Opening by Ellen Bastiaens, EDLAB Director and Alexandra Mihai, Assistant Professor of Innovation in Higher Education at Maastricht University, and conference hosts Donna Carroll (EDLAB) and John Harbord (FASoS)

The UM Education Days 2023 will be officially opened by Ellen Bastiaens and Alexandra Mihai who will share insights on Centres for Teaching and Learning. What is a CTL? How can your teaching and learning benefit from having EDLAB at UM? And how can you use these Education Days to connect, share and learn?

• Session 1.1: [Cancelled] I don’t feel gifted…everyone can do this, right?’ An interactive lecture about the importance of recognising giftedness by Anke Smeenk 
  Many gifted students don’t feel gifted. They have thoughts like: - ‘Yes, I can do this, but everyone can do this, right?’  - ‘There is so much I don’t know.’ - ‘If I were gifted, I wouldn’t struggle so much with my studies/work.’  During this session, we will first dive a little deeper into what giftedness is, as the word ‘giftedness’ often has a negative connotation in society. Giftedness in everyday life is often not just about having good cognitive abilities or a high IQ. It involves a range of characteristics, including sensitivity, doubt, and setting (too) high expectations. These characteristics may add an extra layer of complexity to seemingly ‘normal’ problems, leading to lower self-confidence, procrastination, and lagging results. Second, we will address potential pitfalls in case the student does not recognise or acknowledge giftedness. The goal of this interactive session is to offer an alternative framework for thinking about giftedness and to provide insight into the pitfalls in case giftedness is not acknowledged by the student. 
   
• Session 1.2: If Advising is teaching, what do Advisers teach? Developing Student Learning Outcomes for advising at a CCCS University by Iris Burks & Oscar van den Wijngaard
  Over the past few years, UM has strongly invested in student guidance through central employability and wellbeing programmes, as well as faculty-based mentoring and student advising programmes. Connecting the various objectives of these initiatives, a shared vision on advising is emerging that combines caring with learning, and revolves around the idea of helping students develop a stronger sense of agency. This resonates strongly with the global trend of thinking about advising in terms of student learning outcomes. In that context, parallels with teaching are often drawn. During this session, we will explore how the emerging UM vision on advising can be operationalised into to actionable student learning objectives that fit your specific educational and advising/mentoring programme. This session will be relevant for student advisers, mentors, mentor coordinators and programme directors.
   
• Session 1.3: Master Thesis Supervision by Therese Grohnert & Lena Gromotka 
  Master’s thesis supervisors play an important role in teaching advanced students the knowledge and skills necessary to complete a research project. Supervisors are critical for student success in higher education. However, master’s thesis supervision can be a challenging task that requires a unique set of skills and knowledge, and often, these skills are not explicitly taught to new supervisors. This workshop, therefore, has two goals: 1. Sharing insights from a systematic literature review on best practices in master thesis supervision from around the world. 2. Offering intervision for new and experienced supervisors to exchange practises and experiences of master’s thesis supervision at UM. Together, we will explore key challenges and issues related to master’s thesis supervision, learn about good practices and share helpful tools that support you as a supervisor.​ We look forward to meeting you during the UM Education Days!
   
• Session 1.4: Creative workshop: Moss-map your education! by Burak Can 
  Join us for an exciting workshop where you can explore the power of nature and creativity! In this hands-on experience, you will use live moss and wooden or 3D-printed frames to create a beautiful green wall mindmap that visualises a challenge in your studies or work. Not only will you learn about the benefits of incorporating living plants into your workspace, but you will also gain insight into innovative visual thinking techniques to help you tackle complex problems. With guidance from our expert instructors, you will create a unique and personalised green wall mindmap that you can proudly display in your workspace as a source of inspiration and motivation. Don't miss this opportunity to unleash your creativity and enhance your problem-solving skills!
   
• Session 1.5 Testvision by Maartje Hensgens and Lonneke Bevers 
  In this session, we will provide several ways to align your TestVision exam with the UM vision on assessment. The goal of the workshop is to offer inspiration to design or update your own exams in TestVision. The session is exclusively aimed at UM lecturers.
  NOTE: This session will take place at the Inner City UM Library

Exchange your insights from the first session, get to know your colleagues and enjoy lunch.

