European Journal of Higher Education IT 2017-1

An analysis of strategic plans of 40 institutions of higher education in the Netherlands shows an overlap in ambition: a search for more flexible and personalized education. But what does that look like, costumized education? And how would or should that prepare students for a career in a rapidly changing world? SURF, the collaborative ICT organisation for Dutch education and research, spoke to a large group of innovators that try to translate concepts of flexible and personalized education to classroom practices. We spoke to people who are changing the way they offer their courses, and explore, in the classroom, what works and what does not. We also spoke with visionaries who think about what we need to change to prepare students for the future. We asked them what they see as flexible and personalized education, why it is needed, what we have to change and offer to enable it, what organisational bounderies we encounter, what already is happening, and what their vision of the future is. We had them meet up and share their visions and inspire each other. We included international publications about the subject in the discussion. We looked where vision and practice seemed to connect and where it collided. During EADTU Christien Bok, program manager of SURF Technology Enhanced Education, will present the current state of flexible and personalized education in Dutch higher education, and how ICT can contribute to shape

The ongoing digitalization leads to a need of continuous change of ICT (Information and Communi-cation Technology) in all university domains and therefore affects all stakeholders in this arena. More and more ICT components, systems and tools occur and have to be integrated into the existing processes and infrastructure of the institutions. These tasks include the transfer of resources and information across multiple ICT systems. By using so-called virtual environments for domains of re-search, education, learning and work, the performance of daily tasks can be aided. Based on a user requirement analysis different short- and long-term objectives were identified and are tackled now in the context of a federal research project. In order to be prepared for the ongoing digitalization, new systems have to be provided. Both, a service-oriented infrastructure and a related web-based virtual learning environment constitute the platform Campus.UP and creates the necessary basis to be ready for future challenges. The current focus lies on e-portfolio work, hence we will present a related focus group evaluation. The results indicate a tremendous need to extend the possibilities of sharing resources across system boundaries, in order to enable a comfortable participation of exter-nal cooperating parties and to clarify the focus of each connected system. The introduction of such an infrastructure implies far-reaching changes for traditional data centers. Therefore, the challenges and risks of faculty conducting innovation projects for the ICT organization are taken as a starting point to stimulate a discussion, how data centers can utilize projects to be ready for the future needs. We are confident that Campus.UP will provide the basis for ensuring the persistent transfer of innovation to the ICT organization and thus will contribute to tackle the future challenges of digitalization.

It is a simple idea, really.

Learning is all about feedback. Runners, for example, use apps like the RunKeeper. Research shows that apps like that enhance engagement and results. And people think it is fun. The essence being that the behavior of the runner is tracked and communicated back to the runner in a dashboard.

We, at Fontys University, wondered if you can reach the same positive effect if you had a dashboard for study behavior. For students. And what should you measure, track and communicate? We wondered if we could translate the Quantified Self Movement into a Quantified Student.