We have established a chat room for answering your questions directly. The chat room can of course also be used as an information platform and for exchange with other lecturers.

You can log in using your ZIH login: https://matrix.tu-dresden.de/#/room/#digitale-lehre:tu-dresden.de

We are offer phone consultations. You can also contact First-Level Support at ZIH with technical questions.

ZiLL team phone availability

First-Level Support at ZIH (e-learning)

Anyone who is interested in the latest e-learning news at TU Dresden is invited to visit our blog (in German): https://elearning-tu-dresden.blogspot.com

E-learning has become an integral component of teaching at institutions of higher education. For this reason, we have launched our E-Learning@TUD newsletter with regular updates on current developments in digital learning and teaching at TU Dresden. It includes information on advanced training, provides advice and suggests suitable funding opportunities. We will also use this medium to feature new functions of TU Dresden’s e-learning tools, present ideas for using media in didactics and showcase proven practical examples and tips.

In order to bolster and implement hybrid teaching, the Extended University Executive Board has purchased 36 mobile technology sets, which are available centrally to all TUD lecturers.  A set consists of a camera with a function that tracks the person talking, a microphone, a tripod and a throwable microphone (for participation in a classroom); the components all fit in a small bag.

The sets can be reserved and borrowed by contacting our colleagues at the Media Technology Lending Desk (HSZ E11, ). Instructions on how to use the equipment can be found by clicking here, which we are happy to pass on with the kind permission of the author.

We recommend that you use these sets as a standard for hybrid teaching as they can ensure high quality and require minimal effort, without the need for additional staff to be present.

For students' overview, we recommend creating a course on the OPAL learning platform for each lecture. Those courses contain the digital course processes like enrollment, provision of material and management of tasks. External tools can be included as links.

Within a course, you can use several course elements for different functionalities. The OPAL course "E-Learning: Einführung und Gestaltung" provides information about the frequently used course elements and short guides on how to create a course.

You can manage your participants in learning groups. With the help of these learning groups, you can control the access to your course content and get in contact with the participants. If you know your participants, you canput them in a learning group by yourself. Otherwise you can use the course element  enrollment for a student self-registration. Please note our advice for enrollments in OPAL (in German).

In addition to enrollment, the following course elements can be used:

• single page: creation of HTML content like Text or Media
• folder: provision of learning material
• task: individual assignment, drop/return boxes and assessments for each student

Please note: you have to publish your courses in order to make them accessible.  Brief instructions for publishing a course.

Make an entry in the course catalogue to ensure your course can be found by the students. Alternatively, you can link your course on your website or in the university's course catalogue. Here, you will find a brief instructions for catalogue entry. If a folder is missing from the catalogue, simply email .

The OPAL manual gives detailed information about the learning platform.

For further information and tools that do not concern OPAL, see the following recommendations.

You can move your course - with didactic adjustments - to a virtual classroom.

For such cases, the DFN offers Adobe Connect and DFNConf (Pexip), but those  currently do not have enough resources to manage the greatly increased access demands across Germany (DFN news). We cannot recommend these tools at the moment.

For this reason, TU Dresden has acquired different tools. Current information on video conference systems provided by the ZIH at TU Dresden, including a comparision of the tools, a privacy statemant for those tools issued by Unit 3.5 Information Security and a tool overview.

Please note for all types of online conferences: Use video only if necessary. Often, it is sufficient to show the presenter's video, record your lessons to give users with personal obstacles or slow internet performance the option to watch the video later.

There are different ways to transfer knowledge online. The easiest way is to provide materials like scripts or presentations.

Provision of study materials

Materials should always be made available through your usual channels. If you have not yet provided digital materials, please use the learning management system OPAL. You can find more information about the systems in our tool overview.

The easiest way to offer your content online is to record a PowerPoint presentation. This enables you to make an entire lecture available in just a small file and have relevant questions/tasks processed via other channels (such as forum or chat).

In addition to scripts, PowerPoint slides and other teaching materials, you can easily record the course as a video.

Please try to avoid large data uploads at the moment by reducing the image quality of the videos to what is absolutely necessary or by creating shorter, sequenced videos. It is advisable to structure the sections (each max. 7-10 minutes) didactically, i.e. to tell the students the main points of focus under which they should watch the sections or ask questions about their understanding of the material afterwards.

Screencast tools

Screencast tools allow you to record your screen and record the audio track at the same time. In this way, for example, PowerPoint slides can be set to music relatively simply. Further information about the systems can be found in our tool overview.

Recommended equipment

If possible, use devices that ensure good audio quality in particular. Microphones or headsets with a USB connection often work without drivers and are easy to use for podcasts, recordings and video conferences. Microphones integrated into your PC or smartphone can be used, but often produce much lower quality than additional equipment.

The Competence Center for Video Conference Services has listed recommendations for the selection of video conferencing accessories on its website.

If you are considering purchasing a device, please consult the lecture recording advice service:

You can also find practical examples and recommendations on the equipment used in our tips from the advice chat.

