dr. I. Friso - van den Bos (Ilona)

Ilona Friso-van den Bos works as an assistant professor in the sections Professional Learning and Technology (PLT) and ELAN. Her research focuses on the use of state-of-the art technology such as Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence in the learning and teaching of complex skills. One of her projects targets the affordances of Virtual Reality applications to facilitate compaction skills of vocational engineering students. In this research project, the focus is on various design elements of a Virtual Reality training as well as assessment techniques for a compaction training application. A second line of research focuses on the development of AI literacy within an educational context, responding to the rapid emergence of generative AI and the need to finetune education to current needs of both teachers and students. Previously, she worked on projects targeting the development, facilitation, and assessment of number sense and mathematical skills from kindergarten to vocational education. In these studies, working memory resources played a fundamental role.

Expertise

• Psychology

  • Children
  • Groups
  • Meta-Analysis
  • Kindergarten
  • Achievement
  • Learning Disability

• Social Sciences

  • Students
  • Situation

Organisations

I am a researcher interested in cognition and how learners with various backgrounds and cognitive profiles perform complex skills. In previous projects, I have used constructs such as working memory, attention and situation awareness to determine cognitive/task performance and profiles. I now aim to to apply this to technology-assisted learning and teaching, with the following research interests:

• The use of VR, AI, and other technologies in education: how and under what conditions can they facilitate learners’ skills? I aim to gain an understanding of the range of skills that can be facilitated by various technologies such as Virtual Reality.
• Learner’s backgrounds and cognitive profiles and how they may explain any differences in performance, interaction with technology, and observed learning effects.
• How said educational technologies can support teaching, not only by integrated use in educational programmes, but also by helping educators with educational tasks such as identifying instructional needs of learners, setting goals, and providing feedback based on use of and performance within technologies and their cognitive profiles. What are the advantages? The disadvantages? The obstacles?

In the study Connecting the dots: Task-oriented Virtual Reality for the training of situational awareness in secondary vocational engineering education, I developed a Virtual Reality training programme in which Situation Awareness of vocational engineering students focusing on road construction is trained and assessed. Also see: https://www.utwente.nl/en/connectingthedots/

Publications

Research profiles

I am a teacher in various courses of the MSc Educational Science & Technology programme as well as the accompanying premaster's programme. My focus is on the teaching of academic skills such as writing academic articles, which is a large part of the course Research Studio in the premaster's programme, and of the Final Project. In addition, I am a teacher in the course Trending Topics, in which contemporary developments in educational sciences are presented. My focus in this course is on Virtual Reality for training and assessing Situation Awareness.

Affiliated study programs

Courses academic year 2023/2024

Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.

Courses academic year 2022/2023

Current projects

Connecting the dots

Task-oriented Virtual Reality for the training of situational awareness in secondary vocational engineering education

Address

University of Twente

Cubicus (building no. 41), room B208
De Zul 10
7522 NJ Enschede
Netherlands

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Organisations