New focus working group Open and Online Education

Mobile, always online devices (such as our phones) have become ubiquitous in our daily lives. It is only natural that education will make use of such technology as well, or at least will explore the possibilities that such technology can offer for improving education.

However, using new forms of technology in education will also require new forms of instruction. In addition, the increasing availability of learner data from the online technology offers new opportunities to support learners in their learning process, through advanced data analytics.

The working group Open and Online Education keeps track of developments and innovations in open and online technology and studies its use for teaching and learning in engineering education. The working group is particularly interested in innovative technologies that:

• Remove barriers and provide more students with access to engineering education;
• Innovate engineering education by making new educational formats possible; and
• Help advance the development of more personalized education by introducing evidence-based, data-driven educational practices and designs.

In order to further explore this topic, the working group Open and Online Education will organize a workshop at SEFI 2018; more information about this will be shared in an upcoming newsletter.

For more information about the working group, please visit the working group page at the SEFI website. The working group is currently looking for new members, so if you would like to contribute to our Twitter newsfeed, or sign up as a working group member, we would like to hear from you – just send us an email!

Jan-Paul van Staalduinen (j.p.vanstaalduinen@tudelft.nl)

Pieter de Vries (Pieter.deVries@tudelft.nl), Twitter: @pieter50twit