At SBE we fund education innovation projects that are proposed and led by our educators.
The below projects are designed to improve education within and across programs, with emphasis on our SBE Active Blended Learning pillars of Activate, Connect, and Empower. The projects are run with support and advice from the SBE Centre for Teaching and Learning and Educators' Collective.
by Stephan Eltink and Christine Moser
The "Gen AI for Teachers project'' investigates how Generative AI (GenAI) is transforming education, focusing on its alignment with VU's values of responsibility, openness, and personal engagement. This initiative aims to provide practical guidance for teachers, assisting them in integrating AI tools into their classrooms effectively and ethically. Doing so supports our ABL goals of activating students and empowering teachers.
The project is currently mapping the current landscape, identifying existing GenAI tools and practices, and collecting insights from educators in and outside the VU and academic conferences. Building on this foundation, the team will assess how these technologies can be used safely and responsibly, with an emphasis on enhancing course content from a teacher's perspective.
In the final phase, these insights will be translated into accessible resources, such as knowledge clips, podcasts, a chatbot, and written guidelines, designed to support and connect educators in using GenAI confidently. Throughout the project, progress and updates will be shared to ensure that these evolving tools serve both educators and students in meaningful ways.
by Amanda Porter, Ella Hafermalz and Katja Teniaeva
This project focuses on understanding the diverse identities of SBE students, going beyond numbers and demographics to capture their unique backgrounds, motivations and experiences of education at the VU. The goal is to develop a flexible typology of six student personas that help educators better empathise with students and tailor strategic and pedagogical decisions.
Key project activities are interviews with students from different backgrounds and in-depth analysis, followed by the generation of design personas. By identifying unique barriers to attendance and participation, the project aims to activate students, motivating them to engage more fully with their educational environment. Recognising a variety of perspectives will help connect students with one another, inspiring educators to devise new strategies for fostering community. Ultimately, the project will empower educators by providing insights that inform decision-making, ensuring that diverse student personas are represented in educational strategies.
Deliverables will feature a report and presentations at SBE Strategy Day in April 2025, providing educators and leaders with valuable insights to create a more inclusive and supportive environment for all students.
by Sean Telg, Raushan Kanatova, Devon Abbey, (Stephan Eltink & Michiel van Drunen)
SBE’s principles of Active Blended Learning (ABL) have been developed into a practical set of standardized course designs. The course formats help students to study more effectively both on-campus and online. The building blocks of the formats are learning activities, which are grouped into 4 categories: knowledge transmission, developing understanding, skills and ability training, and performance of mastery. Educators can find more information here. Course coordinators are invited to contact SBE’s Center for Teaching and Learning if they need support for redesigning their courses.
by Tim Oosterwijk and Luc Glasbeek
This project aims to empower program leaders with an overview of how current “end works,” such as theses, are organized, and to offer guidance on how these may need to evolve in light of the rise of Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT. At present, all SBE undergraduate and graduate programmes conclude with a thesis, sometimes complemented by a portfolio (e.g., in Accounting and Finance).
The adoption of LLMs has sparked discussion about the continued validity of the thesis as the ‘capstone’ of students’ learning activities, as several competencies required to complete a thesis can now be, at least partially, demonstrated with the support of such models. Moreover, some master’s programmes in the social sciences that have replaced the thesis with alternative end works (e.g., Sociology at the VU) report that these alternatives may more effectively assess research-related competencies and better prepare students for the labour market.
Finally, SBE will benefit from fostering connection among educators to develop a more consistent approach to end works, particularly in the BSc phase. Since many staff members supervise students across different programmes, aligning guidelines could enhance coherence and efficiency.
by Jiska Eelen
The virtual hub aims to activate students’ learning about effective persuasion and engage students in research, informing them about opportunities in the field. The hub consists of a collective database of marketing communication campaigns that showcase good/worse examples of the principles discussed in class and a virtual platform that showcases the ecosystem behind research. The platform allows students to interact with the database using several filters and search options. The hub is intended to ultimately connect class material to real-world contexts.
by Amanda Porter and Christer Guldemond
The project aims to extend the value of the IBA Lab pilot by enhancing its scalability. It implements a structured approach to co-creation with societal stakeholders and a process-driven model for student-directed personal development. The project delivers a digital platform, assessment and feedback tools, workshops, and video diaries—resources designed to connect students to real-world contexts and empower them through personal development.
