"Digitalization at a glance"

On May 19, 2021, interested university members gathered for this year’s Teaching Day to discuss the topic: “Digitalization in Academic Studies and Teaching—Opportunity or Blessing?”

The event, which took place entirely via a live BigBlueButton broadcast for the first time, offered the more than 70 participants an interesting and varied program.

Opportunities and Risks of Digital Teaching Under Scrutiny

The day began with the keynote address “Small University, Big Opportunity” by the Vice President for Education and International Affairs, Prof. Dr. Sophia Keil, and Mr. Sebastian Riedel (Office of Education) on the current status of our university’s “University for Future” process at our university and the associated peer-to-peer strategy consultation by the Higher Education Forum on Digitalization and the Stifterverband. The event thus served as a link to the HSZG’s participatory strategy process, during which the opportunities and risks of digitalized teaching were further discussed with internal and external experts.

In the second part of the event, GOOD PRACTICES IN DIGITAL TEACHING were presented.

• Prof. Dr. Mandy Schulze (Social Work Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences) gave participants an interesting insight into her teaching and demonstrated how she promotes interaction with students in her seminar via BigBlueButton in a simple and clear manner.
• Prof. Dr.-Ing. Matthias Kunick (energy system technology, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering) reported on the transition of his teaching to the virtual space and how “chalk went digital.” The discussion also covered technical tools for good adaptation of course content to a digital format and transfer to the virtual classroom in a pedagogically meaningful way.
• In his presentation titled “A Hard-of-Hearing Professor Goes Semi-Written,” Prof. Dr. Rudolf Schmitt (Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences) discussed both the limitations and the opportunities that digitization offers for better promoting inclusion. Professor Schmitt provided a compelling insight into his lectures, which make communication with students possible—even without hearing—through methods such as task-centered teaching, extensive use of chats, and shared notes in BigBlueButton.

Lavinia Ionica (Program Manager at the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft, Hochschulforum Digitalisierung, and this year’s moderator of Teaching Day) discussed the opportunities and challenges of digital teaching during and after the pandemic in her presentation“Higher Education Teaching in the Age of Digitalization” .

The event concluded with an engaging panel discussion on the question: “How can we apply the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic to future teaching?” Participants in the discussion included representatives of the HSZG administration and students, as well as representatives of the Hochschulforum Digitalisierung (HFD), the Saxon Center for University Didactics (HDS), and representatives from other universities in the Saxon network:

A Few Words

Prof. Dr. Sophia Keil

“Digitalization offers opportunities for national and international teaching collaborations and can increase the flexibility of degree programs. Nevertheless, a purely ‘digital’ degree programme will never be able to replace the appeal of in-person study, especially the social interaction and group dynamics between students and instructors. Hands-on work in laboratory experiments—for example, in STEM degree programmes—is very difficult to replace through digitalization.”

Prof. Dr. Thomas Hofsäss (HDS Director)

"The teaching of the future is digitally underpinned, flexible in its formats, and at its core still reliant on in-person instruction."

Florian Rampelt (Deputy Director, HFD)

"Higher education in the future will be characterized by cooperation and collaboration. Faculty members will develop new ideas together, provide each other with feedback, and implement innovation through strong partnerships."

Prof. Dr. Anne-Katrin Haubold (Vice President for Teaching and Academic Affairs, HTW Dresden)

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, we engaged in ‘experimentation born of necessity.’ In the future, we should transition to ‘experimentation grounded in professional ethics’ in the spirit of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.”

Prof. Dr. phil. Kawalek, Jürgen (Director of the Centre for eLearning)

“Despite the pandemic, the digitization of teaching (and administration) at our university is still far from having the significance it should.”

Timon Conrad (Student Council Representative, HSZG)

“Interest-based, interdisciplinary, and individualized—the higher education of the future must not only teach students in a practical way, but also inspire them and guide them on their journey.”

The organizers look back on a very discussion-rich Teaching Day 2021 and thank the speakers for the insights provided in their presentations and the guests for their contributions to the discussions, the panel discussion participants, and all the hardworking volunteers and supporters who helped make the day a success.

Text: Ronny Freudenreich