NOVA:ea

The optimization of examination conditions is a central topic for universities. In this context, electronic assessments are increasingly being used instead of traditional face-to-face examinations, a trend that has been additionally driven by the Corona crisis. As part of the project, the project partners are currently conducting over 75,000 e-exams. However, the upward trend in e-assessment formats is affecting all higher education institutions in Germany. E-assessments pose a variety of didactic, diagnostic and technical challenges to universities in general and to the project partners in particular.

In the project NOVA:ea, the implementation of student-friendly e-assessments is therefore being implemented, scientifically accompanied and evaluated.

NOVA:ea aims to promote academic education in all biographical phases with student-friendly e-assessments. It places student diversity at the center of the didactic, technical and diagnostic design of e-assessments. The guiding principle is to link student-centered innovation with technological advancement, which is used as open source for e-assessment systems at more than 230 universities.

Within the framework of the project, the FernUniversität in Hagen is pursuing three central goals:

  • Classification, development, and criteria-driven selection of task formats, as well as the development of project-wide guidelines for assessment diagnostics and error analysis.
  • Empirical consideration of the role of student diversity for the didactic, technical, and psychometric design and optimization of competency-oriented and diversity-appropriate e-assessments based on the Dynexite e-assessment system.
  • Identification and consideration of the determinants of e-assessment acceptance among teachers and students as well as the design and implementation of measures to increase acceptance.

CATALPA – Center of Advanced Technology for Assisted Learning and Predictive Analytics

As a central scientific institution of the FernUniversität in Hagen, CATALPA integrates theoretical knowledge with practical applications. This results in scalable findings and AI-supported prototypes for innovations in higher education, including feedback, self-regulation, assessments, teaching and learning concepts, and group processes.

More than 60 scientists collaborate on an interdisciplinary basis at CATALPA. They examine practical issues from the perspectives of psychology, computational linguistics, educational science, computer science, and organizational sociology. All CATALPA researchers share the vision of offering the best possible individual support to all students.

The FernUniversität in Hagen’s 70,000 students are more diverse in terms of age, origin, and educational background than those of almost any other German university. Where better to research how digital systems can improve teaching and learning than here?

CATALPA operates as a living lab, generating findings from practice that feed directly back into it — be it through interventions to reduce stereotyping or technological developments in digital learning environments. In close cooperation with the Center for Learning and Innovation (ZLI) and the Center for Digitalization and IT (ZDI) at the FernUniversität, CATALPA investigates the impact and potential of educational technologies in a protected environment and tests prototypes in practice.

ViFoNet

The overarching goal is the research-based creation, implementation, evaluation and dissemination of video-based training concepts and modules for digitally supported teaching in the participating subjects German, German as a second language, English, French, Spanish, geography, economics and chemistry (with a focus on technical language) as well as on the overarching topic of education for sustainable development. For the modules, task formats with teaching and explanatory videos for the use of digitally supported teaching resources in subject lessons are created and used as effective, practice-oriented training elements. This is done in continuous consultation with those responsible for practical teacher training.

The project is part of the “learn:digital transfer centre“

Reading-BISS

Reading is a central prerequisite for acquiring knowledge in all subjects and an essential basis for social participation. However, many pupils find it difficult to read texts fluently and to extract meaning from them. This is where the research project on the systematic promotion of reading fluency and reading strategies comes in.

What are the aims of the study?

Implementation of the reading promotion program “The Reading Athlete”

The first goal is to provide teachers with a program for differentiated reading promotion in the classroom. With the “Reading Athlete”, a program was developed that offers suitable methods and texts depending on the child’s learning level. In this way, children can be picked up at the appropriate level for them. The concept is based on support measures that have been proven to be effective.

The “Reading Athlete” includes

  • the syllable-based reading slalom method to promote reading accuracy
  • the sound-based reading method Reading Sprint to promote reading speed
  • the strategy-oriented reading canoe to promote reading comprehension

Investigation of the conditions for success

The second aim is to investigate which conditions are particularly conducive to using the program in the classroom. This provides important insights into how training concepts can be transferred into practice.
Evaluation of the effectiveness of the training

Finally, the extent to which the reading skills of the pupils participating in the training improve and how effective the program is rated by teachers will be investigated.

Educational research at the University of Münster

Educational research at the University of Münster is characterised by the broad academic spectrum of a comprehensive university which is one of the largest centres for teacher education in Germany. This research is based on the consistent interdisciplinary linking of educational science and subject-specific didactics. Projects based at the University of Münster are notably practice-oriented and systematically analyse transfer and implementation processes. The Zentrum für Lehrkräftebildung (ZLB) coordinates the interplay of educational science and subject-specific didactics across disciplines and departments. Educational research at the University of Münster aims to investigate the fundamentals of general and subject-specific learning and teaching, develop evidence-based concepts to leverage educational potentials, and evaluate and transfer these innovations for implementation.