Basically, the streaming of video or audio content (all data transmission where the data can be accessed/viewed/listened to while it is being transmitted) is the preferred option. Streaming reduces data consumption as videos are not completely downloaded to the user's hard disk. However, delay problems can occur with this solution if the number of accesses is high.

The following options are available to make video or audio content available to students.

1. Streaming in Magma

Magma is the official video streaming tool of TU Dresden. You can find more information about the system on our tool overview.

A release of the videos for different user groups (public, only for registered users, TUD-internal) is possible.

2. Streaming of embedded videos into the learning platform OPAL

Videos are stored on a video server (e.g. Magma) and are retrieved by OPAL via streaming. Main advantage is the integration into an OPAL course and the possible access restrictions, e.g. only for registered participants or by date.

A short instruction can be found in the OPAL tutorial videos.

3. Video Download without streaming

As availability of the servers is not always guaranteed due to high data volumeor low bandwidth, it can be helpful for students to download the video to their computer. As an additional alternative, we suggest to provide files for download.

This is a very fast option, but not recommended for everyday use. Updates are more difficult to handle and, if many users access the system at the same time, a much higher data volume occurs, which can, under certain circumstances, destabilize the entire system. If you want to provide videos in this way, we strongly recommend splitting them into shorter videos and to ask your students to download the videos outside of regular hours if possible.

The cloud store of TU Dresden and the learning platform OPAL are available as platforms. For information see above in the section "How can I make study material available online" or in our tool overview.

4. YouTube, Dailymotion, Dtube, Vimeo

These are tools not officially endorsed or recommended by TU Dresden and should be used with caution from a perspective of data protection and copyright law. For example, if you still use YouTube, we recommend using the visibility settings to restrict access. The video can then only be found via a provided link and not via a search engine. If the video is no longer needed, remove it.

It is certainly a challenge to digitally provide group work that had previously been taking place on site. Nevertheless, we would like to present you with some options that allow students to collaborate with the help of digital tools.

Synchronous editing of texts and content

The following external tools are suitable to give students the opportunity to work together on a document at the same time:

• Online text editor Etherpad (e.g. https://yourpart.eu)
• Virtual pinboard padlet (https://de.padlet.com)

You have different options here. Either you create a new desktop and distribute the link to your students, or you can distribute just the tasks and give your students the freedom to choose a tool. In the latter case, you would receive the results via link or email.

Forums, Blogs, Wiki

If you want to enable your students to communicate and discuss various topics, online boards/forums are particularly suitable in place of seminars and tutorials. This allows students to debate on a specific topic. You as a lecturer can also guide this debate.

Blogs are very suitable as learning diaries and thus for illustrating and reflecting on learning processes. Students can post their results of work assignments or prepare summaries here. The possibilities are very diverse. The blog posts can be read and commented on by you and other students.

A wiki is suitable for a complex task, for example in which each student defines a part of the task for themselves and makes it available to other students in a separate wiki article. Working together on articles as well as linking and discussing them is possible. Wikis work with a special input syntax for text formation and structure, which you should draw your students' attention to in advance.

TUD internal tools

In OPAL it is easy to create online boards, wikis and blogs and integrate them into courses or groups. Please refer to the user manual or the support of TU Dresden if required.

The TU Dresden Blog Service (https://blog.tu-dresden.de) can set up a blog for you on TUD's blog server.

External tools

External tools sometimes have the advantage of providing you with more server capacity or additional functions. However, with external tools you should always bear in mind that data protection issues may remain unresolved. Therefore, please feel free to use these tools, but keep these issues in mind.

You can also find a tool collection with recommendations for online boards, wikis and blogs as well as other tools in our e-learning toolbox.

If you would like to reach students by email, you can use the email function in OPAL. You can either write to all students enrolled in the learning group of a course at once or select individual students separately. Students can also communicate amongst themselves or write to you. You can find more information about this in our blog about the use of email in OPAL.

Alternatively, you can use the course element messages in OPAL to create an overview of current information for your students

The communication via an online board/forum is useful if you assume that several students have the same questions. You can then answer them openly via the board and thus make the information available to all students. Students can also answer questions among themselves and discuss via the board. In OPAL, online boards can easily be integrated into courses.

In addition to the asynchronous communication options, it is sometimes useful to offer a synchronous communication channel to the students. At TU Dresden, you can use the chat program Matrix for this purpose (for further information see the tool overview). It is advisable to set fixed times for students to reach you in the chat room. Depending on the settings, past conversations may also be made visible.

The OPAL learning platform offers various possibilities to give feedback to students.

Using the course element task, students can upload solutions to given tasks in a folder that can only be viewed by the lecturer. The performance of each student can be evaluated separately and personal feedback on the work can be given. For this course element, students can also evaluate each other via peer review.

In the course element wiki, students jointly create pages in a Wiki on a specific topic. Feedback can be given publicly via the discussion board for each article

It is also possible to offer tests or self-tests with automated feedback. Please note that the creation of the tests may require some preparation and time.

Virtual consultation hours and consultations can be mapped via a virtual classroom. Please refer to the section How can I create a live version of a course?

