Teaching room equipment
The strategic objectives for room facilities at TU Dresden include the provision of diverse learning and teaching environments, both physical and digital. The aim is to create flexible, sustainable spaces that meet the needs of students and teaching staff. This includes easy access to the university network, use of current technologies, flexible room design for different teaching and learning scenarios, as well as the promotion of collaboration and communication. Atmospherically appealing rooms with experimental variations should make learning and teaching attractive, both on site and virtually. Self-organization, independence of time and place and individual learning paths play a central role. Maker spaces and learning labs serve the further development of room design for high-quality learning processes, while sufficient rooms are available for students on campus. Overall, this increases the attractiveness of the university as a place of learning, both on site and virtually, and contributes to a high level of identification and willingness to participate on the part of students and teaching staff.
What do we want?
TU Dresden recognizes the design of spaces as places of learning and teaching, both didactically and technically, as a strategic element in spatial planning. The physical teaching and learning spaces at TU Dresden are equipped in such a way that they enable collaboration and co-creation of knowledge. In this way, they add value and promote identification with the institution. They increase their "added value of presence" through profound learning experiences. The rooms are open, multifunctional and can be designed in a variety of ways, inviting people to linger and awakening a desire to learn.
All learning and teaching spaces at TU Dresden enable interactive and hybrid teaching with the latest technology and room equipment required at the time of implementation and beyond. Both plug-and-play and "bring your own device" (BYOD) are supported with appropriate equipment. The use of the technology is explained in searchable, actively maintained documentation.
Where do we want to go?
From room equipment to room design
TU Dresden aims to provide both analog and virtual spaces for teaching and learning processes in equal measure. Teachers and students should have access to flexible learning spaces equipped with mobile furniture that invite them to learn, teach and experiment. The learning spaces of the future will be sustainable in terms of both their use and their equipment, which will be geared towards the learning and teaching needs of their users. This means that the learning spaces - set up for analog, hybrid and digital scenarios - are low-threshold, easy to use and accessible to all user groups.
Students and teachers at TU Dresden have stable access to the university network in every room and in the green spaces of TU Dresden at a speed that is necessary for collaborative and interactive teaching with real-time multimedia transmission (e.g. video, VR) at the time of implementation.
Digital and physical teaching/learning locations can be easily identified and booked centrally in terms of proximity, time availability and supported types of collaboration and learning methods. This also supports spontaneous working and learning meetings.
The teaching and learning rooms are open, bright and adaptable in size to different group sizes. They can be used for learning groups, individual learning and a variety of teaching scenarios. Room-in-room concepts and zoning form the basis for flexible use.
Current technical standards make it possible to switch smoothly between face-to-face and hybrid teaching thanks to the devices and interfaces provided in the teaching/learning rooms. Suitable, permanently installed adapters are provided for common end devices to ensure that every learner and teacher can use the systems accordingly.
The range of mobile multimedia systems for specific teaching scenarios, e.g. for laboratories and workshops, has been expanded and can be checked and reserved centrally on the basis of a platform.
The constellation of tables, chairs and media technology in all classrooms (except lecture halls) supports a mode geared towards communication (O-shape) and group work in addition to the frontal form. For this purpose, the equipment has lockable wheels to enable flexible forms of work.
In addition, the teaching and learning rooms are equipped with basic materials for creative, experimental and collaborative work (e.g. blackboards/smartboards, moderation materials, visualization options, etc.) as well as attractive, comfortable seating (seating corners, lounge areas) that allow for learning in informal settings. Low-threshold digitalization options are also always available for analogue visualization variants, so that "remote" learners can take part and actively participate at any time if required.
The teaching and learning spaces at TU Dresden are atmospherically designed to make learning and teaching attractive in the sense of co-creation of knowledge and to address the social and emotional needs of the learning community.
Experimental variants with, for example, music corners, communal kitchens, cafés, quiet areas, etc. are being piloted and may be established. In addition, virtual or digital teaching and learning spaces complement traditional analog social forms and offer a wider variety of learning resources. They are strongly characterized by the paradigms of self-organization, time and place independence and also promote the target group-oriented individualization of learning paths, in which teachers become learning guides.
The spaces take motivational aspects of learning into account (cf. Deci/Ryan: self-efficacy/experience of competence, autonomy, social integration).
Maker spaces and learning labs are used to further develop room design for high-quality learning processes. Experimental spaces for teaching and learning have been set up at the Faculties and Central Units. These rooms offer a creative and interactive space in which students and teaching staff can work together, experiment and develop new ideas.
In addition, TU Dresden has sufficient spaces for learning outside of formal teaching situations for students who are on campus. These rooms are designed and equipped to provide an optimal learning environment. They are suitable for individual learning and studying as well as for group work and offer students the opportunity to organize their self-study components on campus.
How do we achieve this?
- Systematic recording of the technical, organizational and financial requirements
- Commitment to providing the required resources - Provision of the necessary hardware and software infrastructure
- Systematic analysis of all existing equipment in the teaching/learning rooms
- Care, maintenance and modernization of equipment (incl. hardware and software) is prioritized
- Roadmap for implementing the respective subtasks, including defining responsibilities and deadlines
- Training options for learners and teachers to transfer the opportunities created into use.
- Establish and further develop support structures
- Revive the Campus Navigator project and expand it to include the room equipment segment (as an information system/learning room overview)
- Create different interaction concepts taking into account the respective room concept and use the interfaces between digital and physical learning environments