Join our webinar on actionable learning analytics for student success
chevron_right

Developing professional competencies and stimulating collaboration at Hague University of Applied Sciences

Dan Hasan
|
September 30, 2024
Using
DOMAIN
Business & Management
Class Size
120
Instructor Workload
Learner Workload
ABOUT THE INSTITUTION

The Hague University of Applied Sciences, also known as "THUAS", is a higher education institution with more than 20,000 students from more than 140 different countries every year. They offer a wide range of Bachelors, Masters, Post-graduate programmes and other courses.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR(S)

Rachel Kuijlenburg worked as a senior lecturer in the Facility Management programme at De Haagse Hogeschool since 2003. She is also associated as a lecturer-researcher with Mark Mobach's lectorate Facility Management and Kim Poldner's lectorate Circular Business.

ABOUT THE INSTITUTION

The Hague University of Applied Sciences, also known as "THUAS", is a higher education institution with more than 20,000 students from more than 140 different countries every year. They offer a wide range of Bachelors, Masters, Post-graduate programmes and other courses.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR(S)

Rachel Kuijlenburg worked as a senior lecturer in the Facility Management programme at De Haagse Hogeschool since 2003. She is also associated as a lecturer-researcher with Mark Mobach's lectorate Facility Management and Kim Poldner's lectorate Circular Business.

Context

In this course, students develop their professional skills and knowledge to prepare them for the world of sustainable facility management. 120 3rd-year students collaborate on a variety of assignments designed to grow competencies towards an integrated view of the field, covering for instance, event management, facility organisation, and the UN sustainable development goals.

The instructor chose to start using FeedbackFruits tools to activate and engage students with the course material, as well as allowing them to collaboratively learn from assignments and make sense of material together. In this field, interaction and team communication are fundamental, so appropriate tooling is mandatory to ensure students develop these skills throughout their assignments.

Constructive alignment

Learning objectives

  • Students practice reading comprehension skills
  • Students can identify and understand key theories and models in literature
  • Students can analyse and apply these concepts, using them to make decisions and translating them into policy objectives

Learning activities

Students read an article uploaded using Interactive Document and answer in-line questions about the text. Peers’ answers and responses are visible to all students doing the assignment, resulting in a learning environment that favours collaborative thinking. The article is used as preparation for weekly discussions in small groups where the material is analysed together.


These learning activities address the following levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy:

  • Understand relevant theories, models, and practices through reading
  • Apply and analyse concepts in discussions and assignments
  • Evaluate peers’ responses and contributions

Evaluation and assessment

The activities carried out using Interactive Document were not directly evaluated by the instructor, rather, these activities were used to develop skills and competencies to be later employed in completing assignments.

Notable outcomes

  • Using FeedbackFruits played a major role in increasing student activation and engagement - the platform was accessible and straightforward for students.
  • On first use, determining the most suitable options during setup took some experimentation, but eventually this became more intuitive.
  • The biggest benefit to using FbF was the time saved by the instructor in grading assessments, which becomes even more crucial with larger groups.

Instructor Role

  • The instructor explains how FeedbackFruits will be used within the course manual, and gives instructions to students about how to complete the assignment in Interactive Document.

  • They create inline questions and discussion pointers within the tool, after which students are able to read the material, answering these questions and responding to the discussion points.
  • The instructor sees an overview of students’ progress with the activity and can gauge how students are responding to the material.

Technical Value Added

  • Using Interactive Document helps students learn from each other while completing the same assignment.
  • It also saves time in assessment: now an overview of all work can be seen within the tool instead of having to look at each students’ work individually.

Possible Variation

Using a summative Interactive Document that includes a grading module could allow instructors to assess participation, collaboration and correctness of answers for a final grade.

Assessment of learning outcomes

Notable outcomes

Possible variation

Share on social media

Recommended use cases

Improve student autonomy and feedback skills by asking them to evaluate their best contributions

Using technology-enhanced peer review to improve student final work and save instructors time

Learn how instructor at the Hague University of Applied Sciences enhanced student engagement with study materials

We gather the most valuable resources and learnings on pedagogy and email them to you every month.

Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Filling out this form means you agree to our Privacy Policy.