Key areas of work and services:

  • Fundamentals of Teaching and Learning: The basics of general and subject-specific learning and teaching are explored in diverse projects conducted by the didactics disciplines.
  • Development and Evaluation of Educational Programmes: Innovative concepts and materials are developed and evaluated to promote competencies across the whole spectrum of academic educational goals.
  • Transfer: A hallmark of the majority of our projects is a close cooperation with school practice partners and a focus on the transfer and implementation of evidence-based, innovative concepts. This research is supported by high-level infrastructure, including several video portals, practice and teaching-learning laboratories, and collaborations with professional development platforms.
  • Professional Development: The dissemination of research findings occurs, among other means, through professional development offerings, which are themselves the subject of transfer and implementation research. Educational science at the University of Münster collaborates with the Münster District Government, the NRW Institute QUA-LiS, and the NRW Ministry of Education, for instance, through the NRW State Competence Centre for Individual Support (lif).
  • Teacher Education: Research activities also encompass the field of teacher education. This involves a wide range of competencies, including subject-specific, didactic, and pedagogical professional knowledge as well as motivational, volitional, and social skills

E-ADAPT

For more than 20 years, international comparative studies have shown that many European students do not have the core basic competencies they need to participate fully in society.

Therefore, the E-ADAPT project’s guiding principle is the ideal of adaptive teaching that supports all learners equally to reach their full potential, which is already increasingly becoming a reality in countries such as Estonia and Finland.

In the E-ADAPT project regular meetings of experts are organized, video documentations of adaptive teaching in numerous European countries created, a manifesto on adaptive teaching and learning created, available methods and technologies compiled, and scientific studies conducted.

KISS-Pro

Language plays a central role in learning at school – both as a communicative prerequisite and as a learning medium and learning objective. At the same time, it also represents a central dimension of heterogeneity. However, teachers often lack the time to support pupils with very different language learning needs individually in their acquisition of language skills. The use of new digital technologies, such as AI-based systems, offers the opportunity to constructively address the linguistic heterogeneity of learners in the context of participation and equal opportunities.

Natural language processing (NLP) applications such as ChatGPT or DeepL are currently developing extremely dynamically and have recently made great progress in the linguistically correct translation of texts and in AI-supported machine text production. The use of such systems therefore has the potential to support teachers in designing individualised language learning opportunities for pupils, for example.

Appropriate professionalisation concepts are needed to prepare teachers for the competent use of AI-based systems in schools and subject lessons. The joint project is therefore developing target group-specific information and qualification programmes that not only impart knowledge about the opportunities and potential of AI-based systems, but also address fears and reservations as well as concrete, factual limits and problems of using AI in the school context.

The joint project will specifically highlight the possibilities of individual feedback for pupils through NLP as well as the possible applications of intelligent tutorial systems and social robots. It also focuses on reflecting on the ethical, legal and social implications of using AI-supported systems in the school context.

Connection to practice, transfer and implementation

The transfer of the developed professionalisation offers for the use of AI-based systems in language teaching into teacher training and thus also into school practice is a central goal of the project network. The concepts are being developed in close collaboration with the cooperating state institutes in Berlin-Brandenburg, Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein. In addition, the developed concepts are to be embedded in the university teacher training programme. In this context, a transfer conference on the topic of AI for university teaching in teacher training programmes will take place at the University of Potsdam in 2025.

The concepts developed will be made available in the form of Open Educational Resources (OER) to enable the modular professionalisation courses to be implemented beyond the participating federal states. The sustainable transfer into practice is also supported by Zukunft Digitale Bildung gGmbH, the Forum Bildung Digitalisierung and the KI-Campus as transfer partners.

DigiProMIN

The aims of DigiProMIN are the research-based development of professionalization modules for the design of digitally supported STEM lessons, the identification of effective possibilities for the use of digital media in further education and training and the design and implementation of a transfer strategy at various levels.

The professionalization modules developed in the network take digitality into account in different ways. Firstly, further and continuing education measures are being designed to (further) qualify teachers of mathematics, computer science and natural sciences for teaching with digital media (“professionalizing teachers for digital media”). On the one hand, these have been developed specifically for the subjects mentioned, while on the other hand they also cover cross-curricular teaching and learning approaches, e.g. for subject teaching. The professionalization modules are related to specific digital teaching materials and tools and are intended to enable teachers to conduct comprehension-oriented, cognitively activating and adaptive lessons with digital media. The focus here is on the development of a coherent range of lessons rather than the use of individual digital tools.

