Tio Business School: Pioneering Education with AI

Personal, excellent and entrepreneurial - also with AI

Tio Business School has been at the top as a private university for years. With offices throughout the Netherlands, they focus on students who opt for intensive, small-scale education in sectors such as hospitality, business and event management. Frans van Kreuningen, General Director of Tio, is clear about their ambition: “We stand out because we are the best university in the Netherlands. We don't just say that ourselves; we work hard every day to get that recognition from students and the market.”

Tio's vision also includes a keen eye for professional practice. And that practice is changing because of AI. Frans: “Our students are being prepared for functions that AI will soon be an integral part of. If we don't guide them there now, we'll be making a mistake. But the way we do that must match our DNA: personal, excellent and entrepreneurial.”

At first, using AI looked like the digital “Wild West”

When ChatGPT conquered the world at the end of 2022, Tio noticed - like any other school - that students had found their way to the tool very quickly. A situation arose that we now describe as the “Wild West”.

In this digital Wild West, there was no control. Students used public AI tools to write assignments, answer questions, and find information. The risks were huge. First, there was the problem of 'hallucinations': the AI came up with facts that were wrong with Tio's course material. In addition, there was no guarantee of data security; everything a student entered became the property of the tech company behind the tool.

Ruben Baars from Blis Digital explains: “Students sometimes enter complete reports or personal data into public bots. In education, that is a privacy nightmare. Moreover, these tools often only give a student the final answer, without the student understanding how that answer came about. That's exactly what you don't want as an educational institution.”

The calls for a ban were loud in the sector, but Tio realized that banning does not work. Frans: “The students do use it anyway. If you ban it, you're only pushing it further into anonymity. We just wanted to bring the technology in and set frameworks around it.”

That's why we built a 'Walled Garden' with Cogniti

Together with Tio, we created a 'Walled Garden': a private, secure environment where AI can be used safely. To do this, we chose the Cogniti platform, which already had a successful business case in Australia. Instead of an open connection to the entire internet, this environment is closed off from the outside world. Frans: “What I liked about working with Blis is that they didn't come with a standard package, but really worked with us to find a safe environment that suited our specific needs.”

Indeed, within this Walled Garden, Tio decides what information the AI agent can use. This agent is provided by the lecturer with instructions: study manuals, specific literature, assignments and tone of voice guidelines.

“In this Walled Garden, the data remains within the organization's walls,” says Ruben. “But more importantly: the teacher sets the rules of the game. When a student asks a question, the AI agent only draws on the sources chosen by the instructor. This prevents the AI from telling nonsense or giving answers that don't fit the curriculum.”

The teachers are still at the wheel

An important part of the transformation was the adoption by the lecturers. In the beginning, there was quite a bit of doubt among the teachers. For example, they were afraid that AI would partly make their work obsolete. That changed during the interactive sessions where the lecturers were trained by colleagues at Blis Digital to become “architects” of their own agents. Albert-Jan from Blis Digital saw the initial doubt turn into enthusiasm: “During the sessions, we showed them that they remain in control. They are the ones who write the instructions for the agent. For example, they can set that the agent never gives the answer immediately, but asks a question again to help the student find a solution themselves.”

This transformed the AI from a quick help tool into a powerful tutor. Teachers can now set up their own agent for each subject who is available 24/7 to help students with the material, exactly the way that lecturer would do it themselves.

AI went from answering machine to study coach

“Doesn't AI make a student lazy?” It's a question that gets asked a lot. At Tio, that fear is alleviated by the way the agents are pedagogically oriented. This is because the AI is not an “answering machine” here, but an interactive coach. Tio's agents are programmed to help the student understand the context instead of simply providing answers. They challenge, ask questions and make adjustments.

This specific design of the AI is causing a fundamental shift: the basic questions move from the lecturer to the technology, even before the lecture starts. Frans van Kreuningen explains how this changes the dynamics in the classroom:

“Our classes are deliberately small, with a maximum of 16 students. This is how we make room for a lot of personal contact. The AI agents ensure that we can go even more in-depth with our students. If a student has been able to ask the agent all their basic questions on Sunday evening, that student will appear in class on Monday morning with more baggage. We then no longer have to dwell on the repetition of facts, but immediately have time for depth. We talk about practice, entrepreneurship and the 'why question'. The AI therefore relieves the lecturer of repetitive questions, creating much more space in the lesson for real, high-quality education.”

The collaboration gave Tio an advantage in technology and culture

The collaboration has given Tio an advantage that goes beyond just technology. It has fostered a culture of innovation. Teachers now see the opportunity to shape their profession in a new way, supported by technology instead of being threatened by it.

The most important results at a glance:

• Safe environment: students can experiment with AI within the framework of the GDPR and without using their data for commercial purposes.

• Personalised support: each student has an 'on-demand' tutor who knows exactly what the requirements of the course are.

• Teacher direction: the lecturer's expertise is key. AI is just the tool for making that expertise scalable.

• Future-proofing: Tio students are already learning how to work responsibly and effectively with AI, a skill that is indispensable in their later career.

• Insight into usage: Using a dashboard, the administrators of the platform can see how students are using AI in clear dashboards.

Frans emphasises the strength of the rapid implementation: “We haven't waited for thick policy plans. We're going to do it. What I really liked is how fast we were able to switch. Together with Blis, we have quickly laid a foundation that we can build on in the coming years.”

Together, we shaped the future of education

The road from the Wild West to the Walled Garden was not a standard route. It required an entrepreneurial attitude from both sides. Frans van Kreuningen looks back on our collaboration with great pleasure: “What I really love is how entrepreneurial they are. For Blis, this was also a new, broad implementation of Cogniti within an educational institution. We really pulled the project together. It didn't feel like a customer-supplier relationship, but like two partners working together to find out what the future of education looks like.”

With the Cogniti implementation Tio Business School has proven that technology and personal education go hand in hand, provided you are in control. The AI agents are not substitutes for teachers, but the new assistants who ensure that Tio remains the best university of applied sciences in the Netherlands even in the digital age.