Projects

BIG-University: Developing Universities with New Media (BIG-Hochschule – Hochschulentwicklung durch neue Medien)

The BIG university program is pursuing both direct and indirect goals. It aims to impart media skills directly-through the use of new information technologies as part of instruction at the university level. Dealing with information technology-working on a computer, communicating via e-mail, doing research on the Internet-is obviously a basic skill in the information age.

Beyond that, the program will investigate in the university context-as well as in schools-the specific potential of new media to enhance learning and technical training. This indirect potential extends to more than retrieving and communicating information. Holistic and networked thinking, self-directed learning about individually tailored subjects, and interactive learning in an international, interdisciplinary team are just a few of the possibilities new media open up, yielding significant added value over traditional forms of teaching and learning.

Program duration: 1996–2004

Project Description

Focus areas

Benchmarking IT Management at Universities

Virtuelle Hochschule, an international benchmarking study on the use of new media in higher education, has found a great demand for programs to support educators as they develop online materials and courses. (See also the project Qualifizierung e-teaching.org, which addresses the same issue.)

Virtual University Systems, Cologne

In this project, a major initiative of the Economics and Social Sciences Faculty will revamp much of the curriculum to include a variety of media. Over half of the professors and more than 30 faculty representatives have banded together under the direction of Dr. W. Leidhold to learn as a team and exchange experience on technical and didactic issues in transitioning their teaching to include multimedia.

E-Learning Portal – Business Case

A market study showed demand in Germany for a fee-based online study program from top universities was not high enough, so plans for an e-learning platform were scrapped.

Business Information Systems online

In this project, the institutes of business systems at the universities of Saarbrücken, Göttingen, Kassel and Leipzig have joined forces under the leadership of Dr. A.-W. Scheer (Saarbrücken) to develop multimedia educational products for a shared Intranet. By bundling and networking their individual core competencies, the universities can offer a broader, more up-to-date and thus customer-oriented palette of programs to students of business information technology.

e-teaching@university

The e-teaching@university learning portal offers a web-based knowledge and learning platform for university instructors to help them create online learning materials and courses.