Biografy

Annechien works as course developer and project administrator in the Center of Digital Education at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, where she implements novel teaching concepts and technologies to help teachers transform their courses. 

Previously, she worked as a director of research and assistant professor in psychology at Effat University, a private university for women in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.  As director of research she managed a small team responsible for an internal grants program to support individual research activities. As a assistant professor in the psychology department she taught a wide variety of bachelor psychology courses. 

Before moving to Saudi Arabia in 2011, she was based in the Netherlands and worked two years as a Research Scientist and Project Manager at the Open University of The Netherlands, 10 years as Research Scientist at TNO Safety & Security and 2 years as a policy officer at the Royal Netherlands Navy. She was involved in multi-national research and innovation projects on learning and cognition, vocational training, simulation training and specification of educational programs. 

Her research focuses on metacognition, critical thinking, and reflection, and how people acquire these cognitive skills.