Priorities:Erasmus University Rotterdam Faculty Projects
Contents
Project Name: The next step: Rotterdam Impact Lab
Project by Faculty Innovation Fellows Candidate Daniël van Vliet
Why is this project important to you, your department, & your Fellows?
The strategic goal of the Erasmus University Rotterdam is ‘Creating positive societal impact’. We strive to understand and make progress towards solving complex societal challenges, with alignment in our core activities of education and research and in close cooperation with our local and global partners. This is also why the innovation program Impact at the Core was established. Impact at the Core is a program at EUR that works on designing, strengthening and scaling up of so-called impact driven education within which students work together on new insights for societal challenges. Currently there is no physical space on campus or in the city of Rotterdam that can serve as an active learning lab and can therefore fulfill the needs (organization and fellows) that are already present or emerging in regard to impact-driven education. There is therefore a big delay in the acceleration of impact-driven education and linked to that inter and transdisciplinary education. If we want to tackle the societal urgencies in the city and its region, we need a flexible space where students, teachers and stakeholders can actively work on this together. As we are located with our campus on the eastern edge of the city of Rotterdam, we need a hub (in the city) to be able to make an even bigger tangible impact. Next to the needs of the current situation, it is important to already pre-sort on current important strategic initiatives such as the convergence (collaboration Erasmus Medical Center, TUDelft & Erasmus University Rotterdam).
Description
There is a clear need for a physical environment in which interdisciplinary and impact-driven education can take place. By creating a “Rotterdam Impact Lab”, students, researchers and society alike can work together on the current and future urgencies that play a role in the City of Rotterdam and beyond. The Rotterdam Impact Lab will act first and foremost as an active learning space, but also as a ‘convergent’ meeting space where we can accelerate interdisciplinary and impact-driven education as a whole. The central innovation project Impact at the Core works on designing, innovating, strengthening, and developing more impact-driven education at EUR. As a project lead for Impact at the Core, I therefore also look at what is still needed to make impact-driven education the norm in educational programs. When looking at the guiding principles for impact-driven education it: Aims to develop the ability of students to deal with societal challenges. Asks for a rich learning environment built around authentic problems (ecosystems). Requires the active involvement and collaboration between students, teachers, and stakeholders around these ecosystems to come to a joint shared understanding. Puts the learning process of the student central which asks for room for differentiation and tailor-made ways of assessment. Presupposes applying approaches that are both reflexive and methodical in nature. The project of the Rotterdam Impact Lab focuses on creating a rich learning environment in which learning takes center stage. Active learning has been proven to increase student learning and engagement across disciplines, grade levels, and demographics. Many students also enter higher education conditioned by their previous educational experiences to be passive recipients of what they are taught. Making space for students to take control and be also (partly) responsible for their learning in an open active learning environment can enhance their ability to learn from experience (Kolb & Kolb, 2005, p. 209) and develop their so-called ‘impact capacity’. Impact capacity has been defined by Impact at the Core as: a reflexive capacity, professional/impact skills, an academic attitude, and a responsible & engaged mindset. A physical active learning space makes students better able to connect the concepts of a class and societal problem to their own interests and concepts and are better able to draw connections between ideas (Talbert & Mor-Avi, 2019). A rich learning environment also stimulates the professional development of teachers. As mentioned by Talbert & Mor-Avi (2019), the presence of an active learning space tends to encourage instructors to use more active learning techniques in class, and this in turn often causes instructors to rethink their own roles. Instructors also expressed to view themselves more as a guide or coach than as a lecturer, which is exactly what impact-driven education aims to achieve. Doing the project of the Rotterdam Impact Lab within Impact at the Core means that it is being developed in an institutional development program, which already includes curriculum development, student development, faculty development and resource development. As discussed by Kolb & Kolb (2005), an institutional approach like this can provide the synergy necessary for dramatic organizational change and innovation. That makes that this project underneath the Faculty Innovation Fellow program can potentially have a big impact on students and teachers at EUR and society in Rotterdam alike. References: Talbert, R., & Mor-Avi, A. (2019). A space for learning: An analysis of research on active learning spaces. Heliyon, 5(12), e02967. Kolb, A. Y., & Kolb, D. A. (2005). Learning styles and learning spaces: Enhancing experiential learning in higher education. Academy of management learning & education, 4(2), 193-212.
Stakeholders served
- Students
- Teachers in need of an active learning space / impact-driven education space
- Stakeholders & Community Members in the city and Rotterdam region
Key Milestones
- December 2022: Finalized gathering of specific needs (internal and externally) of a lab
- March 2023: A suitable (pilot) space is found and a suitable (pilot) course
- June 2023: A (pilot) space is finalized and designing of space can begin (floor plan etc.)
- September 2023: First (educational) activities in the (pilot) Rotterdam Impact Lab
- December 2023: midterm evaluation
- March 2024: First (large) evaluation of Rotterdam Impact Lab & report on recommendations for the future
An Innovation Portfolio
Postdoc evaluation reports in regards to usage of and education in that space (and therefore evidence based education). Report on how the development went. Intervention/Activities toolkits in relation to education in such a space. Worksheets being made for the space / layout overview. We already as a project (Impact at the Core) work very open and also want our own project website to become a knowledge base for other people.
Related links
