Education
- Develop and deliver continuing education in alignment with the University’s strategy and in collaboration with the faculties
- Manage the Quality Assurance of the Extension School's portfolio
“I believe in the power of sharing the expertise of our university in engineering, technology, and design to inspire learners around the world and to create new opportunities for them but also for our lecturers."
"In my role as an academic, researcher, and online instructor, I have seen first-hand how such sharing positively impacts the lives of learners, and how creating courses for external audiences further develops the educational skills of our lecturers and improves the on-campus education offered to our own students. It makes me proud to see the drive and commitment that goes into delivering courses and programs of the highest level of quality to equip professionals with the expert knowledge and applicable skills they needed to tackle the grand challenges of today and tomorrow.”
Arno Smets – Director Extension School Education
Answering today's grand challenges
The portfolio of online courses and short programs is developed in close cooperation with TU Delft's faculties to combine academic expertise with market and learners' needs. Aligned with TU Delft's strategic objectives, it comprises several themes that relate to today's grand challenges and are particularly relevant to equip people in finding applicable solutions.
They concern areas such as the energy transition, creating sustainable cities, shaping the future of transportation, the application of quantum computing, dealing with AI, data and digitalisation, the development of medical technology, and the acquisition of a specific set of skills to excel in engineering roles, projects, and activities.
Furthermore, the portfolio reflects a wish to contribute to the UN Global Developmental Goals, whilst a strategic roadmap for each theme serves to ensure that alongside the university's priorities, we continue to consider current industry development and the future needs of individual learners.
In 2022, we broadened our reach by launching new products and extending our existing offer to more audiences, and via new platforms, whilst we continued to work to improve campus education and the support we give faculties and lecturers.
Global coverage
Over 200 countries worldwide
Top 10 countries by number of enrolments in 2022
about 3.6 Million enrollments
of which 222,679 in our MOOCs in 2022
New courses and programs launched in 2022
Professional Certificate Programs (PCPs)
- Climate Neutral World: Theory, Application and Taking Action
- High-performance and Sustainable Photovoltaics
- Intelligent and Integrated Energy Systems
- Solar Energy
- Sustainable Design of Electronics
- Sustainable Engineering Design
- Sustainable Packaging
- Sustainable Resource Management
- Transport Phenomena
Professional Education Courses (ProfEds)
- AI in Manufacturing
- High-Performance Photovoltaics
Online Learning (OL) Experience
- Expert Workshop on Reverse Logistics for Circular Building Products
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
- Biomedical Equipment: Repairing and Maintaining Biomedical Devices
- Technology of Intelligent and Integrated Energy Systems
- Digitalization of Intelligent and Integrated Energy Systems
- Intelligent and Integrated Systems in Transition
- Business Implications of Intelligent and Integrated Energy Systems
- Façade Design and Engineering: Complexity made simple
- Designing Climate-neutral Buildings and Transport
- Designing Climate-neutral Industry and Electricity Generation
- Designing a Climate-neutral World: Taking Action
- Room for Rivers: River Basin Management in Times of Climate Change
- Smart and Sustainable Cities: New Ways of Digitalization & Governance
- AI Skills for Engineers: Data Engineering and Data Pipelines
- Solar Energy: From Fundamentals to its Role in the Energy Transition
13 new MOOCs 2 new ProfEds
1 new Expert Workshop 9 new Programs
certificates in 2022
MOOC 8,358
ProfEd 752
Program 963
OAC 55
Expert Workshop 9
82% use on campus
400+ academic experts
in the pipeline for 2023
23 new MOOCs
9 new ProfEds
IDEA League Executive Program
This innovative program could be equated to a 21st-century MBA aimed at helping business professionals implement new developments in sustainability and up-and-coming technologies in their organisations. Developed in collaboration with our IDEA League partners – RWTH Aachen, Politecnico Milano, Chalmers, and ETH Zurich – it offers two specialised tracks, in Emerging Technologies and in Sustainability. It is specifically designed to meet the know-how needs of working professionals who may not have an engineering or technical background. Its novel format counts 50 elective online courses and provides a comprehensive and practical learning experience by leveraging the expertise of the five universities and combining online and on-campus learning. The inclusion of practical toolkits and opportunities to work with peers and expand professional networks is also a valuable aspect of the program.
