Bart Nawijn’s successful Inburgering Online courses, which have helped some 40,000 students pass their integration exams over the past few years, have just gotten better with the addition of AI support.

“This is the most effective way to improve your speaking and writing skills,” says Bart, a former Dutch teacher who, after hearing his students’ torturous accounts of their traditional inburgering lessons, created his exam-focused, user-friendly courses.

“I’m very excited about it. Our courses helped students pass the exams with ease before. But AI is an excellent addition because it will be easier to identify and correct your mistakes.”

“The AI tool is most useful, because it’s difficult to access the answers for writing and speaking without it,” says Rajendra Maniyal, a 30-year-old software developer from India who passed his A2 exam after studying with Inburgering Online for only 28 days. “It’s especially helpful when you need to use your own ideas but state them in grammatically correct Dutch.”

The exams

Passing the inburgering exams is a requirement for obtaining a permanent residence permit or a Dutch passport—whether you’re a refugee or a highly-skilled migrant. They consist of four language exams (reading, listening, writing and speaking) and a test about Dutch culture and society, KNM.

While the reading, listening and KNM parts of the exam require multiple choice answers, when it comes to writing and speaking, the responses are open-ended, with students having to create their own answers. This is where Inburgering Online’s new AI-powered correction system excels.

See how personalised AI correction works in the courses

“Before we used AI, lesson videos in the courses taught students how to correct their own work and how they will be graded. Also, each speaking and writing exercise includes perfect sample answers that students can compare with their own,” explains Bart.

“We will certainly retain this method, as it’s been a helpful way for students to learn how to critically look at their work. But the new AI addition automatically generates a corrected version of a student’s own work—a personal correction!—creating perfect answers of what they wrote or said. And you can try as many answers as you want!”

Such repetition makes it easier to identify and correct mistakes when there are various ways to answer a question, especially with questions that require more elaborate answers. “AI is better at effective personalised correction in this case,” says Bart.

Changing requirements

While the government has stated that the level will go up from A2 to B1 in the future, A2 will remain enough for people to pass their inburgering exams in 2025—all the more reason to sign-up for the online courses now before the stricter standards come into effect next year.

Bart offers both levels, and you can register for A2 courses here and B1 courses here.

“Beginning early ensures you’re prepared,” says Bart. And while the new AI assistance will help get you there, Bart also advises students not to rely on it alone.

“It remains important to learn how to find your own mistakes through our lesson videos. Keep thinking!” he says. “But it’s a nice addition, another tool in your language-learning arsenal.”

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