According to the Minister’s vision, the Netherlands shall become a global leader in the open sharing of teaching materials by 2025. Open education has also been covered in the recently published coalition agreement. Next to that, the ministry funded a national incentive scheme to stimulate educational innovation around open and online education, with special attention for open learning material.
UM projects in the incentive scheme
Open and online education offers opportunities for innovation and quality enhancement of education. The Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science, therefore, provided funding with the incentive scheme on open and online education giving room for projects in two pillars: Online education and Open learning materials. Maastricht University has been successful several years in acquiring OCW/SURF grants.
- Open anatomical 3D model in education: 3D models of human anatomy help students understand the human body (submitted by Leiden University Medical Center, in collaboration with Leo Köhler, FHML)
- Blended learning environment for medical Dutch: the effect of peer-feedback and buddy support (project leader Maryam Asoodar, FHML in collaboration with Language Centre)
- INTER-ACTIE: Kolom-overstijgende, online peer feedback in interprofessioneel werkplekleren (project leader Anneke van Dijk – De Vries, FHML)
- Learning by Doing: An Interactive Online Space for Thesis Trajectory Management (project leader Lauren Wagner, FASoS)
- Online Laboratory calculus with automatic/instant Feedback (OLaF) (project leaders Herman Popeijus & Leo Köhler, FHML)
- PE(E)RFECT VAARDIG, submitted by the Open Universiteit, in collaboration with Natasja van der Meer (FL).
- Web of Law (project leaders Gijs van Dijck & Gwen Noteborn (FL).
- TOOL Anatomy Platform: Maastricht University (UM) and Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) have been joining forces with Dutch and Flemish anatomy departments to develop an open learning platform in which quality-controlled anatomy content and learning resources can be made freely available to all. Last year additional funding was granted to build a curated collection. The library is involved, focusing on metadating and copyright issues and creating awareness on creating, sharing and reusing open material by faculty staff and selecting qualitative open educational resources by students. This will give students easier access to good content and provide teachers with good teaching resources.
- We-Mediate: skills such as negotiation and mediation are important for lawyers. UM (FL) has developed modules to train and enhance these learning skills in a multimedia environment.
- Leading to success – Smart choices & smart tools: the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance / UNU-MERIT created online modules to support the development of open online services to help prospective students decide if the programme is a good study for them to choose, current students select which specialisation track to focus their graduate studies on, and alumni and practitioners refresh their previous studies and receive information of new topics. Or watch the video on Smart Choices & Smart Tools explained by project coordinator Katerina Triantos.
OER in the Acceleration Plan
The Dutch Acceleration Plan contains the program Towards (open) digital learning material which aims that by the 1st of January 2023, higher education institutions in the Netherlands can offer lecturers and students the opportunity to determine and use an optimal mix of (digital) educational resources for learning and teaching processes.
What is optimal in regards to the mix of educational resources, is determined by the context of the education. In that context, learning outcomes, educational and learning activities, and methods of assessment are aligned. An optimal mix of educational resources contributes to good quality education.
Maastricht University participates in this program. Building the technical and organisational infrastructure for sharing material and integrating OER in the library collection for (re)use are part of our efforts. As well as the recently started project on digital accessibility of content we offer to our students.
SURF and Open Education
Higher Education Institutes exchange knowledge and expertise on the topic of Open and Online Education through SURF, the collaborative ICT organisation for Dutch higher education and research.
SURFs introduction to open educational resources (OER) explains what OER’s are, how you can use them in your own teaching, and how you can structure your own materials in such a way that others are able to make optimum use of them.
SURF special interest group (SIG) on Open Education
SURF hosts Special Interest Groups (SIGs), with experts from the participating research universities and universities of applied sciences of which the SIG on open and online education is one.
Library SIG on open and online education
The UM library participates in a Library SIG on open and online education of the Dutch consortium of the thirteen university libraries and the National Library of the Netherlands (UKB).