LEARNING FROM EDUCATION INNOVATION USING THE 4TU.CEE INNOVATION MAP

Rapid changes in society and student demographics pose major challenges for universities, who are responding by innovating education visions, learning goals, curricula, and courses. These education innovations are often reported in the literature and at conferences on a single-project basis, resulting in a large number of differently structured publications that make it difficult to find interesting examples or learn from a wide variety of education innovation projects. To counteract this, the four technical universities in the Netherlands (in Eindhoven, Wageningen, Twente, and Delft) offer standardized information about their education innovation projects on the innovation map website (4TU.CEE, 2020) of their joint Centre For Engineering Education; 4TU.CEE. University staff around the world can use the innovation map to find interesting examples of education innovation. Our analysis of all projects contained within the innovation map shows that, over the last four years, the innovation priority of the four universities has been on solving present-day challenges in their courses. The main approach has been improving education design and optimizing blended learning. This has been particularly useful for the universities that faced a large growth in the number of students. In the future, however, the priority of the four universities must shift to their longer-term strategies, such as Future Engineering Skills, Interdisciplinary Education, Dealing with Diversity, and Education Excellence. That also means more focus is needed for changes both to the curriculum and beyond. Furthermore, evaluation and dissemination should be more explicitly included. The purpose of the innovation map is to offer input for further university education innovation projects and research.