UG invests 5.5 million in online education
Additional staff and improved software
UG invests 5.5 million in online education
Door René Hoogschagen
By René Hoogschagen
The investment is meant to capitalise on what the UG has learned about online education because of the corona crisis. ‘Students and lecturers currently feel that the quality of online education pales in comparison to on campus education’, the board of directors writes in its Educational Action Plan. The investments are explicitly meant to have ‘long-term relevance for the UG strategy’.
The plan revolves around the concept of blended learning, where classes will be taught both online and on campus, with some students attending in person while others take the class at home. The UG also wants to make sure students can easily switch between online and on campus education.
Implementation
The university will hire student assistants and experts to help lecturers set up online classes and tests. The UG is also spending 800,000 euros on better software.
Additional classrooms will be made available for recording and live-streaming classes. The UG has ordered the build of 125 carts that come equipped with a large screen and other necessary equipment. The university will employ people to help work these polycom systems.
Exams that cannot be administered online will take place in the Aletta Jacobs hall. The planning will take corona measures into account. The university will focus on getting students in and out of the hall as quickly as possible.
Facilities
The UG will provide facilities to teach students and lecturers to navigate the online environment. They’ll be creating a digital platform where people can talk about their experience, offer webinars, and creates online education and testing modules.
People already have access to help for online testing. The facilities for recording and streaming classes should be available by the second semester. Lecturer support, the website, and webinars will be functional in block 3. The deadline to implement all the other facilities is the end of this academic year.
IT multi-annual plan
Another 800,000 euros has been set aside for any new measures in the second year.
The money for the plan partially originates from the quality agreements for housing and lecturers support for next year. These are now almost entirely depleted. The biggest part, more than four million, will be taken from the IT multi-annual plan from the previous period and the coming one.