Theme: how can the Next Generation Digital Learning Environment contribute to the curriculum design of African Universities? Blended Learning at the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences Authors: Jaap van Voorst, HU Hans van de Kant, Creblz

Introduction

Faculty of Education Archimedes Institute Inspire to learn in the heart of The Netherlands

Our faculty

n HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht is a knowledge organisation enrolling over 35,000 Bachelor’s and Master’s students. University of Applied Sciences

n Our University is rooted in the region and maintains links with national and international partner institutions. HU employs 3,500 staff.

n High-quality teaching and practice-oriented research are the cornerstones of HU. At the heart of everything we do is innovation of professional practice.

 Three institutes: primary, secondary, special needs  Number of students: 8,000  Staff: 500  6 centres for applied research  25 courses ( bachelors and masters)  20 minors  School and Competence based education n Blended learning as didactical concept  International Program for Erasmus and other foreign students Faculty of Education

Our mission: inspire to learn Dead Poet Society

The future of education Victoria’s storyVictoria’s story “a vision for the future of learning”

The future of education “making the classroom as dynamic as the world around you” What is 21st century educationWhat is 21st century education?

Context n A new strategy: HU sees in Blended Learning an opportunity to improve student education; one that offers both flexibility as well as a connection to modern-day society

If you keep doing what you did, you get what you had

What did we had? n A lot of unmotivated students n Having bad results n A lot of drop out students n A lot of drop out teachers in primary and secundary education n Lack professionalisation in the working field

 Instruction and acquiring knowledge online  Deepening knowledge and developing knowledge in classes and in learning teams Education: state of the art

Our wishes n We were looking for a LMS that: enables lecturers to make courses theirselves without the support of a system manager is user friendly because of its navigation and clear lay out has a didactical concept that guides the course facilitates cooperation with fellow educators on an inter-school, regional and international level n Conclusion: it didn’t exist

Our answer: HUbl n We were developed our own LMS, a NGDLE n In cooperation with Mentorix n In 2 years more than 600 courses in Hubl n All lecturers work with HUbl

A Next Generation Digital Learning Environment 1. Interoperability and Integration. Finding: The ability to integrate tools and to exchange content and learning data enables everything else 2. Personalization. Finding: Personalization is the most important user-facing functional domain of the NGDLE 3. Analytics, Advising, and Learning Assessment. Finding: The analysis of all forms of learning s a vital component of the NGDLE

NGDLE 4. Collaboration. Finding: The NGDLE must support collaboration at multiple levels and make it easy to move between private and public digital spaces. 5. Accessibility and Universal Design. Finding: ensuring that all learners are able to participate, with access to content and the ability to create accessible learning materials.

Results so far n 50% of our programmes are blended n Inspired lecturers n Better results for students n Higher satisfaction of students n More flexibility is appreciated very much

4 Important stepping stones for succes n Vision n Professionalisation n Digital learning material n Infrastructure

HUbl Demonstration of a NGDLE

Dashboard

Cre

Thank you very much for your attention!