Vincent de Boer | Faces of FEB
The Faculty of Economics and Business is a faculty with great diversity of people. But who are these people? Within ‘Faces of FEB’ we talk to different staff and students of the faculty and give a little peek into their world. This week: Vincent de Boer, who is an ‘Embedded Expert’ and will talk about his work and what he and others are doing to help make online learning a smooth process, especially in these challenging times.
Written by Jessica Paas
Could you tell me a little bit about yourself?
I am Vincent de Boer and I have been working for the UG since 2008. I started at the Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences as Video & E-learning Coordinator. In this role, I supported professors in using video and digital tools in their educations, based on didactically sound principles. Several years ago, I switched to CIT-ESI and up till now, I am still working at this department. ESI stands for ‘Educational Support and Innovation’ and refers to the domain of education of the CIT (Centre for Information Technology). It includes aspects like Nestor Support and digital testing; the more technical aspects of ICT education. Furthermore, I work in a team of educational advisors, and we advise in all kinds of areas of educational innovations.
First of all, early this year everything needed to move to an online environment quickly and your job became really important. How did you manage to react to the situation?
When the first lockdown was announced, we worked all through the weekend. Everyone working within the domain of education, regardless of what your normal task was, worked all through the weekend to ensure that professors could start teaching on Blackboard Collaborate as soon as possible. Besides that, we set up a website to inform all professors. We then noticed we also should help teachers with how to use the online platforms. Therefore, we started giving Webinars.
Were these webinars specifically aimed at teachers?
Yes. At first, we specifically focused on how to get the lectures online as quickly as possible. Also, we informed professors on how they could use Blackboard Collaborate, as not all teachers were used to teaching online yet. Moreover, most of them were not familiar with online teaching and what we call ‘blended learning’. This is where you deliberately design for some learning activities to be online and some offline and synchronous and asynchronous.. There is a specific educational thought behind this system. Therefore, we tried to give more insights into these theories and explain them to the professors.
What are the main challenges now?
Online education has a completely different dynamic, and a lot of professors are now noticing that. When the first lockdown was announced, professors had to react very quickly to all the changes and could not adapt their teaching program that quickly. This is why at the beginning they had a hard time; the programs were actually not that suitable for offering it online yet. This is why we started helping them with the question: "How can you offer certain things in a different way?".
Also, teachers are very bothered by the fact that they very much miss interaction with students. To be able to help them better, the University started the education action plan. One of the components of this is that a number of us each work one day a week at a faculty as so-called ‘embedded experts’. It sounds very sophisticated, but what we actually are is an advisor available to the Faculty. We try to pay attention to what is going on within the Faculty then communicate this to CIT. I am the Embedded Expert for FEB.
Are there any advantages of teaching online?
Sometimes, it is nice for students to be able to participate from home. You can also see that teachers have thought more carefully about the online teaching process and are therefore becoming more skilled in this. Teachers nowadays really need to think about how they offer their courses. In education, you often see the debate about what constitutes good education. If you have been given lectures in a certain way very often and you start teaching yourself, then you will very quickly imitate things that you already know. You may never have thought critically about whether this is the best way to teach. But professors really have to now. That is really an advantage!
Do you have any advice for students to make their online learning experience run more smoothly?
Yes, but you have probably heard of this advice before. First of all, try to get some structure into your daily life. For learning specifically: try to participate as much as possible in the learning tasks that a professor offers. Some tasks can be very supportive for a session afterwards. It will make participating in those sessions more fun, even if it is an online session.
Also, one teacher will be further in organizing online education than another. Therefore, it is important to share your thoughts and let professors know when you miss anything. If you have any thoughts about how to improve, without getting angry or complaining, you can start a conversation about it. As a student, try not to keep a wait-and-see attitude, you can make a contribution yourself, especially in these challenging times.
Are teachers open to this?
The professors I get to talk to are very committed to their job and to their students. They really want the best for them. However, sometimes things don't go quite the way they want to. Most of the time the teacher gets a little blamed for the mistakes, but they can't always do something about the situations.
So, you could say communication between professors and students is very important!
Yes! But I do not want to hold the students completely responsible. I think communication between the two is just really important. Also recognizing on both sides that it is difficult for everyone is important. If everyone tries their best to make the most of it and if we all continue to contribute positively, we will come a long way even when there are setbacks!
| Last modified: | 31 January 2021 3.57 p.m. |