Share your passion for education on video

Use the power of visual media to talk about what motivates and drives you in education. This is a unique opportunity to practise your video communication skills in a short 10-minute session with a professional filming crew. Not only will you contribute to the main UM Education Days 2023 video clip, but you'll also receive your own individual video clip as a bonus. 

Grab this chance to record your enthusiasm for education on camera and inspire others. And no worries: we’ll ensure you feel comfortable during filming: no pressure. Sign up now, and we'll provide you with the details!

Maximum number of participants: 10
Filming will take place during the following time slots:

• 12:00-13:00
• 14:30-15:00
• 16:30-18:00

• Session 2.1: EduGrants
  Over the last two years, EDLAB awarded grants to more than 15 projects focusing on education innovations in the PBL classroom. Project topics include a.o. blended learning, feedback, VR in education, new media & education, PBL problems and creativity. During this session, previous grant winners will showcase results, products and innovations whereas more recent grant winners will introduce their projects to you and respond to any questions and ideas you may have. Have a look at these short videos of current and previous EDLAB grant projects.
   
• Session 2.2: Supporting self-regulated learning: What do we know and where do we go? by Anique de Bruin & Lena Gromotka
  Among the many competences that higher education seeks to nurture in its students, the ability to plan, monitor, and regulate their own learning is increasing rapidly in priority. These self-regulated learning (SRL) skills are known to predict later life satisfaction and wellbeing, and are essential in adapting to a continuously changing workforce. How to design education that promotes students’ SRL skills while preventing more box-ticking and without adding to an already challenging workload is the central question of the SRL EDLAB Innovation project. We combined a systematic review study with focus group discussions with teachers from all UM faculties, with the aim to bridge empirical evidence and teachers’ and students’ experiences, opinions, and needs. During this workshop we will (1) share the projects’ first results, (2) ask for participants’ reflections, and (3) interactively discuss in small groups how to build on these findings to improve SRL skills in our students.
   
• Session 2.3: Diversity & Inclusion: PBL and UDL by Ophélie Hue
  Where UDL meets PBL – a match made in heaven, or a pairing from hell? Where does Universal Design for Learning (UDL) go hand in hand with PBL, and where might it clash? In this workshop, we will briefly introduce you to UDL and we will then dissect where and how this intersects with PBL and the UM educational model, and where challenges might arise. (Warning – this workshop may cause you to consider some new and exciting ways to approach your tutorial sessions and teaching!)
   
• Session 2.4: We need to talk about teaching (careers) by Therese Grohnert, Roy Erkens, and Matthijs Krooi
  In order to truly recognise and reward education as a meaningful activity pursued by academics, we need to become better at talking about our performance as educators. During this interactive session, we will explore different perspectives on what it means to provide quality education. For instance, how can you show that you are a good teacher? What quantitative and qualitative information do supervisors need to base decisions on in a responsible manner? How can the organisation facilitate the evaluation and assessment of teaching quality?
  By participating, you will contribute to the ongoing discussion at Maastricht University regarding Recognition and Reward of education.
   
• Session 2.5: From self-evaluation to self-improvement: how to master self-assessment in higher education by Laurie Delnoij
  As a student, do you sometimes feel a lack of control in your learning process and not making the progress you would like to? As a teacher, do you sometimes feel students to be overestimating their abilities, mostly revisiting the study material they already master but not taking the necessary steps to improve? In this workshop, we will be diving into the world of self-assessment and exploring how it can help students and teachers in higher education. Self-assessment is invaluable for lifelong learning in which one collects and evaluates information about their own progress, pinpoints areas for improvement and charts a course for success. In this workshop, we will discuss a range of techniques for self-assessment from practice testing to students generating their own feedback. As self-assessment will not develop on its own we also explore the facilitators and barriers to self-assessment and conditions for effective implementation.
   
• Session 2.6: Getting Groups on Track by Team Focus. Group work can be a valuable experience for students, helping them to gain new skills and learn from each other. For teaching staff, however, it can sometimes be challenging to keep track of what is happening and facilitate the process in the best way to get the most out of the group. In this workshop, we will discuss how to empower groups to work independently and to stay on task, whilst retaining a clear overview of the process. This training session focuses specifically on facilitating effective group dynamics in project teams, and tutorial groups. We will be working on questions like: how can I ensure that the group members quickly connect with each other? How can I work on trust within a group, so that more openness and involvement arise? What do I do if the group is not functioning well? Team Focus is known for its experiential learning approach, which makes every session very insightful and meaningful but also a lot of fun. This session takes place on the grounds of Tapijn.

