Office for Teaching and Learning Innovation

About

The Office for Teaching and Learning Innovation (OTLI) is a driving force behind the innovative activities of the Brussels School of Governance. It serves as a knowledge hub for our School's teaching staff and focuses on pedagogical innovation and the use of technology to enhance learning. Concretely, its dedicated team works on the design and implementation of sustainable teaching and learning policies that aim to improve the student learning experience for all course formats, from face-to-face to blended to fully online. The team contributes to the professional development of the teaching staff and is active in the domain of quality assurance. OTLI also manages and supports both the student information system CICS (Peoplesoft Campus Solutions) and the learning platform Canvas. 

With this in-house expertise, we want to pass a clear message to our current and future students: no matter what type of learning experience you will have with us, face-to-face, blended or online, it will always be personal, flexible, and high-quality.

Activities

Below, you will find a selection of our activities.

The change to online teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic brought many challenges, not only for students but also for lecturers. With the help of the Office for Teaching and Learning Innovation, I was able to employ interactive online teaching tools and use the online platform to provide supporting material that is available to students any time - thus creating online courses that were challenging and engaging for the students. In the process, I realised the valuable addition that the online environment can make to teaching, from providing additional readings, videos, photos, and quizzes to organising a student-led online conference.
Carolin Liss
Carolin Liss
Programme Director
I was worried that due to the COVID-19 pandemic I wouldn’t be able to maintain the friendships I had beforehand but the virtual community not only helped me maintain contact with friends, I also made some new ones along the way. We played games together, shared laughs and with the addition of a specific chat only for students I believe that the Virtual Community has been a great addition to the Brussels School of Governance.
Alexander Wolter
Alexander Wolter
BA International Affairs student
Free online course on Governing the EU’s Climate and Energy Transition now available​

In 2021, OTLI contributed to developing a course on EU climate and energy policy. As of 21 June 2021, this free online course has become available in the context of the Govtran project (hosted at the Centre for Environment, Economy and Energy) headed by the BSoG. Open to everyone, it is particularly well suited for people with some prior knowledge of EU institutions and policymaking. The 4-modules course is self-paced – meaning you can start it when you want and go at your own speed. It is perfectly shaped for both students to obtain a comprehensive overview of EU climate and energy governance and energy policy, as well as for professors to use the course materials for their own courses. Read more.

Moot course flyer
Implementation of Campus Solutions

In 2022, we collaborated with CY2, a Campus Solutions consulting and solutions development leader, to design and implement a new student information system (CICS) to support our teaching staff and enhance our student services. Campus Solutions significantly improves the admissions and course enrollment processes, gives students and advisors insight in the learning process through Academic Advisement, and it provides a variety of useful academic information to teaching staff and students through an online self-service portal.

EU - Executive Education in Digital Transformation Program for Public Sector

In 2021, the Office for Teaching and Learning Innovation (OTLI) advised and supported academics in recording seven videos for a lecture series on digital transformation, organised in cooperation with the AWS Institute Network. This Executive Education Program in Digital Transformation equips senior EU public servants and elected officials with the confidence and expertise they need to lead the successful digital transformation of public services to better meet the needs of their citizens. Here you can read more about this Executive Program. If want to know more about the added value of video in your courses, please contact the team here at the OTLI!

Team

Our OTLI team can be reached at otli_bsog@vub.be.

René Hermens
René Hermens
Rita Silva Reis
Rita Silva Reis