Monitor Digital Education - College in Digital Age - Teachers

The Digital Education Monitor (Monitor Digitale Bildung) creates for the first time a comprehensive and representative empirical database on the state of digitized learning in the various education sectors in Germany - schools, vocational training, higher education, and advanced training.

Use of digital learning forms and learning concepts at higher education institutions. Concepts for success and challenges in the use of digital learning media. Support for disadvantaged students. Assessment of digital learning. Own preparation for teaching with digital media.

Topics: 1. Technical equipment: media technology or hardware used for teaching at the university (smartphone, cell phone, tablet, PC and notebook, digital camera, interactive whiteboard, projector, other); sufficient WLAN at own university; assessment of technical equipment for digital learning at own university.

2. Use of private devices by students: evaluation of the use of private devices by students in events (seems disruptive, can be used well during the event, e.g. for research, promotes opportunities for cheating, increases participation, increases distraction through emails or social media use); own attitude towards the use of private devices by students in events (basic ban on use, permitted use for event-related purposes, general tolerance of use in any form, the generally issued ban on use applies, no regulation).

3. Open educational resources -supply forms of learning contents: learning materials and learning technologies used or not used free of charge or for a fee (learning apps, learning management systems, e.g. Moodle or ILIAS, digital learning resources, e.g. e-books, learning videos, software, e.g. statistics and calculation programs, business games, literature management programs, e-assessment systems, examination systems); opinion on freely available learning offers (Open Educational Resources): Assessment of the quality of OER offers is difficult, relieve in the preparation of teaching, lack of time to search for suitable offers, enrich own events, no suitable services in own subject area; own teaching materials are made available to other teachers; form of spreading own materials to other teachers (open question).

4. Use of digital learning forms and learning concepts: technologies and applications used (chat services, e.g. WhatsApp, digital presentation tools, e.g. PowerPoint, digital texts (e.g. e-books, PDF documents), digital learning games, simulations, social networks, e.g. Facebook, electronic tests or exercises, forums, communities, blogs, learning apps, learning management systems, MOOCs, software, such as statistics or design programs, office programs, e.g. Word, Excel, cloud services, e.g. Google Drive, Dropbox, video offerings, e.g. YouTube, e-portfolios, response systems, Wikipedia or other wikis, other applications); use of the aforementioned digital media and online services in events, for teaching preparation, for communication with students or colleagues, no use or unknown; preferences with regard to selected learning concepts and the didactic integration of digital media in teaching (e.g. Lecture with learning videos, presentation tools or use of whiteboard, use of PDF documents or e-books for the events, etc.); own experiences with these (digital) learning concepts and evaluation; learning objectives that can be achieved well with these digital learning concepts (pure knowledge transfer, imparting skills / application of knowledge, promoting social competence, promoting independence or no evaluation possible.

5. Digital learning for specific target groups: additional resources used or not used to support students with special needs (providing equipment, e.g. loan notebooks, assistive systems to compensate for physical handicaps, use of small evaluations, combined with short tasks (quests),support for self-directed learning, video services that demonstrate complex issues and processes, texts that take into account native language competence, cost coverage for paid services, e.g., remedial courses, scripts, assessment of competence, and tests using digital media, other forms of support (open).

6. Assessment of digital learning in general: assessment of digital teaching and learning opportunities (motivating, time-consuming, improve learning outcomes, difficult to monitor for success, reduce the workload of teaching staff, reduce dropout rates, improve access for socially disadvantaged / physically handicapped, make individual learning more difficult, promote the attractiveness of the university.)

7. Challenges: difficulties and problems with regard to the use of digital forms of learning at the university (too high expenditure for the acquisition of learning content and for technical equipment, too expensive maintenance of devices and applications, concerns about health effects, e.g. WLAN, other tasks and forms of learning leave students little time for digital learning, problematic legal issues, e.g. on usage rights. e.g., rights of use, lack of professional support for the digital infrastructure at the university, unclear offerings for digital learning, questionable quality of digital learning offerings, students lack sufficient media-related competence, too much effort and no credit for teaching load, lack of didactic advice on digital teaching at the university, other challenges (open).

8. Networking, communication: assessment of networking potentials via digital media, such as WhatsApp, Facebook with students, colleagues, with other institutions, e.g. partner universities or companies, other (open).

9. Test and examination concepts: examination with the support of the computer in the context of the course (examination or test as an entrance examination for a course, tasks and tests as an examination in between to optimize the course, examination or test as a final examination of a course); type of digital procedure (visibility of the examination result only for the learner or evaluation of the result by the teacher or by the computer).

10. Own preparation for teaching with digital media: frequency of use of selected opportunities to acquire competencies (offerings during own education, continuing education courses, informal exchange, self-study, other opportunities (open); source of inspiration for the use of digital media for learning (respondent him/herself, students, colleagues, department or Institute management, central university institution, university management, third-party funders, others (open), no use of digital media); institution follows certain standards when using digital media or has received a certificate, seal of approval or award (open mention of these standards, seals of approval or awards).

Demography: sex; age (grouped); type of higher education institution; public, private, or denominational sponsorship of higher education institution; length of service as a higher education teacher; subject groups in which courses are taught.

Additionally coded were: respondent ID; college code; anonymous and voluntary survey noted; groups university size.