A comprehensive and accessible online platform aims to prepare students for the Master's in Econometrics and Operational Research, regardless of their diverse academic backgrounds. The platform bridges gaps in knowledge, refreshes essential concepts, and aims to activate and empower incoming students with a solid foundation in key areas of the Master program.
by Janina Klein, Anna Plotnikova and Steven van Baarle
The aim of the project is to empower SBE students with an understanding of AI tools and their ethical usage.
A learning plan specifically focuses on educating students on what AI is, how it works, what the outcomes of it are, and ethical questions that need to be considered. This will be integrated into the "Management Practice and Consulting” and “Strategy Evaluation and Advice” courses.
The goal of the project is to remediate the lack of entry math skills for the course Business Mathematics.
Many students postpone intensive practice until it’s too late, often underestimating the time needed to develop mathematical fluency. To help with this, the Algebra Quiz has been developed - an innovative tool designed to empower students with foundational algebraic skills needed for the course. Powered by Python, this dynamic system draws from a pool of 10,000 unique questions, generating randomised practice sets for each attempt.
This new project aims to refine and enhance the Algebra Quiz: an updated version will not only help students practice foundational problem sets but also activate students in engaging with problem sets in the Business Mathematics course.
The project aims to develop ChatGPT-powered assistants for building case studies and serving as a custom study assistant for practicing course materials. The latter is trained on previously developed quizzes. This will activate and empower students by providing a more personalised and flexible learning experience.
by Jiska Eelen
Setting up an entirely new (Canvas) course "Master Thesis" to provide students and instructors with a clear and comprehensive approach of the thesis creation process aligned with the learning objectives. The timing and the flow of the modules in the course are designed to activate students. They will be organised in clear feedback loops, developed to ensure a consistent pedagogical approach and alignment of learning materials for both students and supervisors. The dedicated Canvas page, knowledge clips, tutorials, and other course materials will empower students and supervisors for a successful thesis journey.
Lost in the middle of formal and on-job training: How do young professionals proactively develop the skills of working with artificial intelligent applications? Current medical training focuses primarily on traditional methods, with medical professionals expected to learn how to use AI tools as they encounter them in clinical practice. This project aimed to design a learning environment to empower medical professionals, helping them gain the skills to safely and effectively use AI technologies with patients.
The AI Learning Lab was established to offer hands-on experience with AI applications in various medical tasks. More importantly, the Lab connect diverse stakeholders to engage in experiential learning, where medical professionals gain critical insights into AI technologies, developers receive feedback on how their tools can better support medical practice, and organizational researchers learn about the effectiveness and challenges of AI applications in different work settings.
This project laid the foundation for the LIAISON project, which will continue providing a collaborative space for young professionals to develop the skills needed to work effectively with AI in medicine.
It is an enormous challenge to come up with active blended learning solutions on a large scale within higher education without losing sight of the needs of various stakeholders (teachers, students and support staff). Impact Lab offers structural support for the design and implementation of active blended learning solutions together with various stakeholders. A unique 'challenge-driven co-creation' process and combination of an online collaborative platform with face-to-face workshops will provide knowledge integration within a blended learning co-creation community and offer insights into the requirements to achieve pedagogical and institutional benefits of active blended learning: https://impactlab.vu.nl/
by Sean Telg
This project introduces a platform for an integrated, online student portfolio that is active both prior to and during the first year of study. The main goal is to empower students during the transition from secondary to academic education. Prior to studying, the platform offers modules with targeted information and exercises to activate — test and improve — quantitative skills. During the study, this is continued through prior knowledge modules that make the connections between subjects and coherence in the program explicit for new students.
Innovating education can feel like a big task. But small changes can make a difference. For example, we learned that students are activated when teachers show they care: about their students but also about the world and their topic. How can you show students that you care (without adding more to your workload)? Check out this video with 5 Tips and Tricks that you can use now.
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