LTA Education Conference: Free your mind!
- Date
- Wednesday 10 June 2026
- Time
- Address
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Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden
From product to process in academic learning
On June 10, the Leiden Teachers’ Academy will once again host the LTA Education Conference. Just like last year, the event centers on fostering community and inspiring participants. This year’s edition revolves around a quest for education that focuses on the students’ learning processes rather than formal examinations. There are many reasons for such a shift, from the prioritization of more personalized and fulfilling intellectual journeys to the need for educational models that respond to the challenges and chances of AI.
Our conference schedule is rich in opportunities for learning and engagement with peers and colleagues, featuring innovative teaching pratices presented by LTA fellows, teachers from within and beyond our university, and students. Don't miss out; register now!
Conference schedule:
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12:45 |
Register at our desk in Lipsius, grab a coffee or tea and greet your colleagues |
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13:00 |
Introduction by organising team + workshop parade |
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14:00: Start workshops |
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The unessay |
Rachel Schats |
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How Gen AI chatbots help students to |
Mario de Jonge, Ludo Juurlink (ICLON) |
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Student participation |
LASSO |
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Liberal education |
Brandon Zicha |
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Autonomous learning |
Anouk van der Weijde |
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15:00-15:30: Break & workshop switch moment |
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Radio Palestine understand and learn |
Noa Schonmann |
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Programmatic testing |
Mariska Krijgsman/Hogeschool Leiden |
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Learning mindset |
David Ehrhardt, Esli Verheggen |
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Pass/fail ungrading |
Looi van Kessel, Esther Edelmann | ||
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Student resilience |
Sonja Wagenaar |
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16:30 |
Wrap-up panel with workshop managers and Rector Magnificus Sarah de Rijcke | ||
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17:30 |
Drinks |
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Find out more
This years workshops
Rachel Schatz: The Unessay
The “unessay” challenges traditional ideas of what academic assignment should look like. Instead of a standard written essay, students are invited to explore a topic through a format that expresses their knowledge in ways that align with their strengths, whether this is through storytelling, design, media, performance, or something completely different. For teachers, this approach opens up possibilities for more inclusive and creative assessment (and, importantly, more fun during marking). This workshop will introduce the unessay concept, highlight practical examples, and guide you through strategies for integrating it into your own courses.
Noa Schonmann: Radio Palestine
How can we move from exam-driven learning to transformative learning journeys, grounded in curiosity, creativity, and collaboration? This interactive workshop draws on the Radio Palestine/Israel teaching project that encourages students to engage in difficult conversations over deeply contentious issues, in public. Students work to co‑create knowledge in conversation with public figures, invited to interview on their podcast. Workshop participants will experience a core element of the course—curious inquiry and deep listening—while exploring how public‑facing creative production assignments transform learning. Together, we examine how podcasting fosters personal development, ethical responsibility, community-building, and a reflective learning process that encourages students to think with others rather than against them.
Looi van Kessel, Esther Edelmann: Pass/fail ungrading
Because of the growing presence of AI tools, student work has become increasingly difficult to assess. The principle of ungrading focuses on evaluating imperfect and ongoing learning processes rather than polished end results. In this workshop, we will explore what it means to attend to these processes by centering student development. We will translate result-based learning goals into exercises that foreground student learning paths. Participants will gain practical strategies to implement within their own teaching practices.
Brandon Zicha: Liberal education
Before the modern research university, teaching was a liberal art — grounded in personalism, community, broad learning, and the embodied care and judgement that have always marked our most excellent teachers. The shift toward student-centered, market-responsive models has recast professors as standardized knowledge distributors, a role AI now threatens to automate entirely. This workshop critically evaluates how we got here to spot an opportunity to rediscover our irreplaceable value — in what we choose to focus on, how we form ourselves, and the human connection we model. The first half explores this history; the second is a conversation about putting the scholar back at the centre.
Anouk van der Weijde: Autonomous learning
How can we help students who often seek certainty and step-by-step guidance in developing the resilience and autonomy they need for their master’s programme and future careers? In this workshop, we share lessons from implementing an autonomous-learning approach in the Psychology bachelor; one that gradually increases students' ownership and freedom of choice within structured assignments, supported by meaningful formative practice and an autonomous learning trajectory.
After a short introduction, you will engage in discussions at themed tables on inspiring contact hours, effective learning activities, and balancing freedom of choice with fair assessment. We invite you to exchange challenges and transferable ideas, enabling mutual learning.
Mario de Jonge, Ludo Juurlink: How Gen AI chatbots help students to undertand and learn
We guide you in building your own tailored AI-chatbot and mini-app on LUCA to support your students and teaching. Our advice on what (not) to do is based on the most recent AI-in-Education research and our experiences at Leiden University with LUCA. In these 60 minutes, your product will be (mostly) finished and waiting to be used for processing in your teaching. Bring your laptop!
Mariska Krijgsman, Hogeschool Leiden: Programmatic testing
Why are universities of applied sciences now making a large-scale transition towards teaching and learning based on learning outcomes? In this workshop, after the introduction of the basics of learning outcomes, I will share our experience with the implementation of a curriculum based on learning-outcomes at the Applied Psychology programma. What is the added value? What impact does it have?
Learning outcomes are focused on the end result: what is a student expected to be capable of? In that sense, learning outcomes are always profession-oriented; students must be able to demonstrate them in their current or future professional practice. How students reach that point is up to them, and may differ from one student to another. How curricula are built to support students towards the demonstration of learning outcomes may differ as well. Programmatic assessment, assessment for learning and formative practice are ways to approach teaching, learning and assessing with learning outcomes.
We will discuss in what ways research universities can make use of the experience that has already been gained. In which contexts is it helpful and meaningful to place learning outcomes at the centre of university education?
David Ehrhardt, Esli Verheggen: Learning mindset
In today's world, students need to do a lot of new navigational work for themselves, to make sense of their life options in environments that are increasingly open and uncertain. They need the knowledge and the capacity to orient themselves and regulate action over time. They need stronger autonomy, or the ability to choose, learn, and act in line with their own values and goals.
Learning Mindset has developed a range of teaching techniques to help students cultivate their autonomy and is actively collaborating with a partners in Europe and Africa to implement, test, and refine them. One technique relates to the clarifying values and setting goals: autonomy is dependent on a clear sense of what matters to you, and what goals you want to commit to. In this session, we explain the Learning Mindset approach to teaching and research, to invite you to participate. We will also take you through one of the values exercises so that you will leave the session with a clearer idea of what matters most to you, and how you can best work towards that.
LASSO student panel
Empty lecture halls, low survey response and low turnout for university elections: across our entire university student involvement and participation appears to decline. In this workshop, the LAssO offers the student-perspective on the forms of declining involvement, the underlying causes and the consequences (for both students and staff).
The goal is to have an interactive discussion to make the appearing trends in student-involvement and participation less abstract.
Sonja Wagenaar: Student participation
Resilience flourishes in a well-designed, supportive educational environment, but how can teachers contribute to this? In this interactive workshop, we explore how teachers can support and develop students’ resilience and self-efficacy. We examine which aspects of resilience can be strengthened and how students can gain insight into their own learning processes and needs. Participants will learn practical methods students can use to boost resilience, alongside didactic tools for lecturers focusing on social learning and feedback. After a short introduction, participants reflect on current practices, exchange ideas, and share strategies for fostering resilience in teaching.