pupils and teachers seem to be unaware of the importance of explicating the low influx of female STEM students and its relation to implicit gender stereotypical images and a lack of female role models. As a consequence, very few female STEM role models are provided to pupils and little conscious effort is put into countering potential gender stereotypes and stimulating girls to choose for science and engineering.

Feedback can improve the learning process and enhance student achievement. Assessing student work and providing feedback can be done by either teachers, students themselves, or peers. Due to an increasing number of engineering students, teachers lack time to provide students with sufficient feedback. On the other hand, students should acquire skills related to providing and receiving feedback. The implementation of peer feedback could therefore be a fruitful solution. Peer feedback is known as the process in which students evaluate their peer’s performance based on pre-determined evaluation criteria. When implementing peer feedback, students can get more, more frequent, and faster feedback as opposed to teacher feedback. Furthermore, peer feedback can enhance learning for both the assessee as the assessor. In this study, twelve university teachers gathered in a Professional Learning Network to increase their knowledge and thoughtful decision making with regard to implementing digital peer feedback. Student numbers ranged from 20 to 250. Goals for teachers were both related to their own time (e.g. large group, feedback more often) as well as to students’ learning (acquiring feedback skills, getting inspired by reviewing each other’s work, better understanding of success criteria). Key features of the implementation were clarifying learning intentions and success criteria. Evaluation with teachers and students reveal that implementing peer feedback is valuable learning experience for students. Teachers especially valued participating in a multidisciplinary PLN, hands-on activities, and sharing experiences with each other.

Ethical reflection is considered to be an important competency for engineering ethics education. However it has no clear definition, which makes it difficult to effectively incorporate it into engineering ethics education. This paper proposes an operationalisation of ethical reflection into four learning goals which can help educators explicitly and systematically assess ethical reflection when using case-based exercises in the engineering ethics classroom. The four components were adapted from established educational approaches for critical thinking and then expanded to apply to normative propositions, the specific domain of ethical reflection.

Interdisciplinary education has become a universal trend and a staple feature on most university’s curricula. Its propensity for interaction among disciplines, purportedly endows students with the skills to tackle complex societal issues that haunt our modern society. A mixed-method study was undertaken to describe the challenges faced by both teachers and students in a second-year bachelor module at the University of Twente. The 15 European credits module funnels three separate tracks: Industrial Design Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Engineering Management into an authentic industrial project. Its aim is to foster substantial input from all three specialities in order to solve the proposed problem, and to meet the set learning objectives. Three issues for students were investigated, (1) communication issues, (2) teamwork problems and (3) prejudices held against the other disciplines. Half of the groups experienced communication issues magnified by the interdisciplinary situation, teamwork issues were present, but were mostly generic and therefore could not be pinned to the interdisciplinary situation alone. Finally, prejudice against disciplines and the feeling of being judged for belonging to a certain discipline was high. Interestingly, the students did not feel that the prejudices inhibited the ability for the team to work together. Teacher challenges included high student numbers and the ripple effects thereof, i.e. time constraints, finding suitable learning spaces, sufficient tutors, etc. These contextual pressures appear to be in direct contrast to the espoused policies of the university. Recommendations on how to mediate some of the issues, such as vigilant alignment of policies to practise and reduction of interdisciplinary knowledge gaps are offered.

To be able to contribute to societal challenges, engineering students need to learn how to interact with societal stakeholders and incorporate their viewpoints in technology development. This proves to be difficult, especially when it concerns newly emerging technologies, which are characterized by uncertainty and ambiguity. This paper presents a novel educational method - Theatrical Technology Assessment - which combines insights from Constructive Technology Assessment and improvisational theater in a role-play simulation that enables engineering students to explore the socio-technical dynamics and alternative futures of emerging technologies. This method is tested with bachelor students at the University of Twente. Students were involved as players of the role-play simulation, but also as co-designers and role-instructors. The pilot study corroborates that a role-play simulation is a powerful means for students to learn about the complexity of societal interactions around emerging technologies. They learn about differences in stakeholder perspectives and ways to anticipate or transcend these, and about general patterns in socio-technical dynamics.

One way to work on improving engineering education is to collect and use student feedback about lecturers’ teaching quality. However, as a lecturer in engineering education, it is not always easy to obtain such feedback. Therefore, the Impact! tool was developed. Students fill in a short questionnaire anonymously right at the end of the lecture just delivered. The questions reflect scientifically investigated characteristics of effective lessons. Summaries of students’ ratings are provided to lecturers. This way, student perceptions could be an important basis for lecturers’ reflections on their teaching and, how their lectures can be improved. Workshop participants will experience using the Impact! tool and we will discus how student feedback can be used effectively for improving engineering education. Moreover, results of research into the use of the impact tool will be presented and discussed.

