How Fontys students are getting started with online learning

The part-time economic courses at Fontys Hogeschool Eindhoven have been redesigned, including more attention to the development of general skills, such as writing, presentation and cooperation. Because SkillsTown has a large offering on such subjects, a cooperation was started. Marije Dahmen, coordinator of part-time courses at Fontys Hogeschool, tells more about it.

Supplement to the curriculum

Students taking part-time economics courses at Fontys University of Applied Sciences can make unlimited use of SkillsTown's learning solutions for one year for a small fee. Marije explains why Fontys University ended up at SkillsTown: "We were looking for an addition to our regular curriculum. At SkillsTown it was possible to design the online learning environment entirely in Fontys' house style, which appealed to us. Also the fact that students can purchase their own subscription and make unlimited use of the offer was a reason for us to choose this."

The range is large and the cost is low

Part-time students have enormously busy lives. They usually have a full-time job, sometimes a family, and they are studying. Most students are not likely to take extra modules by themselves at first. Because Fontys finds it important that students also work on their general development, they decided to include this in the educational concept.

Marije explains: "At the end of the program, students must have obtained a minimum of five certificates. This can be done through SkillsTown, but it can also be done through another provider. We personally recommend SkillsTown, because the offer is large and the costs are low. Together with a teacher or study career counselor, we discuss which modules the student is taking and what the arguments are for doing so. The students find it a big plus that they can get certificates for the modules they follow," says Marije. "This way they can prove that they are actively developing their general skills."

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Many choices

Initial reactions from these learning solutions are positive. For example, students like the fact that they have a lot of freedom of choice. In the current part-time program, the curriculum is fixed. With the additional offer, students can take modules on topics they want to study in depth or that apply to their situation. Marije gives a few examples of this:"There is now a boy in the program who is poor in Dutch. He wants to practice this more and so he follows the module Dutch flawless writing. Another student works at a company with many German customers. For him it is important that he can speak to these customers well and he is now taking the German module."

"The students find it a big plus that they can get certificates for the modules they take," he said.

Teachers are curious

Of course, this new addition to the curriculum takes some getting used to for teachers. Therefore, Fontys University of Applied Sciences organized a study day where SkillsTown also stopped by to talk more about online learning. 

It is Marije's wish that, in addition to the economic programs, the other Fontys programs will also make use of the additional online offer. To enthuse other coordinators, they were invited to SkillsTown's Experience Lab, for a morning of sessions and workshops on online learning. Marije says: "We got a lot of enthusiastic responses to this. It has made people curious and I get many messages from coordinators who want more information. So a successful event!"