The university-wide project "Research-based Learning in Focus (FLiF)" was able to convince the selection committee of the Joint Science Conference for the second phase of the "Quality Pact for Teaching" funding programme with its FLiF+ proposal. Around 6.2 million euros will be available from October 2016 to the end of 2020. "We are very proud that we can continue to advance research-based learning and teaching together," comments Vice President for Teaching and Learning, Prof Dr Gunilla Budde.
'Together' here means above all the participation of students, which is becoming more prominent in the second funding period and was an important decision criterion. Students and deans of studies from all Schools worked together during the application phase. In future, sufficient funds will now be available to involve students at various levels. For example, they are to become active as researchers in the courses and have the opportunity to present their own research findings at specialist conferences.
The central aim of the project is to implement and expand research-based teaching and learning in all School departments and to anchor it sustainably at the university. In addition to increasing personnel capacities for research-based teaching and learning, the FLiF+ project will expand the infrastructure for student research, extend the range of higher education didactics in the field of research-based teaching and learning and strengthen international exchange. Students are to be given the opportunity to publish and present their research results - for example in the online journal "forsch!", which was founded as part of the project and is now to be continued, or as part of the programme's own conferences for student research.
The aim of the equally successful joint project "eCompetences and Utilities for Teachers and Learners (eCULT+)" is to increase the quality of teaching and learning at the 13 participating universities through the didactically meaningful use of digital teaching and learning technologies. A total of 6.4 million euros is available for this in the network and around 620,000 euros at the University of Oldenburg.
In order to meet the current demands on university teaching, such as competence orientation, student-centred teaching or dealing with heterogeneity, the digital tools successfully used in the didactic fields of "teaching/learning organisation", "video-based and multimedia teaching and learning" and "eAssessment" will be further developed within the network. Teachers' skills in the use of these tools will be enhanced through needs-based counselling and qualification offers. This will enable the transfer of knowledge and good practice across university boundaries within the eCULT network, which was recognised as "exemplary for other joint projects" in the field of eLearning in 2015. The University of Oldenburg is (co-)project leader and overall coordinator in this network and is responsible for numerous further developments in the field of digital teaching/learning organisation. This successful work can now be continued until the end of 2020.
In the second funding period of the Quality Pact for Teaching, a total of 156 universities across Germany will receive funding. The federal government is providing around 820 million euros for this purpose, while a total of twelve projects in Lower Saxony are being funded with around 68 million euros.