This paper focuses on engineering ethics education utilizing Responsible Innovation (RI). As a forward-looking approach aiming to embed ethics within innovation practices, RI strives to align technology development with societal values. However, when teaching the concepts and methods of RI, we face two intertwined challenges. First, RI presupposes we can estimate the consequences of an innovation or design intervention, while evidence shows it is nearly impossible to fully predict the consequences of new technologies. RI acknowledges this by replacing an ambition to predict with a call to anticipate innovation-consequences. However, without a robust account of anticipation this merely kicks the can down the road. Second, RI seems to suggest that we know what is meant by a specific value (e.g., privacy, sustainability) and its relation to a specific technology. While such knowledge is key to an anticipatory perspective, values are often treated superficially and a historically in RI literature. To address these challenges, we argue that RI-focused education – and engineering ethics generally – should be fostering historically informed anticipation as a core competency. To do so, we will define and characterize a set of interrelated virtues essential for engaging in historically informed anticipation: moral sensitivity (an ability to identify values at stake), epistemic humility (an awareness of the limits of one’s understanding), and moral imagination (an ability to envision new perspectives and solutions). We suggest this can be cultivated via a novel teaching method that involves an in-depth historically informed normative analysis of a value technology dynamic (called a value-genealogy of technology).

Background: Technology takes an increasingly central role in healthcare. Rapid technological developments, complex problems and a labour market shortage requires healthcare professionals who can adapt successfully to these changes. Healthcare professionals using medical technology can no longer rely on monodisciplinary knowledge and skills. Therefore, a curriculum was developed to educate a new healthcare professional who can translate medical technology use into improved patient-specific procedures, the Technical Physician. Objective: Qualitative analysis of the curriculum design, curriculum effectiveness and impact on Technical Physicians’ practice in relation to quality of direct patient care. Methodology: An educational design model was followed. Cognitive integration, self-directed learning, and technical-medical design projects were selected as main instructional principles. The impact of the curriculum was evaluated by 1) internal evaluation and accreditation reports and 2) semi-structured interviews with 30 alumni about the impact of Technical Physicians’ practice on quality of direct patient care. Results: The internal evaluation and accreditation reports showed that changes in the curriculum were required to ensure adaptive expertise development, enhance reflection and support continuing faculty development. Preliminary analysis of the interviews showed that alumni reported increased patient safety and more efficient and effective implementation of technology. Discussion: Technical Physicians report that they are able to translate and use technology for safe, efficient and effective solutions for patient-specific problems in direct patient care. An important question that remains to be answered is whether our theory-inspired instructional principles result in adaptive expertise developmentin practice.

Programming tutorials are self-regulated learning activities where students are responsible for their own work pace and learning experience. They are working on programming assignments under supervision of teaching assistants (TAs), where help seeking is an essential skill. Especially, the ability to formulate specific questions contributes to higher test results. In addition, the likelihood of seeking help can be increased by electronic measures, as it is perceived as less threatening. During programming tutorials at the University of Twente the queue management system TA-help.me is used. In order to improve the quality of the learning process, this system was expanded by the following features: 1. Students had to choose a category to which their question belongs. 2. Students had to formulate their question or select a previously asked question. The extentions resulted from a Creative Technology Design process. For evaluation, quantitative data were gathered to measure the quality of the help seeking of students and the acceptance of the tool. Furthermore, TAs were interviewed to check if the tool improved the efficiency and quality of the help seeking and giving. The data indicate that the amount of improvident help seeking reduced, the categories were perceived as useful by the students. Furthermore, adding categories to the questions offered the TAs the opportunity to select topics and to spread their attention more effectively. Typing out the questions did, however, not increase the amount of more specific questions asked. Future research includes how to guide students to ask better questions.

Increasing visibility of STEM fields in schools is one way to increase the percentage of students opting for a STEM study. In the Netherlands there are two ways this has been implemented. Firstly, students can choose the course ‘Onderzoek en Ontwerpen’ (O&O; Dutch for Research and Design) which is offered in lower as well as upper level classes. Alternatively, they can choose the course Nature, Life & Technology which is only offered in upper level. O&O contains mostly engineering related subjects and NLT is a combination of science and engineering topics. Our study shows a quantitative analysis of the study choice after school over a tenyear period of students with O&O (n=4.936) or NLT (n=27.397) comparing with the full cohort (n=331.602). We find that O&O effects study choice substantially, while the effect is less strong for NLT. Zooming in on female students, their participation in O&O (34%) and NLT (44%) at school are high compared to what we find in typical scientific engineering programs. In the 2010-2013 period we see many female O&O students opting to study Medicine, whereas the 2014-2019 period shows a substantial increase in female O&O students entering science and engineering programs.

