Open Education Ambassadors

Each year, on the occasion of global Open Education Week, TU Delft celebrates nine lecturers for their commitment to openly share knowledge and educational resources with the world.

Nominated by their faculties and QuTech, they receive the award from the Executive Director of the TU Delft Extension School for Continuing Education in an open ceremony at the Teaching Academy.

These Ambassadors embody the spirit of Open Education and advocate for open teaching & learning practices in a variety of ways. They may advance openness through the design and delivery of a MOOC, or by creating specific open educational resources (OER), such as open textbooks, educational tools, innovative applications and assessment methods, open platforms – many which are often also used for campus education. Additionally, by participating in relevant fora and through efforts in faculty and beyond, they create opportunities for sharing and for intra-discipline collaborations with education parties in and outside academia. To benefit a worldwide audience, they may contribute global and sustainable solutions to societal problems via open online education, or via a focus on specific or under-represented groups, such as learners from low- and middle-income countries, persons with impairments, or female participation in STEM subjects.

Lastly, each nominee wishes to share knowledge and best practices inside and outside TU Delft and across departments and disciplines, in this way both inspiring others and positively affecting learners around the world.

2023 Open Education Ambassadors
Previous years Open Education Ambassadors

Open Education Ambassadors 2024

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Aurèle Adam – faculty of Applied Science

For contributing to openness in various forms, including his work for the Open Interactive Textbook (OIT) about Optics, which is used both by students in the campus course and as a knowledge base by external partners. Additionally, for efforts in looking for innovative and open ways in teaching, such as making textbooks more impactful through the inclusion of interactive elements, and for a commitment to sharing ideas and challenges with the OIT community, leading to more collaboration and further developments. Finally, for advocating for open education in his role as Program Director for Applied Physics, inspiring other lecturers within and without the faculty. 
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Bart van Straten – faculty of Mechanical Engineering  

For contributing to open education and a commitment to openly sharing knowledge and expertise in a variety of ways, including advocating in collaborations with internal and external partners, and in academic and industry fora. Additionally, for co-creating and delivering two openly licenced MOOCs –- Circular Strategies for Hospitals, and Circular Strategies for MedTech Suppliers –- to promote circularity in the healthcare sector, as well as open educational resources, for example the open textbook ‘Creating a circular healthcare economy: Circular strategies for a sustainable healthcare’. The MOOCs are reused for campus education, soon to be included in the biochemical engineering track, and part of the portfolio that received the 2023 QS Reimagine Education Award for its concrete support of lifelong learning the world over. Finally, for Bart’s focus on delivering knowledge for real-world applicable solutions that directly help address challenges at a global level.  
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Calvin Rans – faculty of Aerospace Engineering 

For contributing to openness and sharing in teaching & learning practices and materials beyond the TU Delft campus, with accolades from students and peers at other universities and worldwide. In addition to being the responsible lecturer for the openly licenced MOOC Introduction to Aerospace Structures and Materials, for seeking to introduce new open formats and tools to better cater to different learner audiences – more recently for example using a ChatGPT-generated video or creating an engaging ‘mission to space’ campus course to bring situations to life through digital tools. Finally, for regularly sharing experiences and lessons learned in engineering education, including as Chair of the Open and Online Education interest group. 
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Eliška Greplová – QuTech / Kavli Institute of Nanoscience

For contributing to open education and to openly sharing knowledge with the world, evidenced for example in the work for the MOOCs Machine Learning for Semiconductor Quantum Devices and Development and Applications of Germanium Quantum Technologies. Eliška brings her commitment to intra- and inter-faculty collaborations, reuses the MOOCs on campus education, and publicly shares materials also as Jupyterbook, arXiv lecture notes. Finally, as an advocate and role model for open education and for female participation in STEM subjects on the international stage, for example as a member of the World Economic Forum ‘Global Future Council on Quantum Computing’ and co-founder of the Virtual Science Forum for online scientific events.  
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Esra Polat – faculty of Industrial Design Engineering 

For contributing to open education as evidenced by her support of the faculty’s MOOCs on circularity, including quality checks and the management of Teaching Assistants. Coordinating the delivery and moderation of these MOOCs – Circular Economy: an Introduction; Engineering Design in a Circular Economy; and Designing Electronics for Recycling in a Circular Economy – Esra plays a key role in the intra-faculty collaborations for the portfolio on circularity and sustainability. Additionally, with a focus on accessibility and the sharing of best practices, she implemented the Course Design Accessibility Guidelines in the Sustainable Packaging for a Circular Economy MOOC, which resulted in it being more mobile-friendly and better accessible to persons with impairments, in turn broadening its overall openness and outreach to learners globally. 
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Jules van Lier – faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences 

For a long-standing commitment to contributing to openness and to sharing expertise globally, for example by creating the Urban Sewage Treatment MOOC, which makes crucial knowledge freely available, positively impacting the welfare of communities all over the world. The further collaborative development of two openly accessible courses on sustainability: Circularity Principles and Policy, and Circularity Applications in Renewable Energy Technologies, is a further tangible demonstration of Jules’ efforts to offer global and sustainable solutions for societal challenges through open online education, aiming to benefit a worldwide audience. Finally, for his continuous leadership, collaborative spirit, advocacy, and dedication to education, sustainability, and societal well-being.   

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Stefan Buijsman – faculty of Technology, Policy & Management 

For contributing to open education in several ways, also as course manager for the MOOC Ethics in AI Design, developed as part of an interfaculty programme and from Stefan’s earlier involvement with the international TV series/open source platform Mind of the Universe, and which materials are used in interfaculty campus courses. Additionally, for the collaborative development of a new MOOC on the Conscious Use of Generative AI and for the resulting OERs that support the current public discourse on the responsible development and use of AI. Finally, for Stefan’s advocacy within the faculty’s Ethics/Philosophy of Technology section, which aims to reach and involve stakeholders in society to collaboratively find answers for the responsible use of new technologies. This is also demonstrated by the section’s activities within the national edusources community on ethics.   
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Tatiana Armijos Moya – faculty of Architecture & the Built Environment 

For contributing to openness in different ways and through her work for the MOOC Façade design and engineering, which Tatiana led with sharing as core principle: from publishing the course materials under an open licence to negotiating access to literature that would only be available at a cost to learners outside the MOOC, and to offering live webinars also for self-paced runs. Additionally, for facilitating learners to post their own examples of facades on a global, open platform thus promoting a wider access to knowledge and resources for the whole word to (re)use. Finally, for her steadfast advocacy of open practices which played a significant role in the positioning of OpenFace, an initiative in collaboration with Eurac Research (Italy) to produce six other MOOCs for a credit-bearing Micromaster recognised at TU Delft and the University of Darmstadt (Germany). 
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Tina Nane – faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics & Computer Science 

For contributing to openness in various ways including with the MOOC on Structured Expert Judgement, which is also used on campus in the Master course Decision Theory/Expert Judgement, and which materials are available to all on OpenCourseWare. Additionally, for sharing expertise with the world and making openly accessible to many Roger Cooke’s own method on expert judgement. This is a method that has been successfully used by the World Health Organisation, in collaboration with researchers, to estimate the global burden of foodborne diseases, as described in your course. Finally, for her passion about open knowledge dissemination, for encouraging others by example, and for her enthusiasm about implementing new ideas to deliver a great learning experience on campus and online. 
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