July 27, 2021

In the program of the German federal and state governments, "Strengthening university teaching through digitization", around 1.9 million euros will be made available for three years for the joint project of the universities of applied sciences in Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Offenburg, and Pforzheim. In the project "Shared Excellence – Laboratory Learning Spaces 4.0 (SHELLS)", the four partner universities in the alliance will implement a cross-university pool of hybrid laboratory courses on digital transformation.

Laboratory courses are particularly suitable for teaching competencies for the world of work 4.0. In addition, this type of course can benefit in many ways from digital teaching and learning methods, even though the implementation of digital teaching is very challenging and time-consuming. In the project, the universities involved will develop hybrid laboratory courses, exchange their approaches and experiences, and open up the courses they have implemented to students at the participating universities.

Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences is in charge of the joint project. As project leader, Prof. Dr. Angelika Altmann-Dieses, Vice-President for Academic and International Affairs at HKA, emphasizes the strategic importance of the selection result: "I am very pleased with this successful application, which we were able to achieve together with our collaborative partners. The project funds make an important contribution to the further development of digitization in teaching and our teaching portfolio as a whole."

At HKA, Prof. Dr. Matthias Wölfel (Faculty of Computer Science and Business Information Systems and Prof. Martin Schober (Faculty of Information Management and Media) will develop their own hybrid laboratory courses, also using parts of virtual and augmented reality. As with the application, HKA's Center for Teaching Innovation will provide support in coordinating the joint project.

The office of the Commission for the Enhancement of University Teaching (GHD), which is also involved in the project, sees the joint project as a great opportunity to participate in the development and testing of innovative digital teaching concepts of laboratory courses. It can then take these approaches to other universities via the statewide network of the GHD, thus enriching the teaching culture throughout the state.

In the first round of funding from the newly established Innovation in University Teaching Foundation, a total of 330 million euros was awarded nationwide. Around 55.5 million euros went to the state of Baden-Württemberg, which is thus the front-runner in terms of the amount of funding awarded. According to the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts, Science Minister Theresia Bauer considers the result of the selection process to be a "huge success for Baden-Württemberg's universities of applied sciences", which once again demonstrates the high quality of teaching and the innovative strength in the state.