Hille Bruns is a lecturer in the Department of Organization Sciences at the Faculty of Social Sciences of VU Amsterdam. She joined VU in 2021 and has been teaching the introductory course in the BA programme Bestuurs- en Organisatiewetenschap (Public Administration and Organization Sciences) since. This course runs over the entire academic year and is mandatory for all 200 incoming students. Bruns: “When I joined the course coordination, I decided that this course needed a makeover. This turned into the project for my Senior Teaching Qualification (SKO) that I completed in May.”
Bruns’ goal is to increase student engagement and a sense of community on both the course and programme level, to improve learning outcomes so students are better prepared for the following years in the programme, and to make our exams futureproof. “I used a community of practice approach to refocus the class on academic skills that students will practice during class. According to this approach, people learn best when they are part of a community that engages in joint practice. I also hope to set in motion a sense of connection that students experience within their cohort and the BA programme.”
How did Bruns try to attain that goal? “Over time, our course had taken an independent direction, but it is supposed to support the lectures in the first year so I decided to update the readings and synchronize them with those used for the lectures. Also, many exams were take-home exams, but Google Translate and ChatGPT have made that obsolete. More exams will take place on campus instead. Also, students will write on team assignments in class on their laptops in a shared document in Google Docs. I invented this novel form of blended learning where students are both in class and online at the same time. This activating, blended, and collaborative exercise is an example of students engaging in a practice of writing during class.”
The FSS programme directors offer grants for educational innovation that seeks to activate students in our faculty. Bruns: “This was perfectly aligned with my idea of increasing student engagement, so I wrote a grant proposal.” In March, Bruns was awarded a grant of €10.000.
Bruns will use the grant for three improvements. Bruns: “First, our team of eight dedicated lecturers will go on a two-day retreat to Katwijk in July. Here, we will work out the lessons for the new course setup, while also building a community amongst ourselves. I hope to fuel a spirit of community not only in this particular course but also within the programme, so it seems appropriate for the lecturers themselves to experience a sense of community, as well. Then, we will organize a community-building event for our students before the Christmas break. I plan to invite all students to a movie screening in the VU theatre in the NU building with some socializing before and after.”
“At the beginning of the academic year, there are introductory events in the first week, so it seems like a good idea to offer another opportunity to socialize and meet or reconnect with fellow students a couple of months later - after the exams before the year come to a close. In the part of the course that takes place starting in January, when students engage in empirical research, I will introduce a digital tool for data analysis, so the last part of the grant will help cover the costs for a workshop for our lecturers to get familiar with this tool, as well as the costs for a lecture on this tool for our students.”
Bruns plans to develop this project into a larger NRO grant proposal.