"How do we want to teach? How do we want to learn?"

Wednesday, May 26, 2021, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

The fifth Future Lab is dedicated to the future of university teaching. The community of lecturers and students forms the core foundation of our university. All members of TUD as well as of numerous extramural partner institutions contribute to this foundation - be it by studying or teaching themselves or by ensuring in various instances that the initial and general conditions for teaching are appropriate. In the Future Lab, we will discuss the new teaching model that is currently being developed at TU Dresden as a vision for good teaching. We will also consider how this model can be best put into practice. In addition, we will examine individual central dimensions of teaching, from digitalization and quality assurance, through course development and key competencies, to study support services and lifelong learning. Based on the wide range of experiences of lecturers and students with teaching during the corona pandemic, we will evaluate and collect those insights and methods that are suitable for continued future use.

Program

Thematic groups

Thematic Group 1 - Digitization

"What characterizes quality teaching in the era of digitalization and digitality?"

The pandemic has forced our university to switch to emergency remote teaching, boosting enormous progress in terms of digitalization. Many tools and formats have been experimental but have since become routine. Therefore, this thematic group will look back and beyond: What has Corona taught us? Do new digital teaching and learning formats foster new forms of coexistence at TU Dresden?  What aspects have risen to such significance that we want to keep using them in "post-Corona teaching"? A particular focus of this thematic group will be on challenges that digital teaching poses in terms of technology, methodology and didactics. Furthermore, we will address the question how an open culture of discussion regarding digital teaching and learning scenarios can be successful and how the digital learning competence of lecturers and students can be supported.

Moderators: Prof. Alexander Lasch, Tina Engel

Thematic Group 2 - Teaching Guidelines

"What should our shared guideline for teaching look like?"

As part of the sTUDium 3.0 teaching strategy, a contemporary teaching model is currently being developed for TUD. In a university-wide participatory process, a vision for research-oriented, interdisciplinary, future-oriented, open and low-barrier teaching was developed. In the thematic group, representatives from this project will present the interim status as well as individual aspects of the teaching model. In addition to the incentives for excellent teaching, the focus will also be on the relationship between research and teaching. How do we achieve an exemplified mission statement that is known and integrated throughout our university, that is included in the development of studies and teaching, and that is not shrouded in cobwebs?

Moderators: Dr. Patrick Wöhrle, Erik Gebel

Thematic Group 3 - Quality management

"How do we collectively shape the quality of teaching and studying?"

We at TU Dresden consistently work on improving the quality of our teaching: To advance the optimization and improvement cross-curricular quality goals, procedures and measures of the quality control loop, involvement of students in evaluation and coordination of courses, as well as continuous discussions and consultations on necessary adjustments, fulfillment of requirements, etc. with the various actors of quality management are pursued. This thematic group will broach the issue of how the impact of teaching evaluations - as well as their handling and implementation - are currently perceived at TU Dresden, how quality management for teaching should be further developed to implement results more sustainably. In addition: How do we shape the relationship between lecturers and students as well as an atmosphere of mutual trust? What are the consequences of "bad teaching"?

Moderators: Dana Frohwieser, Fabian Köhler

Thematic Group 4 - Advancement of study programs

"How do we develop our degree programs? Or: How do we develop future teaching?"

Development of study programs at TU Dresden has become more professional in the course of the establishment of the academic affairs offices. On the one hand, the thematic group focuses on the (further) development of study programs globally. It deals with questions such as "Which study programs does TU Dresden need?" or "Where do we stand in the paradigm shift towards more competence orientation (regarding learning/teaching/examining)?" On the other hand, we discuss very concrete improvements, e.g. about how study programs could become more international. This also includes critical reflection on existing, possibly dispensable and possibly still missing processes and measures for the continuous further development of study programs.

Moderators: Sandra Scherber, Jasmin Usainov

Thematic Group 5 - Lifelong Learning (ENG)

"How long should a degree program last? Or: At what age does a student start studying?"

Those days when studying itself was regarded as a phase of life in its own right, sooner or later to be definitively concluded, are long since a thing of the past. It is essential to enable the heterogeneity of life courses, to understand it as an asset and to accept the challenges associated with it. The focus of the thematic circle is the question of how studies at TU Dresden should be designed so that new target groups in different phases of life are addressed. At the same time, we will debate what needs to change in teaching if its target group is constantly expanding.

Moderators: JProf. Maria Kondratjuk, Dr. Julia Meyer, Henriette Mehn

Thematic Group 6 - Key competencies (ENG)

“What importance do key competencies have in teaching? "

In later professional life, it is often the knowledge and skills that lie beyond the actual field of study that help to open up new perspectives and find flexible solutions. The thematic group will discuss the importance of key competencies at TU Dresden and ask how these can be systematically integrated into study programs. Special attention is given to the "future-oriented skills", which are geared towards society and sustainability. Is a TUD-specific competence profile conceivable that would distinguish our graduates? What incentives and changes are needed to give this area of competence sufficient space in the curricula?

Moderators: Prof. Dorothee Wieser, Dr. Kathy Küchenmeister, Lutz Thies

Thematic Group 7 - Study support services

"How much and what guidance, mentoring, and counseling does a successful degree program require?"

Various actors of TU Dresden offer numerous services along the so-called student lifecycle to ensure that students can study as smoothly and satisfactorily as possible and with the greatest possible opportunities for the future. In this thematic group, we will discuss how we can better support students with the multitude of training, advising and mentoring offers and which assets these services have. We will focus on the following questions: Do the services match the students’ needs? Is there a need for an advisory map? Are the offers sufficiently interlocked? What do good advisory services mean to us? The starting point for the discussion will be a short presentation of the previous considerations on these points in the Steering Group Counseling.

Moderators: Cornelia Blum, Nicole Strauss, Lisa Lehmann

The Future Labs 2021 are funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Free State of Saxony as part of the Excellence Strategy of the German Federal and State Governments.