January 23, 2017

Unlocking the key to learning

New Director Learning Teaching & Curriculum has high hopes for UOW. 

A desire for open spaces and a new adventure led Professor Maarten de Laat from the busy streets of Amsterdam to the beaches of Wollongong.

Professor de Laat commenced as the new Director Learning Teaching & Curriculum this month; a role he hopes will bring exciting new adventures in teaching and learning.

“There are some interesting challenges here at UOW and I think I’m in a very interesting position to drive some changes.”

Since 2011, Professor de Laat held a professorship with a chair in Professional Development in Social Networks at the Welten Institute, Research Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology at the Open University of the Netherlands.

Prior to joining Open University, Professor de Laat worked in the domain of informal (professional) learning, learning design, e-learning and learning analytics both in the UK and the Netherlands.

His work has focused on exploring social learning strategies, networked learning relationships and technologies that facilitate change and innovation in learning and professional development in education and organisations.

Implementing community networks and collaborations across UOW is just one of the goals Professor de Laat is hoping to achieve in his new role.

“As a university you need to be a hub, a social hub where people want to come and learn and create new knowledge,” Professor de Laat said.

“UOW is already pushing some agendas in teaching and learning and it’s nice to be co-designing that changing learning landscape and seeing how that affects how we think about teaching, designing learning spaces and learning interaction.”

Professor de Laat is a strong believer in collaboration, co-creation and shared ownership, and has a wealth of experience in leading the management of educational organisations in transitioning to open ways of working, learning and innovation.

“I’m excited to see how we can change the way we organise our own work and make it passion-driven rather than task-driven,” he said.

“It’s about more than just teaching, it’s creating a learning hub for innovation; expansion of knowledge, development of people’s careers and growth in different fields.

“It’s nice to be part of such exciting times at UOW.”