The Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at KU Leuven Campus Kulak houses a lot of researchers within the broader topic of Educational Sciences, Methodology, and Psychology.
The Faculty is strongly intertwined with itec, which is a research group of KU Leuven, and imec, Flanders’ high-tech research and innovation hub for nanoelectronics and digital technologies.
Itec conducts interdisciplinary research on the design, development, and evaluation of personalized and adaptive digital solutions, with applications mostly in the domain of technology-enhanced educational and training, but also in media and in health.
Furthermore, the PhD researcher will be part of the Research Unit Education & Training, Center for Instructional Psychology & Technology (CIP&T) , which aims at understanding and improving teaching and learning processes at the microlevel, among others through the integration of educational technology, and of the Jan Palfijn Anatomy Lab of the Faculty of Medicine.
The supervisors of the project are Fien Depaepe, Annelies Raes and Evie Vereecke. Fien Depaepe and Annelies Raes both have a background in educational technology, with a special interest in the instructional design and the evaluation of technology-enhanced learning environments. Evie Vereecke is a professor of anatomy at the Faculty of Medicine at Campus Kulak and has a strong expertise in human anatomy, medical imaging and computational modeling.
Website unit
Responsibilities
INSIDE:INSIGHT is an interdisciplinary project aimed at developing, evaluating and implementing technology-enhanced learning environments within a medical education context. Innovative technologies, such as Mixed (MR), Augmented (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), together referred to as eXtended Reality (XR), can revolutionize the way we learn and teach, also in the domain of medical education. However, the rapid evolution in this domain has created a gap that has left both learners and educators wondering how to best use these tools in an educational setting. INSIDE:INSIGHT targets this knowledge gap by providing a training network for Doctoral Candidates (PhD students) to make them versed in digital skills in an educational environment, while at the same time conducting research into the development, effectivity, efficiency and usability of technology-enhanced learning environments. The project is composed of 12 project partners spread around nine countries and involves 10 PhD projects.
The current PhD project (DC1) will focus on the educator’s role in virtual learning environments for anatomical and clinical skills training.
This project has the following objectives:
(1) To design guidelines for the development of a teacher dashboard for (individual) VR environments, based on instructional design principles and stakeholders interviews.
(2) To evaluate the impact of debriefing on cognitive and non-cognitive learning outcomes in immersive learning (both in an individual and a collaborative setting).
(3) To investigate the effectiveness of dashboard implementation in providing feedback (both in an individual and collaborative setting).
(4) To develop guidelines for providing effective feedback and facilitating meaningful dialogue when using VR.
You will be responsible for designing and conducting the research and analyzing the results, with a focus on quantitative and qualitative data analysis. You will carry out your research within the interdisciplinary research team itec, at campus Kulak in Kortrijk, and collaborate with the Faculty of Medicine at Kulak, and other project partners. In view of this Horizon Europe project INSIDE:INSIGHT, you are willing to participate in international workshops on a regular basis.
Moreover, you are prepared to do a secondment of several months at three other participating European institutes (TU Graz, Austria; University of Oulu, Finland University of Twente, the Netherlands).
Your research is fundamental in nature with a strong emphasis on theory building. You will publish in scientific journals and present the results of your research at international conferences.
You write a PhD dissertation on this topic and will be supervised by prof. dr. Fien Depaepe, prof. dr. Annelies Raes, and prof. dr. Evie Vereecke.
Profile
- You have a Master’s degree in educational sciences, psychology, computer sciences, (bio)medical sciences, or a related discipline but with an emphasis on educational and behavioral research.
- You have distinguished yourself during your study career and graduated with Distinction or higher.
- You have a special interest in the use of technology and ICT in education and training.
- You are interested in the use of statistical and computer sciences’ techniques, as well as in the use of innovative data collection techniques.
- You are creative and result-oriented.
- You are able to work both independently and in an international team.
- You have a very good command of English (oral and written).
- You have excellent communication skills.
- You should comply with the mobility rules meaning that you must not have resided or carried out your main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the recruiting organisation for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before their recruitment date.
- The candidate should be available to start their project preferably no later than April 1st, 2025.
Offer
- The study will lead to a PhD degree in Educational Sciences from the KU Leuven.
- As a PhD student, you will have every opportunity to develop yourself further in your professional career, by studying literature, attending seminars and workshops, participating in international conferences and interacting with leading researchers from multiple disciplines.
- The position offers flexibility and the opportunity to work in an enthusiastic team in a stimulating multicultural and interdisciplinary environment.
- In addition, you will become part of (and contribute to) a network of academic and non-academic partners in the flourishing market of educational technology.
- Your research will contribute to fast developments in education that have a high societal impact.
- We offer a full-time appointment of 1 year, which can be extended to 4 years upon positive evaluation.
- Your workplace is primarily located at the KU Leuven campus Kulak in Kortrijk, Belgium.
- In addition to a competitive salary, KU Leuven offers a number of additional advantages, such as hospitalization insurance, reimbursement for commuting by public transport, and free bicycle.
Interested?
We kindly ask the candidates to include a short motivation letter in addition to a more detailed CV in which they express their interest in this vacancy.
Please also provide the contact details of two senior academics or previous employers whom we can contact for a reference letter.
Note that academic transcripts will be asked as part of the application process, so make sure you can provide these upon request.
Please submit your application through the KU Leuven portal: https://www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jobsite/jobs/phd (applications via e-mail will not be dealt with).
In case you have questions about this job opportunity, please contact Prof. dr. Fien Depaepe via email (fien.depaepe@kuleuven.be) with as subject line : “INSIDE:INSIGHT application for Project_DC1”.
After a positive evaluation of your candidacy, the selection procedure will start with an initial online interview. These online interviews will be organized on the 27th and 29th of January 2025. Candidates who are short-listed will then be invited for a second (online or in person) interview with a short assignment to evaluate your background knowledge, critical thinking and presentation skills.
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