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Future-proof education
This is how we work together to ensure future-proof education
In the past, educational institutions were independent entities, and while they still are today, they are also part of an ecosystem. Digital sector facilities not only promote cooperation within institutions, but also between institutions and with the labour market.
Digital sector facilities only work effectively when everyone participates. This increases the possibilities for flexible learning, digital sovereignty and the quality of education. Examples include eduID, OOAPI en eduwallet. We discuss the advantages and obstacles of digital sector facilities with two advocates: Nicole Ummelen, chair of the board of the Open University and board member at Studielink, and Rose van Iperenburg, information manager at HAN and sector leader at Npuls.
Adapting to changes in education
The need for digital sector facilities stems from several developments occurring simultaneously. The ever-growing influence of tech giants from the US and China calls for greater caution. The labour market and society are seeing an increasing demand for well-educated people with up-to-date skills. This puts considerable pressure on the education system.
Students also often have specific wishes regarding their study programme and its content. For example, a medical student at VU University Amsterdam wants to specialise in nutrition and take courses at Wageningen University & Research. Or a student at the media college wants a career in hospitality and sees opportunities to study for a semester at a hotel school. We must work together to find answers to all the changes in and around the educational landscape.
Rose van Iperenburg
When it comes to connecting to digital sector facilities, HAN is one of the leading institutions. Rose says: “To remain effective, you need joint facilities.” Her institution has experience with the preparations needed to stay connected. “At HAN, we are preparing for eduID.” With eduID, students are given an institution-independent identity, which makes it easier for them to take advantage of the educational offerings of other institutions, for example.
“The challenge in connecting to digital sector facilities lies mainly in the differences in pace between institutions and in what they have and have not previously adapted in their IT landscape,” says Nicole. Her institution has consciously chosen to connect to digital sector facilities. “It offers many advantages. If you have to develop everything yourself, you incur high development and management costs.”
Thinking about a future-proof education sector
Nicole Ummelen
Institutions vary in their readiness to actually connect to digital sector facilities. That is why a great deal of support is available, both from the institutions themselves and from SURF and Npuls. Over the next six years, Npuls will be looking at ways to make it easier for institutions to use these facilities, for example by developing joint infrastructures for knowledge building and sector-wide agreements.
Currently, 45 institutions are already active within the Get Connected scheme. They receive financial and technical support for the implementation and adoption of the facilities. “The strength of this type of scheme is that it also includes advice,” says Rose. She adds: “Even if your institution is not that large or is not affiliated with Get Connected, you can still make use of the knowledge and experience of the institutions that are currently involved. Many enthusiastic and skilled people at Npuls and SURF have given careful consideration to what we need, both now and in the coming period."
“If you want to implement major changes, in this case between sectors, in order to continuously offer the best education and enable learning without barriers, then changes are needed in the IT landscape and information management of institutions”
Necessity: effective organisation of the IT landscape
Nicole sees the changes around her: "In recent years, there has been a growing trend towards more flexible education. For a long time, it was not necessary to coordinate choices for systems and processes. As a result, institutions operated very autonomously. At that time, there was no need to organise the information landscape across the sector. Now there is.”
“If you want to implement major changes, in this case between sectors, in order to continuously offer the best education and enable learning without barriers, then changes are needed in the IT landscape and information management of institutions,” says Rose.
“Sometimes the barriers to doing something extra are so high that students simply give up. That's a shame and a missed opportunity”
Learners increasingly have reasons to earn their credits beyond the boundaries of a single institution. This is good for their development and ensures that courses are better aligned with the demands of the labour market and society. But Nicole sees that this is not always easy: “Sometimes the barriers to doing something extra are so high that students simply give up. That's a shame and a missed opportunity.”
Standards and agreements
However, digital sector facilities are not new. In 2007, the launch of Studielink prompted the development of cross-sector digital services for registration and enrolment. This will soon become AII, enabling learners to register, enrol and sign up for vocational education, higher professional education and university education.
“On the one hand, there are the digital facilities that already exist and to which institutions can connect. On the other hand, there are components in an architecture that are reused in new digital facilities that we are developing,” explains Rose. “The intention is to have interfaces and standards so that systems become ‘clickable’.”
After all, exchanging information is easier when it is done according to standards. The sender and receiver both recognise the information and can immediately make smart use of it. No valuable time or resources are lost. The MOSA and HOSA educational architectures provide the foundation for this. “But it's about much more than that. We also need to make clear agreements with each other about information security and privacy.”
“We each maintain our own profile, but there are also issues that are relevant everywhere. We work together on those”
Making greater use of institutional expertise
Nicole is enthusiastic about the current initiatives: “This facilitates students' learning pathways. That's what we all want within the sector. By working together, we can achieve this more effectively than separately.” If students can move more easily between different institutions, they will be able to make greater use of the unique expertise that these institutions have to offer.
This will allow institutions to specialise even more in terms of content. “We each maintain our own profile, but there are also issues that apply everywhere. That's where we work together,” says Nicole, emphasising that the development of digital sector facilities is much more than a technical programme. “You encourage people to think about the education of the future.”
Get Connected scheme
45 vocational colleges, universities of applied sciences and universities are participating in the Get Connected Scheme. This scheme supports institutions that want to start using digital sector facilities. Participating institutions receive technical and financial assistance with implementation and adoption.
See which institutions are participating
A Npuls linking team is active within each institution. This team connects the institution to the national programme and encourages knowledge exchange between institutions.
This is how we work together to ensure future-proof education is an article from SURF Magazine.
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