There are several ways to include tests to check whether students have understood the content or what (previous) knowledge they may have. Self-tests can help students to assess their own learning progress.

TU Dresden's ARS (Audience Response System) tool Invote is easy to use. It is actually intended for use in classroom lectures, but can also be used virtually. You can find the tool and short instructions under the following link: https://invote.tu-dresden.de

A more complex tool integrated in OPAL is the test tool ONYX, which can be used to implement tasks, self-tests and regular tests. Instructions for the use can be found in the ONYX handook.

You can find brief information on both tools in our tool overview.

Other external, easy-to-use tools for knowledge testing include:

• Kahoot (quiz-based learning tool)

• Quizlet (quizzes, flash cards, games)

• Hot Potatoes (crossword puzzles, tasks, questions)

Do you have questions that we could not answer here? Please feel free to contact us. You can find our contact details and how to reach us in the contact and support section.

We have created our own sub-page on digital examinations where you can find up-to-date information on this topic.

Here you will find tutorials that can help you use digital media. Please note that many of them exist only in German at this point:

• If you have any question about working with OPAL, you will find the answers in our introductory course on hot to create e-learning material with OPAL, which gives an introduction to various functions.
• Professor Dr. Alexander Lasch (Chair of Linguistics and History of German) has created video tutorials on the following topics for the implementation of digital teaching/learning scenarios during the missing classroom sessions:
  • Matrix Web Messenger
  • Podcasting
  • Vidcasting
  • Paperless mit reMarkable und reMarkable2

  • Videokonferenz via Jitsi @ MATRIX

• Prof. Dr. Simon Meier-Vieracker has provided tutorials on how to create instructional videos and how to realize digital office hours
  • LOOM due to COVID19 LOOM ist freely available
  • digital office hours with whereby.com
• Prof. Stefan Odenbach has created a short example of a PowerPoint file with audio recording thar shows its creation
• Dagmar Oertel presented her OPAL course in the chat. The following videos have been provided:
  • Digital teaching at the TUD - Webinare
  • Digital teaching at the TUD - tasks via OPAL
  • Digitalteaching at the TUD - record your lecture with OBS Studio

Thanks to all persons who created and helped to create the content, even if not everyone ist mentioned here.

Ideas from our chat

Here we collect ideas and information given by the participants in the chat.

Technical questions and comments
Creation of screencasts/tutorials and sound recording of slides

• We would like to point out again that via Powerpoint presentations can easily be converted into videos andmade available as Mp4.

Alternatives to the official web conference tools

• DFNconf and Adobe Connect are often overloaded and therefore not or only with difficulties accessible
• It is recommended that you do not use video transmission and display only the still image of the participants
• Matrix, Zoom, Jitsi and Microsoft Teams
• Zoom only allows free meetings up to 40 minutes, but users report that the meetings were automatically extended free of charge

Notes on Matrix

• as an offer of the TUD, Matrix is especially recommended for reasons of data protection. There are chat rooms for Matrix support and the operating status [https://matrix.tu-dresden.de/#/welcome] of Matrix.
• Matrix seems to have problems with Firefox occasionally, Chrome works more stable
• Contributions with wide format images can be used to structure the content of a matrix chat
• Participants without a ZIH login can apply for a guest login at the ZIH

Technical equipment for online meetings

To create videos, Prof. Dr. Alexander Lasch recommends the following hardware:

• Camera
• Logitech C920 HD
• Logitech C27
• Elmo MX-1 Visualizer - 4K, MX-1
• Microphone/Headset
• Samson Stage XPD1 HEADSET (alternatively XPD2)
• Logitech 960 stereo headset or an alternative for 20€ from Sennheiser - make sure you use a USB connection
• As a microphone, the Rode NT-USB, for example, is an all-rounder. Mobile audio recorders can also be used to make many recordings, and mobile technology such as the ZOOM H2n is available.
• For webcams, please refer to the test reports of the Competence Center for Video Conferencing Services [https://vcc.zih.tu-dresden.de/index.php?linkid=1.1.7]

Didactic questions and remarks

Supervision of student work

• Users have reported good experiences with the use of Matrix for the supervision of a Bachelor thesis

Use of Flipped Classroom as an alternative to classroom teaching

• Flipped Classroom can currently be best realised by providing videos for the communication of contents and a subsequent presence phase, which can alternatively be realised via chat or forum.
• Motivating students to read the teaching materials thoroughly is a particular challenge. Some teachers recommended small learning controls (e.g. multiple-choice tests), which give access to, for example, further exercise sheets.
• Students can submit their tasks via the OPAL course module Task [https://www.bps-system.de/help/display/LMS/Aufgabe].
• In Christian Spannagel's YouTube channel [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_FGVqET9-GHgKZ7G0ejTSA] you will find many examples of flipped classroom on the subject of mathematics.

Social involvement of employees in the home office phase

We would like to point out that in the next weeks it will be important to socially integrate those employees who are working in home office (also PhD students, postdocs). Matrix is very well suited for this purpose, too; it can also be used for team meetings.