Secondly, it examines how digital media can be used sensibly for the further and continuing education of teachers by developing and implementing digitally supported further and continuing education measures – using virtual reality, simulations and online platforms (“Professionalizing teachers with digital media”).

Connection to practice, transfer and implementation

The professionalization modules are developed in consultation with the specialist managers of the state institutes. They are the subject of the network’s multidimensional transfer and implementation strategy.

  • The material transfer and implementation strategy consists of preparing the results achieved in the project (professionalization modules, digitally supported teaching materials and concepts for digitally supported further education and training) as Open Educational Resources (OER) and making them digitally available nationwide. To this end, existing platforms such as LERNEN.Cloud and Clearing House Unterricht will be networked and expanded.
  • The personal transfer and implementation strategy refers on the one hand to the integration of the modules developed in the project into structured subject-specific or STEM-related further education and training programs of the countries participating in the network as well as into co-constructively designed networks (as professional learning communities of teachers). In doing so, the network is guided by the activities of the German Center for Mathematics Teacher Education (DZLM) as a possible blueprint for a learning:digital STEM competence center.
  • Finally, a systemic transfer and implementation strategy will be implemented by supporting cross-phase cooperation, including the qualification of multipliers and supra-regional cooperation. The systemic strategy also includes the provision of control-relevant knowledge by developing and empirically validating instruments for recording the digitalization-related skills of teachers.

The systemic strategy is being tested as an example in three federal states in cooperation with the respective state institutes and quality institutions. These are Bavaria with the Akademie für Lehrerfortbildung und Personalführung (ALP) and the Staatsinstitut für Schulqualität und Bildungsforschung (ISB), Brandenburg with the Landesinstitut für Schule und Medien Berlin-Brandenburg (LISUM) and the Ministerium für Bildung, Jugend und Sport (MBJS, Referat 45) and Schleswig-Holstein with the Institut für Qualitätsentwicklung an Schulen (IQSH).

Department of Educational Science at the University of Potsdam

The Department of Educational Science is part of the Faculty of Human Sciences at the University of Potsdam, which was founded in 1992. The orientation of the department is empirical-quantitative with a focus on the school education sector. The department’s research investigates central challenges in the educational context against the backdrop of individual, institutional and systemic characteristics. These include the significance of educational inequalities and how to deal with them adaptively in the educational context, the professional development of teachers and the development of innovative and effective technology-enhanced teaching and learning scenarios. In line with the Leibniz Association’s motto theoria cum praxi, the department’s profile is oriented towards a use-inspired basic research agenda, in which scientific insights and social benefit are closely linked. Accordingly, members of the department are heavily involved in shaping the dialog between science, educational practice and educational policy. In teaching, the department is responsible for educational science courses in teacher training. In addition, a separate Bachelor’s degree course and, from winter semester 2024 and 2025 respectively, two Master’s degree courses with different specializations (digital education, educational psychology and educational research) are offered.

Important work and offers:

  • Several professorships in the department are active in various project networks and in the transfer office in the BMBF-funded Kompetenzverbund lernen:digital. The project management including the office of the transfer office are located at the department.
  • Several professorships in the department cooperate with representatives of the Leibniz Institutes as part of the BMBF large-scale projects “Schule macht stark” and “Leistung macht Schule”.
  • One of the department’s professor is a member of the “Science of Intelligence” Cluster of Excellence of the Berlin university alliance.
  • Several professors are involved as lecturers in the IMPRS Research School LIFE, which is supported by the Max Planck Institute for Human Development Berlin and three international universities.
  • The department is committed to the transfer of knowledge and evidence-based policy advice at regional and national level. This includes memberships in the scientific advisory board of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of the State of Brandenburg, in the committees of the Institute for School Quality of the States of Berlin and Brandenburg e.V., in the scientific advisory board of the steering group “Determining the performance of the education system in international comparison” and in the German UNESCO Education Committee.

The Leibniz Research Group Digitisation and Education addresses questions concerning the optimal design and adaptation of digital learning and testing materials, as they are increasingly needed for individualized or adaptive digital learning environments in various educational settings.

With a focus on experimental studies, for example, computer-based (formative) assessment with different kinds of feedback as well as effects of multimedia in the test context are investigated. The research group focuses on different methodological approaches (e.g. augmented/virtual reality, eye-tracking, artificial intelligence) and conducts research both in the laboratory and in school practice. The aim is to holistically capture the effects of digital design features on students and relevant target groups in terms of cognitive, metacognitive, affective, and motivational changes. In this context, the recording and analysis of behavioral process data plays an important role, which allows additional elucidation of ongoing learning processes and in the course of processing tasks across time.

In addition to application-oriented basic research in the laboratory, practical intervention studies in schools (e.g., to support teachers in adaptive teaching through formative digital assessment) are also on the agenda.