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Winners of the SURF Education Awards 2024
The SURF Education Awards 2024 have been awarded once again! This year, three outstanding individuals who have dedicated themselves to advancing IT in Dutch education were honored with the coveted awards.
Paul is a physician, anatomy teacher, and e-learning developer. He created the interactive e-learning series CASK (Clinical Anatomical Skills) for medical students and anatomy training for surgeons. Additionally, he developed platforms such as anatomicalterms.info, the assessment system Preclass, and the virtual microscopy viewer for CASK.
Since 2015, he has been committed to open educational resources. Together with other anatomy departments in the Netherlands and Flanders, he launched the AnatomyTOOL platform for open anatomy educational materials, gathering thousands of open anatomical images and practice questions with colleagues and students. Currently, Paul is working with four universities to develop an open 3D model of human anatomy for educational use.
What the jury says about Paul
Paul showcases the remarkable education happening within the university's medical faculty. His dedication and digital learning tools for anatomy make a difference for students. The fact that Paul has been nominated for a SURF Education Award four times from various angles speaks volumes. His work is innovative and captures the essence of quality education. Through his work, Paul firmly establishes UMC's educational impact.
What colleagues say about Paul
With boundless energy and enthusiasm, Paul has worked tirelessly over the past ten years to develop the AnatomyTOOL platform. He firmly believes that educational materials developed with public funding should be freely available to everyone. He inspires others to embrace this principle, contributing to an open and accessible learning environment.
As a teacher, Paul understands better than anyone how inaccessible educational materials can be, often due to high costs. Thanks to his tool, students both from his own classes and worldwide now have direct access to high-quality materials they can use immediately, resulting in a significant impact!
Anouschka van Leeuwen
With a master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence and a PhD in Educational Sciences, Anouschka specializes in learning analytics: understanding what can be learned from (automatically) collected data about learning and teaching processes and how these insights can enhance education.
At Utrecht University, Anouschka combines her role as an assistant professor with that of project leader of the Learning Analytics team. She and her team develop policies and infrastructure to support data projects within the university.
She actively builds national and international collaborations in this field, including her involvement with the Society of Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR) and her chair role within the SURF Special Interest Group for learning analytics.
What the jury says about Anouschka
Anouschka van Leeuwen is a true connector in the field of learning analytics, making an impact locally, nationally, and internationally. She emphasizes practical applicability so that learning analytics truly align with the needs and questions of educators. At Utrecht University, she established a demand-driven team dedicated to developing practical solutions for education. Her dedication and commitment give learning analytics a secure place in education and make it relevant to everyone working on educational improvement.
What colleagues say about Anouschka
Anouschka makes a big difference in learning analytics. Her work is not only innovative but also high-quality and highly applicable. She involves everyone - from teachers to students - to create solutions that directly improve education. Her passion for educational innovation is contagious, and her work inspires others both within the Netherlands and internationally.
Marian Soepenberg-Zwanepol
Marian is the project leader of the Innovative Training Center (ITC) at Landstede MBO and played a key role in developing and implementing the immersive room for healthcare students.
At Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, Marian witnessed the benefits of this new educational method, where a simulation room had been in use for some time. In early 2024, Landstede MBO launched its own immersive room. The interactive space offers realistic healthcare simulations, such as hospital and nursing home scenarios. For vocational education, where learning by doing is central, this room provides a safe environment to apply theoretical knowledge in practice. Landstede MBO ultimately aims to spread simulation education across all its programs. Marian sees this as a valuable addition to current teaching methods and expects that interactive possibilities in education will only grow.
What the jury says about Marian
With her work in developing an immersive room, Marian demonstrates how technology can truly come to life in education. She pioneers applications that are not only innovative but also widely applicable, especially within vocational education. Marian deserves a platform to showcase her inspiring work. Her efforts secure a place for the immersive room alongside traditional teaching tools and open up new, tangible possibilities for learning and experiencing.
What colleagues say about Marian
In vocational education, we still use technology too infrequently to realistically simulate practice. Many are hesitant to adopt these teaching methods, fearing the unknown. Marian, however, does not shy away! She dared to take the leap and established the immersive room, where students can experience real-life job scenarios. This approach prepares them much better for reality than a book or video ever could. Marian truly makes a difference here; she speaks both the language of technology and education, connecting all parties involved.
Previous winners in the Hall of Fame
In the Hall of Fame you can read about previous winners of the SURF Education awards.