EDLAB is the Maastricht Institute Centre for Teaching & Learning. We work with students and staff to uphold the high standard of education at UM – and explore new possibilities for improvement. Read more about us and our vision under “EDLAB and Education Innovation”.

We offer a variety of services especially for teaching staff and students. This page focusses on our educational services for teaching staff, which includes – but is not limited to providing online resources that teachers can use for improving their course design, teaching practice or tool usage, our CPD offer and related information (UTQ and tutor training),  EDconsult and other one-on-one support offers. Browse through the menu on the left to explore what we can offer you.

We define innovation as the process of creating new ideas and practices to address educational needs – to do different things, and doing things differently. Innovation is not necessarily radical or disruptive, but also exists in improving what is there and repairing what is broken. Innovation can be about educational methods and processes, about technology, or about spaces. It requires critical review of issues and potential solutions; it is an incremental process and a means to an end.

Innovation happens on different layers: on a personal level (“I have never done this before.”), an institutional level (“We have never done this before.”) and a global level (“No one has ever done this before”).

We aim to address all of these in one or another way, but recognise that the greatest number of support is requested on the personal level – which is why a great number of projects are dedicated to that and the sustainability of the innovation linked to this.

Simultaneously, innovation grants, CoPs, research and other formats are always looking for small-scale, radical innovations that we can explore with those who are interested.

This page is developed in the context of improving our offer and resources for teaching staff.

If this is not what you’re looking for, hopefully this information can direct you to what you’re looking for.

• If you are a student interested in our work, please read more here.
• If you are a student in an excellence programme, please check out our excellence pages.
• If you are a support staff, hopefully this can help you out.
• If you are an external stakeholder, please read more here, check out an overview of our innovation projects, or get in touch!

If you can’t find the information you’re looking for, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

At UM, we have several programmes in place to support you in your education.

The formal development programmes are most importantly:

• University Teaching Qualification (UTQ): A formal trajectory that all teaching staff has to complete when they begin teaching at UM offered at your faculty.
• Continuing Professional Development (CPD): Formal professional development offer, often in the shape of workshops or trainings for teaching staff that completed their CPD.

You can read more about our staff development here. If you don’t know which programme you should follow, check out this page.

Beyond the formal professional development programmes, we aim to support UM’s teaching staff by facilitating peer-to-peer support and community building events.

Among those are:

• Most popularly the Teach-Meet: Organised twice a year on topics relevant at that moment, we invite UM teachers to pitch their best practices. Drinks and an informal gathering give room for exchange and networking.
• Communities of Practice: A group of teaching staff dedicates itself to a  particular topic they want to invest more time in.
• Education Day(s): We have recently begun planning an education day, that invites all staff to participate in some of our most inspiring innovation offers. You can attend one or all sessions, depending on interest and availability.
• You’re always invited to simply attend other events we organise: from conferences to project teams. Just click around or contact us directly!
• Stay up to date by signing up for our newsletter here.

We’ve always been open to all types of request and love hearing your concerns, remarks, questions and ideas anytime by mail.

More recently, we have also formalised this question into EDconsult. We welcome any questions about e.g. PBL, CCCS, Constructive Alignment, course evaluations,(digital) assessment, redesign, blended learning, the use of tools – or whatever else is on your mind.

Whether you want a second opinion on a course manual draft, don’t know where to start with it, or would like to reflect on your teaching style, we have a broad range of theoretical and practical expertise with which we like to help you.

There are various ways in which we support you.

• Our PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT curricula (UTQ & CPD) often have a very innovative approach to teaching also from external staff. The Communities of Practice project allows teachers to zoom in on one particular topic for innovating with a group of the like-minded.
• In addition, we offer EVENTS that should inspire you to innovate in your own classroom, through e.g. the Teach-Meet or the Education Day(s).
• You can also apply for innovation GRANTS. EDLAB innovation grants for education innovation are offered for teaching staff that is looking for funding to implement an innovation in the classroom. The Teaching & Learning grants are offered for research on education innovations.
• Finally the great number of innovative teaching practices and examples displayed on our page for online resources, the personal sessions with EDconsult, and other services that you can find on this page should support you in your innovation.

Excellent – we’ve got you covered! We try to add examples to all the information we’re providing, so just click through our online resources.

If you are, e.g. looking for creative ways to implement our learning principles of constructive, contextual, collaborative and self-directed learning (CCCS), click here to see examples for teaching and learning activities.

If you’re looking for which tool to use for what or an overview on what UM licences are available, please check out the Tool-Wheel.

If you’re looking for manuals for tools like Zoom, Canvas, etc., please check out this page.

If you need support with digital assessment, please click here.

If none of this answers your question, we invite you to request an EDconsult for a one-on-one session with one of our experts.

The best starting point for course re-design is the theory of constructive alignment. On that page we have listed a great number of resources for course design, which follows the path of 1) Outlining the intended learning outcomes (ILOs) of your course, 2) finding the appropriate teaching and learning activities (TLAs) that can achieve the outcomes you defined, and finally 3) finding an appropriate method of assessment that can be used to test whether the learning outcomes were achieved and simultaneously stimulate learning throughout the course.

If you are looking for information on course development, check out the tiles concerned with “Course level”, starting with ILOs, moving to TLAs, and finally assessment. In each section you will find relevant examples. We’re also continuously updating the page with new and different examples to put UM’s educational philosophy to practice.

In addition, we have a programme redesign guide with examples, that may also provide some help for your course re-design.

We are also currently working on a more detailed course re-design guide in the context of the TEE project. More information on that will follow.

Surely you’re already doing great – but we always love when our teaching staff is looking to improve their teaching. If you’re looking for resources to improve your in-class teaching (such as e.g. facilitating collaboration or improving engagement), please check out our resources provided here.

If this isn’t quite what you’re looking for, please feel free to request an EDconsult, or maybe send us an e-mail. We’re excited to hear from you!