Education Innovation Award
The VU Education Innovation Award is intended for (interdisciplinary or trans-faculty) teaching teams that develop an innovative project that focuses on improving teaching practice at VU Amsterdam. Projects that focus on giving innovative substance to the VU educational vision also have a chance of winning the Education Innovation Prize. The context in which the collaboration between lecturers takes place is relatively free. Thus, lecturers can also involve support staff, students and social actors in their project.
Esther Schagen on the project 'Let's collaborate!'
Esther Schagen is a senior lecturer in the Department of Communication Science (FSS). She talks about the project 'Let's collaborate! Practicing collaboration skills through AI-powered Avatar Training': 'I noticed that students increasingly seek support in developing collaboration skills that are essential for their academic and professional success. However, these crucial skills are often insufficiently addressed in educational settings, due to time constraints and because teachers do not feel equipped to facilitate student learning in this area.'
To address this need, Esther worked with bachelor students Pratischa Koirala and Filippos Pratziotis to run a successful pilot in which they developed an AI-powered avatar application for project courses within the bachelor's programme in Communication Science. This application allows students to practice giving feedback on collaborative skills in a simulated environment. The avatar is designed to simulate realistic and student-provided team scenarios, allowing students to practise responses and strategies in a controlled environment.'
From the jury report
The Education Innovation Jury identified two winning teams. The second winning team is from Sofia Stolk & Wouter Werner (Faculty of Law in collaboration with Faculty of Religion and Theology and Faculty of Social Sciences) - Visual Evidence.
The entries by Esther Schagen and Sofia Stolk & Wouter Werner stood out to the jury for the excellent elaboration and substantiation of their project proposals, and the innovative content of the ideas behind them. The jury believes that the development of soft skills during the study deserves more attention and was therefore pleasantly surprised by the original idea to let students practice this using AI. That this idea comes from the corner of Social Sciences is unexpected, shows an innovative mindset and deserves high praise, according to the jury. Moreover, the jury is delighted to see that student members Pratischa and Filippos visibly play a major role in improving and informing about the application and the toolbox. The jury sees many opportunities for further development and wider application of Let's collaborate! within VU Amsterdam - not only students, but also lecturers from all faculties could benefit from the interactive avatar training developed by Esther Schagen and her team. The jury would like to encourage Schagen's team to invest in making the avatar training even more interactive, and hopes that by awarding this prize, steps can be taken to further develop the technology internally within VU Amsterdam in the future.
Both winning teams received €15,000. The Centre for Teaching and Learning will provide free assistance to the two winning teams in scaling up their projects.
About the Education Innovation Prize
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam values good and inspiring education, good and inspiring students and good and inspiring teachers. To underline this importance, every year VU Amsterdam presents Education Awards to exceptional lecturers and students who deserve to be put in the spotlight. The finalists and winners are put in the spotlight during the VU Education Day with the Master Thesis Award, Student Talent Award, Education Innovation Award and Teacher Talent Award.
