Aline Bergert: "Kick-Starter: International Virtual GLASSroom Community"

Applicant: Aline Bergert & Prof. Christian Louter, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Institute of Building Construction | School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Period: 2021 – 2022
Participating partners: Delft University of Technology, Netherlands | Czech technical university (CVUT), Prague, Czech Republic

Glass is everywhere and plays an important role as a building material. However, it receives relatively little attention in engineering studies compared to traditional materials such as concrete and steel. As a result, there is a pressing need for educational programs focusing on glass design and technology. How can this need be addressed?

Group picture of the team on a staircase — Open GLASSroom Consortium 2023 in Dresden

Based on an existing research partnership between the Institute of Building Construction at TU Dresden and partner universities TU Delft (Netherlands) and CVUT Prague (Czech Republic), the "Open GLASSroom" project was created to establish a European teaching community for the interdisciplinary field of glass design and technology. From January 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022, the project "Kick-Starter: International Virtual GLASSroom Community" received funding to support the development of this community.

Group of people viewing the Glass Pavilion at TU Dresden campus — Glass pavilion on TU Dresden campus (the first bonded all-glass frame corner in Germany)

As part of the project, an inventory of open educational resources (OER) in glass construction was conducted. The first license-free educational videos were created, and a network was established with other European universities and industry partners. Universities in Girona, Rijeka, and Bari joined the project. Building on these results, a third-party funding application was submitted and acquired as part of the Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnerships program from November 2022 to October 2025.

The relevance of international cooperation in teaching is explained by Aline Bergert as follows: "Not only does it make little sense, it is also difficult to cover all relevant teaching topics and keep them up to date. The future of good teaching, for us, lies in the direct involvement of leading international experts from different universities."

Group picture in front of a green screen — Behind the scenes: Recordings in the Museum of Ancient Glass in Zadar

The seed funding provided by the funding program Internationalization laid the foundation for further developments: The collaborative platform openglassroom.eu was created for the education community and is now established internationally. The platform is used to publish license-free, quality-assured teaching and learning materials, such as videos, animations, and remote labs. This content is used and developed digitally across universities and countries. Currently, a joint MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) is being developed with TU Delft, and an Open Textbook is also being planned.

The project “Kick-Starter: International Virtual GLASSroom Community" is considered as best practice example in internationalization. It successfully initiated an international teaching community in the interdisciplinary field of glass design and technology, creating sustainable structures for open educational resources. The involvement of strategic partner universities such as TU Delft and CVUT Prague, as well as the successful acquisition of third-party funding within the framework of Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnerships, highlights the international scope and future potential of this innovative teaching project.