• Session 3.1: Sense-based Education by Emilie Sitzia
  Senses-based Learning is a pedagogical methodology for tertiary education focusing on exploring and developing sensory skills and critically reflecting on their importance in research and professional practice. After a year and a half of working on the 'Senses-based Learning' project, the team is ready to share our first results! During this 90 minutes workshop, we will first share what we found in our classroom experiments, expert interviews and literature research. We will share key senses-based learning design principles and typology of exercises to help you reintegrate the senses in your own teaching and come up with your own activities. To give you a concrete idea of how this works in classrooms, we will also experiment with two exercises we used with students to develop communication around the senses and to understand how disciplinary protocols impact on sensory data collection.  
   
• Session 3.2: Training good feedback techniques by John Harbord
  Although research shows that peer feedback can be as effective as tutor feedback, student perceptions of its value are often low, with most considering it a ‘poor second best’ to comments from a tutor. The main reason for this is that without a guiding framework, students often do not give the most helpful comments they could give, and when they receive feedback, whether from tutors or peers, they are not well-trained to make use of it. In this workshop, I suggest ways and options for training students to make the best use of feedback opportunities through a structured approach to both giving and using peer comments.
   
• Session 3.3: You can't brainstorm a formula by Martijn Boussé and Anna Zseleva
  The UM vision on education features problem-based learning (PBL) in which students form small groups to discuss real-life cases by activating prior knowledge, connecting new information, structuring ideas and critically evaluating their findings, while collaborating with peers and being supported by tutors. How does this approach translate to math courses, in practice? Can we even apply PBL in our math courses? And if not, why not? Several lecturers experiment with various practices across UM, while others question the very possibility. In this two-part session, we try to find answers to these difficult questions. Preceded by a panel discussion between lecturers and students who have worked with PBL in various math courses, participants will engage in collaborative explorations on the applicability of CCCS principles for teaching math.
   
• Session 3.4: Automated feedback interventions by Leon Winz
  AI applications providing automated feedback for written assignments have been heralded as promising avenues to increase student autonomy, enabling a more flexible educational journey. Still, the success factors for adoption and implementation in higher education remain unknown. A project group at SBE has developed a tool analysing quantifiable text-quality KPIs and integrating an interface to ChatGPT, creating individualised recommendations for improvement. The aim of the project “Reality Check: automated student feedback at SBE”, run by Lecturer Leon Winz & PhD candidate Eric Schaap is to investigate the effects of the text analysis tool on student’s learning outcomes, students’ engagement with the technology-enhanced feedback offerings, and the concerns students may have with feedback interventions orchestrated by an AI entity. Participants of the workshop will receive a short demonstration of the tool, followed by a hands-on experience session and a discussion about use-case possibilities and potential benefits and concerns towards implementation from the students’ and educators’ perspectives.
   
• Session 3.5: Charters, contracts, constitutions: students setting their rules of engagement by Valentina Mazzucato, Annemarie van Zeijl-Rozema, Niels van der Baan & Bas Giesbers
  In several programmes at UM, at the start of the academic year, semester or course students begin by discussing how they want to shape their tutorial group or cohort into an engaged and committed community of learners. Together, they formulate their own code of conduct, the expectations they may have of one another, and agree to honour those resolutions as if they were a contract or a constitution. In this session staff (and students?) who have experimented and worked with this approach share their experiences: their initial expectations and intentions, how they developed the particular format they used, and the actual impact they felt it had on how staff and student functioned as a social and academic community. There will be ample room for discussion in this session, and participants will come away with ideas on how to promote a sense of social and academic belonging in their own educational context.
   
• Session 3.6: How to motivate students by Team Focus
  In this workshop, we will discuss how people are motivated and how you can use this to facilitate an environment in which students learn and grow. With a focus on group work and group learning, we will work on questions like: what different kinds of motivations are there? How to adapt your teaching style to foster growth in students? How to create an environment that helps students to learn and grow? Team Focus is known for its experiential learning approach, which makes every session very insightful and meaningful but also a lot of fun. This session takes place on the grounds of Tapijn.