Service mathematics teaching, such as calculus for engineering, needs to be aligned with the requirements of the departments it is servicing. Service mathematics courses can be subject to criticism if they are perceived to suffer from poor alignment. Designing such courses requires communication between the mathematics department and the engineering departments and this communication should remain ongoing as the needs of the students change or as teachers with different experience and mathematical preferences change. In the Twente Educational Model the bachelor’s degree is divided into twelve modules, each lasting one quarter of the academic year. In each module the students work in groups on projects and the project is supported by disciplinary units or skills development. Module design differs across and within departments, but the basic structure of supported project-based learning is ever present. The quarterly project reports provide insight into the work the students draw on to understand and complete their projects and offer an opportunity to determine whether the students have the mathematics knowledge and skills needed for their project assignments. To investigate existing alignment and to seek ways of improving alignment we embarked on a project of distilling mathematics content from reports. While alignment was good in general certain points for improvement were apparent, both in the realm of content (for example important differential equations) and in key skills (for example interpretation of graphs). In this presentation I shall provide a brief synopsis of findings as well as present and reflect on the methodology of the project.

In most Western countries, women account for no more than 20% of the total population of computer science students. This is regrettably low, for it is frequently underscored that diversity is important for the development of creative solutions. Undergirding this imbalance is that, historically, computer science is mostly being remembered as a male endeavour even though women have contributed substantially to its emergence. In response, the Alice and Eve-event wishes to celebrate women in computer science. By exposing the female achievements across computer science history, aspirant female students are provided with the role models they need to confidently pursue a similar computer science path. In order to support this rationale, the event consisted of an exhibition and a symposium. In the exhibition, attendees are made familiar with both female pioneers and with contemporary, yet leading scientists within the field. The symposium allows the attendees to interact directly with their female role models, seeing technically interesting topics being discussed. Notably, the event aimed at celebrating female achievements with pride, rather than discussing them within the shadow of their male counterparts. In retrospect, the event has been met with critical acclaim. More specifically, attendees have praised the elucidation of female trailblazers. In light of this appraisal, the organization wishes to expand both its content and its audience. Moreover, it is believed that the Alice and Eve-event could serve as an example toward other engineering fields that are experiencing a similar gender imbalance.

ATLAS University College Twente offers a residential, interdisciplinary engineering program that aims at educating the ‘New Engineer.’ The program has embraced the concept of self-directed learning, meaning that students attain most of the program’s learning goals in their own way. ATLAS is organized in semesters, each with their own specific learning goals. These so-called semester goals define a framework that allows students to build their own academic profile as New Engineers and, at the same time, safeguards that all students reach the intended learning outcomes of the program itself. One of the core values of the program is integration. Students follow mandatory courses in the domains of mathematics, natural - and social sciences, and work in interdisciplinary projects. ATLAS also offers interdisciplinary electives, designed and executed by teachers with different disciplinary backgrounds. Moreover, students are encouraged to use their extensive elective space to further build up their interdisciplinary profile as New Engineers. The program was successfully accredited in 2018 and is in a continuous state of development and innovation. This contribution discusses the set-up of the curriculum, its interdisciplinary components, its radical educational approach, assessment method, and future program developments and challenges.

Assessing the academic capabilities of students should play a key role in both stimulating their learning process (formative assessment) and in the accurate evaluation of their knowledge and capabilities in relation to a topic (summative assessment). Therefore, according to the principle of constructive alignment, any form of assessment needs to be carefully designed to match the learning outcomes of a course and needs to be delivered in an appropriate format (paper-based vs. computer-based) and graded in a suitable manner. However, this is a challenging task, due to the substantial amount of time teachers need to spend on grading open questions. From our experience, this results in using less appropriate assessment methods (e.g.: Multiple Choice questions) or in less time spent by teachers on innovating their courses (e.g.: implementation of formative assessment). Inspired by recent developments in academia and practice, we propose to investigate the application of machine learning technology for supporting grading of open questions, with a focus on summative assessment and exploring possibilities for formative assessment. Our expected results include the design of a method for supporting grading of open questions with machine learning, an investigation into the most suitable machine learning algorithms for small samples of tests.

