Design Based Education professorship

With Design Based Education (DBE), NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences has a unique educational concept that is available to the entire university. At the same time, the introduction of DBE means changes to learning, teaching activities, learning environments and the organisation of learning.

But what exactly are these changes? As a lecturer, how can you best fulfil your role as a coach? How do assessments work in DBE? What is the evidence that DBE works? These questions and many others are the key focus of the research carried out by the Design Based Education professorship. The Design Based Education professorship ties in with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of ‘Quality Education’.

The professorship conducts university-wide research into the DBE educational concept and aims to:

contribute to the theoretical underpinnings of DBE
contribute to the further development of DBE
contribute to the embedding of DBE

In addition to a number of essential projects such as design-based research into the duties and skills of lecturers under DBE and duties and skills of educational leaders, the professorship is developing three lines of research:

research from the perspective of students
research from the perspective of the learning environment
research into integrated educational development

The DBE professorship carries out research at the cutting edge of theory and practice and prefers to take a demand-based approach to its activities. The professorship contributes to the quality of DBE within the university of applied sciences.
It all starts with the question: what does DBE mean for you as a student, lecturer and team leader?

Who do we work with

The Design Based Education professorship supports the improvement and innovation of DBE by working with stakeholders from various academies, courses, departments or programmes to conduct research into current educational issues. In addition, the professorship collaborates with external partners. Two examples of structural partnerships are the partnerships with the University of Helsinki and the Open University. The professorship collaborates with the University of Helsinki on the HowULearn project as well as on the theme of data use in education, whereas collaboration with the Open University, and with the Faculty of Educational Sciences in particular, takes place in two ways. Firstly, Master’s students in Educational Sciences carry out their graduation research under the banner of the professorship and, secondly, the professorship acts as the client for the Design of Education course in which students design products that can be used of NHL Stenden UAS.