Renewed ECOLe: one support point for (nearly) all your questions about education and teacher development
ECOLe is expanding. From 4 November, you can also contact them for questions about BKO (University Teaching Qualification), didactics, educational innovation, and teacher development.
Until now, ECOLe was primarily focused on online education. For other questions, teaching staff had to consult different departments. As a lecturer, it was sometimes difficult to determine the right place to go if you had a query. In line with the Faculty Strategic Plan, it was therefore decided to broaden ECOLe's scope. The name has also undergone a slight change, from Expertise Centre Online Learning to Expertise Centre for Teaching and Learning.
Intensified collaboration
Anna Benjamins works as an educational adviser for ICT and education at ECOLe. 'In practice, we were already working closely with all educational support services behind the scenes,' she explains. 'If someone had a question that was relevant to both ECOLe and another department, we would seek each other out. We are now intensifying this collaboration. The "new" ECOLe answers lecturers’ questions and keeps them informed about (online) didactics, course design, educational tools, teacher meetings, educational innovation, assessment & evaluation, and BKO. There is now one functional mailbox, ecole@hum.leidenuniv.nl, so teaching staff can reach us more easily.’ Additionally, on 4 November, the successor to the FGW Education website will be launched. This website has been updated and better structured, making it easier for teaching staff to find what they're looking for. It will now be called ECOLe: FGW Teaching Staff Platform and can be found at https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/ecole
ICT and Research Coordinator Auke Ruhe was involved as project leader in the renewal. He gives an example of how things have improved: 'Previously, you first had to consider whether digital assessment was sensible, and then you had to go somewhere else to have your exam digitalised. Over the past few months, we have worked hard with representatives from various departments to centralise these types of questions. Teaching staff only need to go elsewhere for questions related to Education and Student Affairs; everything else can be addressed to ECOLe. This change makes things much simpler for teaching staff, and at the same time this new approach allows us to build an internal knowledge base. We want to centralise all information that is currently scattered across different locations, so that we can handle queries as efficiently as possible.'
Support from ECOLe and OSZ
In addition to ECOLe, the OSZ department also provides educational support. Which matters can ECOLe help you with, and what does OSZ support?
· At ECOLe, we focus on didactic and assessment support, educational design and innovation.
· For practical matters concerning educational organisation*, you can contact OSZ. This includes questions about course enrolment, scheduling, study advice or grade registration.
If you are unsure where to turn to, or if it appears that another department would be better suited to help you, we will always ensure you are properly referred to the right place.
Teachers
Esther Op de Beek was involved as a teacher. 'It is very good that teachers are involved to help think about the functionalities and processes. We have always looked in consultation at what is best, simplest, most efficient and workable: both for teachers who have questions or need information in their teaching practice, and for the staff who collectively take care of processing and providing information. Moreover, I think it is important for teachers that ECOLe, with which many teachers have had excellent experiences in recent times, remains recognisable.'