I imagine that in the near future, a student will call out to his TU/e-speech assistant: 'TU/e, when does registration for Q4 start?'. Or: 'When will the deadline for the report of project 2 expire?'. That would solve many of today’s problems. Every student would be perfectly informed.

Unfortunately, this is not the reality we live in. And so, we come up with a few more old-fashioned ways to inform students. We provide information about our program in the online education guide, organize information sessions about a range of issues, and we publish a bi-weekly newsletter with all kinds of news facts.

We believe that we do all we can to provide students with much-needed information. Still, our mailbox continues to overflow with all kinds of questions after the information session, even though we thought we had answered every question during that same session. What goes wrong here? It’s easy to accuse students of being slack. We could answer: 'Too bad, we informed you about this earlier, you should have paid more attention.' I have to admit that I sometimes think to myself: 'why don’t you write something down during these sessions?!'

But then I think about something I learned during a training course 'the meaning of communication is the response it elicits.' I agree with this assumption because it allows me to reflect on my own actions, to learn from my experiences, and to arrive at a different approach. The response of the students is clear: the information doesn’t sink in. So, what we can do? Choose a different approach!

But how? So much literature and research on didactics has appeared already. You can promote interactivity, and show your enthusiasm by enlivening your lecture or class. And, let’s not forget: you need to make contact with your audience! But sometimes you want to tell students things that might not be that exciting, but that are important nevertheless. Do you really need interactive presentation software like Mentimeter for that? Or should we use a digital tool like Kahoot to make the information session 'more fun'?

I don’t know. But why should I have to come up with the answer myself? We will ask our ID students for feedback about our way of communicating! Today, my colleague and I already decided to set this in motion. We’re not going to give up that easily. There is no failure, only feedback. That’s another conviction that helps me; in my work, but personally as well.