Review of the 2024 annual conference
Two intensive days are behind us and it was fun to get to know so many different people with their projects and perspectives. After 62 contributions, including 2 keynotes, 11 theme islands, 14 keynote speeches, 4 workshops, an extensive trade fair and poster gallery consisting of 29 stands, some special formats and the concluding panel discussion, we hope that the approximately 120 participants on site and around 50 in the livestream will also go home well filled with impressions were able to.
Review of key topics and keynotes
The motto of this year's annual eTeach conference was "Building bridges. Fields of tension in digital teaching innovations" and dealt with the central question of how digital technologies can contribute to the expansion, but also the strengthening of teaching. In the opening keynote speech, Prof. Dr. Benno Stein emphasized that the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) is essential in order to promote technology-supported creativity without becoming dependent on technology.
Another highlight was the second keynote speech by Dr. Laura Sūna, who shed light on the digital skills of students and addressed the challenges and opportunities in the digital age.
Highlights from sessions and workshops
Digital testingThe conference offered inspiring insights into new digital examination formats that assess students in a more practical and skills-oriented way. The use of Podcasts as an examination format and the "Digital Pitch" as an alternative in healthcare degree programs showed how examinations can be designed more flexibly and realistically. These approaches make it clear that digital testing not only includes technical requirements, but also creative, practice-relevant design options.
Learning platforms and hybrid formatsLearning platforms such as the Virtual Campus Thuringia illustrated how digital and analog teaching methods can be combined to promote flexible and location-independent learning. The Virtual Campus, for example, offers a central, cross-university platform that connects students and lecturers and further simplifies the use of digital tools.
Promotion of digital skillsThe sessions and workshops on digital skills development showed that teachers are increasingly focusing on supporting students not only on a technical level, but also with regard to the self-organized use of digital tools. The keynote speech Edu 4.0 shed light on how teachers can build didactic bridges between humans and AI to teach students digital skills for the future. At the same time, a workshop on Virtual Collaborative Learning The course provides a practical insight into how digital teamwork can be strengthened.
Artificial intelligence (AI)The role of AI in teaching was a central theme of the conference. Various contributions shed light on how AI teaching formats can be meaningfully integrated into university teaching. A particular focus was on trust and transparency in dealing with AI in order to support students in using AI-supported tools responsibly.
Outlook and next steps
The conference concluded with a panel discussion on the topic of "What next in the field of tension of digital teaching?". The panel discussed how teachers and students can be more closely involved in the future in order to create a healthy balance between digital and analog teaching. Above all, our lecturers would like to see more flexibility, synergies in collaboration and greater involvement of students.
Another joyful highlight for us was welcoming Prof. Dr. Cordula Borbe from Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences as the new academic director of the eTeach network! She emphasized the importance of experimentation in digital teaching: "It is greatIt's great that the eTeach network makes this possible."
We look forward to building on this experience next year and would like to thank everyone involved for the inspiring contributions, exciting discussions and valuable insights into their experiences and thoughts.
The Conference contentspresentations, posters and contact information for the individual projects can be found on our conference page and the Indico page available.