Online Campus Essentials
In line with our mission of educating the world, extending our participation in edX's Online Campus Essentials was another way to increase access to high-quality education for more people. The program gives colleges and universities free access to a selected catalogue of courses and programs in 10 key subject areas to help their students prepare and succeed in academia and the workforce. Between December 2020 and July 2022, our free campus essential courses benefited 390 institutions for a total of over 27,000 enrollments.
STAP-eligible courses
The University participated in the STAP subsidy scheme by the Dutch Government that allocated €160M in 2022 to support employed and unemployed professionals follow a training to enhance their skills and improve their position in the labour market. The maximum subsidy amount was €1,000 per course/per year, applicable only to post-initial education (i.e., not for bachelor's or master's programs). TU Delft offered an initial selection of six online courses, which received 60 applications.
Expert Workshop
In June, collaborating with lecturers from the faculty of Architecture & the Built Enviroment and multiple guest instructors, we launched a novel format for Reverse Logistics for Circular Building Products. It consists of three synchronous online workshop sessions at scheduled times that were successfully attended by participants from both industry and academia.
Improving campus education through online
In line with our mission of 'educating the world and improving the quality of campus education', we seek to understand and potentially measure the impact that developing and offering online education has on campus teaching and learning. To this end, we conducted a survey, to be repeated bi-annually, amongst Extension School's online instructors. Findings will help us map benefits and challenges and explore possibilities to further support lecturers and improve campus education.
Survey respondents deemed the overall benefit of using online resources to be 'major' (33%) to 'moderate' (50%), with only 2% finding it 'insignificant'. The areas where the benefits are most evident range from an improved learning experience to better student engagement in class and better output, with some also reporting an increase in student knowledge (measured by them giving better answers), as well as increased attendance and more engagement on the learning platform.
Lecturers found that developing online education facilitated the transition to online during COVID-19 lockdowns; helped re-design and re-think campus education; and promoted the global re-use of online resources, including increasing the availability of better teaching materials and of useful examples.
On a personal level, building and delivering an online course enhanced their professionalization and fostered the acquisition of new skills (64% of respondents), whilst increasing their visibility internationally (51%).
Findings also showed that 82% of respondents reuse online resources in their campus education and integrate them into their campus course, mostly as preparation before class, with videos being the resource most widely reused (93%), followed by quizzes (56%), case studies and self-assessments (both 27%).
Platforms support for lecturers and campus education
We manage the inclusion and running of several online campus courses on a number of dedicated digital platforms and provide expert advice on their use. This includes supervising the installation, optimisation, and maintenance of the platforms and servers to ensure their availability and that of relevant tools and applications. In 2002 alone we supported 155 different courses and close to 10,000 enrollments.
In addition, we regularly provide advice for TU Delft lecturers on delivering a quality learning experience, student engagement, and new tools, alongside educational webinars and specific training such as Designing and Teaching an Online Course.
Training for employees
Launched on 31 January, the training and development platform for TU Delft employees offers 480 unique courses (by internal and external providers) of which 53 online ones by the Extension School. These proved popular with employees and enrolments covering nearly all of the courses on offer.
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is an index ranging from -100 to 100 that measures the willingness of customers to recommend a company’s products or services to others. It is used as a proxy for gauging the customer’s overall satisfaction with a company’s product or service and the customer’s loyalty to the brand.We ask the following NPS question and achieve very good scores across our portfolio.“Based on your complete experience with TU Delft Online Learning, on a scale from 0-10, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?”
Extension School for Continuing Education
Image credits (CC-BY): Agence Olloweb on Unsplash, Fabian Irsara on Pexels, Celine Bovy on TU Delft Bynder, Sigmund on Unsplash, Cytonn Photography on Pexels