13. Issue

Editorial

In times of restricted contact, educational institutions are forced to adopt digital means in order to compensate for loss of face-to-face teaching. Thus, e-learning is rapidly deployed everywhere. While crisis require fast response, it seems now necessary to transform the zoo of individual approaches into more coherent learning practices – at least on the granularity of study programs. Here, the experience of decades of research and practice on technology-supported learning may provide helpful insights for the transformation of educational institutions.

Improving learning on the course-level

On the course-level, contributions in this issue address different aspects of technology-supported learning, including assessment, augmentation of presence teaching, and the specific competence of systematic literature review.

Assessment

Menny Aka et al. present in their article “In-Class Formative Assessment in an Introductory Calculus Class” the results of a study of an audience response system in an introductory math course. The findings show benefits of this type of formative assessment for conceptual learning of students and for peer instruction.

Andreas Frey et al. discuss in their project report “Kompetenz¬orientierte individualisierte Hochschulklausuren und deren prüfungsrechtliche Einordnung” competence-based assessment of courses. They suggest a concept for the construction, administration and scoring of exams in higher education that can be used across universities and across disciplines, and may help to establish comparability of assessment results. Feasibility is discussed according to examination law and the general conditions for successful implementation in the regular operation of higher education institutions.

Augmenting presence teaching

Alexander Kiy, Dustin Wegner and Ulrike Lucke present in their article „Learning Smart in Home - Acceptance of an intelligent personal assistant as virtual tutor” a modular implementation of an Intelligent Personal Assistant using the wide-spread Amazon Echo as a realization of a virtual learning partner. Here, learning takes place at home, and not in the university. They discuss its evaluation according to the Technology Acceptance Model, and present scenarios how IPAs will be able to adapt the physical environment according to the learning goal. The presented concept does not rely on Amazon Echo but could also use an open-source component like Mycroft Mark II or Jasper to address data privacy concerns.

Frank Bensberg, Andreas Schmidt and Oliver Roll present in their project report „Teletutorien als Instrument zur Ergänzung der Präsenzlehre – Konzeption und Umsetzung für einen berufsbegleitenden Studiengang der Wirtschaftsinformatik“ the concept of teletutorials, which are an addition to classroom teaching, use web conferencing systems, and contribute to intensifying the quality of the relationship between university teachers and students. The case study describes planning, technical and organizational implementation of teletutorials as well as experiences.

Teaching systematic literature Review

Frank Bensberg, Gunnar Auth and Christian Czarnecki address the teaching of systematic literature review in their project report “Literaturanalyse mit Text Mining”. Here, they show the professional and technical design of a course familiarizing students with the potentials of text analytical methods and application systems (text mining, text analytics) and developing the digital competencies required for system-supported analysis and processing of literature data.

Digital transformation

On the institutional level, contributions in this issue focus on different aspects of digital transformation of educational institutions:

Christopher Prokes discusses in his recension the book “Teaching Naked: How Moving Technology Out of Your College Classroom Will Improve Student Learning” by José Antonio Bowen. Teaching naked argues for maximizing time in the classroom for face-to-face learning by removing technology from the classroom, to be considered a transformation quite opposite from what is often viewed as the future of learning in the digital age.

Tobina Brinker and Karin Ilg (Eds.) present the proceedings of the 5th Forum Hochschullehre und E-Learning-Konferenz in their book “Lehre und Digitalisierung: 5. Forum Hochschullehre und E-Learning-Konferenz”. Here, issues such as the didactical design of technology-supported teaching and learning scenarios in higher education institutions, and the competences of teachers and students required in digitally transformed education, are discussed.

Annika Jokiaho presents didactical scenarios for e-learning in higher education in her book „Didaktische E-Learning-Szenarien für die Hochschullehre“.

Birgit Eickelmann et al. (Eds.) present the results of the IEA-Studie ICILS 2018 (International Computer and Information Literacy Study) on computer- und information-related competences, incl. computational thinking, of 8th graders compared to other nations. The book “ICILS 2018 #Deutschland“ provides information necessary for development of schools, teaching and teacher development in the context of digital transformation.

Birgit Brandt, Leena Bröll and Henriette Dausend (Eds.) present the proceedings of the 2. interdisziplinäre fachdidaktische Symposium „Lernen digital“ (2019). In their book “Digitales Lernen in der Grundschule II: Aktuelle Trends in Forschung und Praxis“, insights from research and practice of didactics of different subjects in elementary school are presented.

Johann Pongratz develops an IT architecture for the digital university in his dissertation „IT-Architektur für die digitale Hochschule”. Based on the case study of TU Munich, Campus Management, IT strategy, IT governance, Digitization of teaching, IT security, privacy, IT support and future development are considered, and a future-oriented IT architecture for the digital Higher Education Institution is presented.

Benjamin Wallenborn presents in his dissertation “Entwicklung einer innovativen Autorenumgebung für die universitäre Fernlehre” an authoring environment for qualification-based courses and degree programs in the Moodle LMS, to be used in distance teaching. For this purpose, he develops the Qualification Based Learning Model, the Knowledge Management Ecosystem Portal, a competence manager, a competence profile manager, and course resp. degree program authoring tools.

Kevin Fuchs presents in his dissertation “Cognitive Spacetime” a method based on spatio-temporal data structures and algorithms that allow the implementation of artificially intelligent self-adapting systems. Such systems can be utilized for technology enhanced learning but also for other fields related to human-machine interaction.

Munir Salman addresses the problem of supporting knowledge, content and software asset integration in collaborative R&D and innovation processes. In his dissertation “Flexible Distributed R&D Data Management Supporting Social Network-Based Knowledge, Content, and Software Asset Integration Management in Collaborative and Co-Creative R&D and Innovation” he employs concepts from social networking and computer-supported cooperative work to facilitate flexible distributed R&D management in networked enterprises. While not closely related to e-learning this work may be considered relevant for developing networks of educational institutions aiming at co-creation of educational programs and content, thus transforming educational processes using digital technology.

This issue marks a transition in the editorial board of eleed. In 2018, Manfred Postel died unexpectedly. With Manfred, we miss a founding member of eleed’s editorial board, who helped to shape eleed and make it a success. Manfred was also responsible for project reports and licensing issues. In December 2019, Thomas Wenk joined the eleed editorial board and took over the editorship for project reports. We look forward to continue to improve eleed and to serve the community by distributing high quality open access information to researchers and practitioners interested in e-learning and education.

Joerg M. Haake
Editor-in-Chief, eleed