Subject-specific and to the point!

Over the course of two years of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, teaching at Saxony’s universities has had to adapt to completely new and varied conditions: from remote work to in-person classes to partially digital formats. Some things were good, others less so; in some cases, established methods could be adapted for digital use, while in others, teaching had to be completely reimagined and restructured.

Many new approaches had to be developed quickly. Many instructors faced the challenge of completely overhauling their previously prepared and planned courses, all while navigating varying personal and institutional circumstances. The level of prior knowledge that faculty and students brought to digital teaching varied just as much as the technical infrastructure available at the universities. Consequently, it required efforts from all sides to carry out university teaching despite the pandemic.

Since March 2022, the project “Implementing Digitalization in Disciplines in a Participatory Manner :: Competencies Connected” (D2C2) has provided an opportunity to ensure and improve the quality of digital methods and competencies, which have made enormous strides over the course of two years of the pandemic.

The project, which is anchored in the Prorectorate for Education and International Affairs and in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, is a Saxon collaborative project funded by the Foundation for Innovation in Higher Education Teaching. Overall coordination is handled by the Saxon Center for Higher Education Didactics (HDS), with 10 Saxon universities and the Saxon State Office for Higher Education (BA Sachsen) participating. Starting on August 1, 2021, the project will run for three years, during which research and testing will take place.

The project focuses on subject-specific challenges and topics. This means the project aims to provide subject matter experts with the opportunity to exchange ideas and share their personal experiences. For example , through the research assistants in the subproject at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences, Lydia Laarz (based in the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics) and Deborah Halang (based in the Prorectorate for Education and International Affairs, ZWB), a Saxony-wide network for female engineering instructors is being established, where they can exchange ideas. What was good for our colleague at HTWK when teaching from home? What experiences has our colleague from Zwickau had with the increased use of OPAL?

In addition, the networks are used to assess the current situation: How is teaching currently taking place—digitally, partially digitally, or in person? What tools are being used, and how are they being received? Where do instructors see obstacles in digitizing their teaching? The focus here is primarily on four areas of teaching digitization: digital workshops and labs, digital skills, digital exams, and digital mathematics.

To ensure that data is collected as accurately as possible, discussions and assessments of the current state of affairs take place within five subject-specific networks: health and social services, computer science, engineering, art and design, and psychology and psychotherapy. After all, even though there are many overlaps, educators in seminars often face different methodological challenges than Mechanical Engineers in the workshop. Through these subject-specific networks, experts who teach similar content using different methods are brought together.

Beyond the networks , the D2C2 project offers faculty at HSZG the opportunity to test new methods or tools in their own teaching and to evaluate them in terms of effectiveness and relevance. Staff members are available to support this effort, contributing diverse perspectives through their interdisciplinary team. The student perspective is also significant here and is incorporated through the equal participation of students in the team (Tina-Seline Göttinger, Faculty N, as well as Christian Bauch and Ferenc Teichler, Faculty E-I). With the Saxony Center for University Didactics serving as the project coordinator within the Saxon network, a reliable knowledge base for didactic questions is available and accessible at all times. Thus, based on the exchange of experiences within the subject-area networks, methods, tools, and materials that are as tailored as possible can be provided to instructors and individually adapted through the collaboration of the Contact Persons in the D2C2 project.

The project goal to be achieved in 2024 is to advance evidence-based teaching development and to formulate recommendations for digital teaching. In other words, the project is grounded in the experiences of faculty and students, which are used to determine what is needed for good digital teaching so that appropriate measures can be taken to facilitate this and to provide the best possible support and encouragement to both faculty and students.