Undergraduate students can be appointed as ‘student assistant’ and as such they can fulfil many different tasks, related to education, research and organisation. These tasks vary from entering data or making schedules to guiding tutorials or assisting in lab settings. In the year 2018/2019 at the University of Twente, an estimated 51.000 to 84.000 student assistant working hours were spent on learningrelated tasks. In order to enhance the quality of education at the university, it is proposed to extend the didactical training for student assistants with tasks in which they are formally involved in other students’ learning processes (Learning Assistants, LAs). The Learning Assistants Project at the University of Boulder, Colorado [1] has been an inspiration. By incorporating elements of other LA trajectories, the ‘Colorado LA Model’ has been adapted to the local situation and demands. The main goals of the intervention are that Certified LAs show a reflective, professional attitude aimed at improving their practice as LA and that LAs can determine pedagogical strategies for assisting, when provided the goals, teaching strategies and assessment of the unit they are asked to assist in. Following a rapid prototyping approach [5] an LA-training trajectory is designed and implemented at small scale. Simultaneously, an inventory is being made of the current roles and tasks of LAs, and more in-depth needs analysis for the design of this training. This article present the first results of both the training needs assessment and the pilot LA-training.

For a high standard of educational quality and success rates, teaching quality is key. Teachers need to be supported in their professional development aimed at achieving the ambitious goals of student-driven engineering education. Moreover, educational excellence is often confined to ‘pockets’: good practices are confined to one program or department and not shared beyond. Creating opportunities for teachers to collaboratively reflect on, further develop and share knowledge and practice-based research to promote educational innovation is very important. The Senior University Teaching Qualification (SUTQ) is focused on a scholarly approach of teaching and learning (SoTL; Graham, 2018), in which teachers are regarded as researcher and designer of their own educational practice, to collaboratively innovate and improve teaching. SUTQ participants determine their personal learning path and execute their own sub-project (160 hours) to innovate and improve their practice. They are supported by a coach, educational research and design seminars, and peer-feedback from colleagues. After three years of running and adjusting this approach based on the literature, evaluations, experiences and outcomes, this paper shows both the benefits and the challenges of organizing this type of professional development. Although participants feel inspired, appreciate the clarity, usefulness and feedback during SUTQ sessions, some challenges remain both in terms of facilitation (e.g., time) and the approach (e.g., the steps from clear problem statement to innovation design). Additionally, community-building needs more attention, to promote further continuous development in the university as a whole. In this concept paper we set out an agenda for doing so.

Due to changes of the labor market and increased competition on an (inter)national scale, institutions of higher education are forced to innovate, creating an additional need for teacher professional development. In engineering education, interdisciplinary education has become increasingly important, bringing many advantages for both students and teachers. Instead of being individually responsible for a course, teachers collectively design and teach courses that integrate their areas of expertise and make interdisciplinary education a reality. However, to better support teacher teams and their professional development, higher education institutions require more information on their course design processes. This case study compares the course design processes of two teacher teams in the context of a university-wide educational innovation. One team chose to create an interdisciplinary course, whereas the other chose to design a multidisciplinary course. Design conversations of these teams were analyzed to study the similarities and differences between both teams concerning the design topics and design acts shown during team meetings. Our findings show that both teams primarily focus on the same three design topics: the teaching practices, course organization, and their own teamwork. Other important topics such as the specific characteristics of the student population were mostly neglected. When comparing the specific design acts of the two teams, the interdisciplinary team more often engaged in collaborative planning and adaption of the course and also engaged in more collective reflection compared to the multidisciplinary team. In doing so, the interdisciplinary team created more opportunities for professional development of its team members.

Student success in Mathematics is a global priority. Mathematics is a fundamental part of engineering programs in higher education, necessary for application in further engineering studies and yet often becomes a stumbling block for engineering students. Concerningly, even successful students frequently exhibit weak understanding of key mathematical concepts. The vector calculus course is known to be particularly challenging for students. While much research has been done into students’ constructions of core concepts at school level, less has been done on advanced mathematical topics such as vector calculus, yet this important insight has the potential to impact curriculum and pedagogy and to inform relevant support. This research conducted at the University of Twente, the Netherlands and the University of Cape Town, South Africa will use the constructivist APOS (Action-Process-Object-Schema) Theory to explore how students mentally construct concepts such as partial derivatives, directional derivatives and double integrals. APOS theory is based on the hypotheses that individuals construct mental actions, processes, and objects and organise them in schemas to solve mathematical problems. In this exploratory case study we attempt to explore and understand how our students understand the limits of integration of double integrals, informing the design of our teaching of vector calculus to improve students’ understanding and ultimately increase success. Students will participate in an assessment, complete a survey and participate in individual interviews. APOS Theory can be used directly in the analysis of data. Although initially intended we were unable to use this opportunity to compare the mental constructions of the cohorts from the two different universities and it will be assigned to future research.