Student Future Group #DigitalChangeMaker

All too often, the discourse about (digital) change processes at universities is still about students instead of with them. However, in order to further develop universities in a sustainable and learner-centered way, we need student perspectives and expertise. This is precisely where the student initiative “DigitalChangeMaker” comes in: The Hochschulforum Digitalisierung invites students to get involved at local, regional and national level in order to actively shape the digital transformation at universities. They represent student interests as speakers and authors, contribute to discourse, support and advise universities, and develop change projects.

The DigitalChangeMaker are looking forward to exchanging ideas with you! If you have an event request or are interested in collaborating with the DigitalChangeMakers, you can contact us at any time using the form linked above.

With the aim of providing university members with low-threshold Methods for the establishment of student participation processes to strengthen student participation in everyday university life, the idea of the PartiDeck was born in December 2022. Deck of cardswhich uses different methods of participation in structural development processes in the sense of a “How-To-Participation” and should be implemented in digital and analog form. Led by members of the DigitalChangeMaker initiative, a cross-status community team is currently tackling the challenge.

What might a modern, holistic understanding of student-centeredness look like? Lea Bachus, Kevin Saukel, and Rene Rahrt present in theirDiscussion Paper “Studierendenzentrierung neu denken” reinterpret the term and show how students can be more involved in teaching and university processes. Various people from around the university have already been able to participate in the preceding collaborative development process. The result of the collaboration was also presented as a talk at the University:Future Festival (U:FF) on April 27, 2023 under the title. “Studierendenzentrierung richtig verstehen – Hochschule nicht für sondern mit Studierenden gestalten”. presented. The contents of the discussion paper are now to be fleshed out and prepared for practical action in a further working phase (presumably in the form of a community working group or a similar collaboration format in the Hochschulforum Digitalisierung).

In the project HFDvisions university teams consisting of representatives of university management, students, and persons in strategic positions – design futures for their own universities in a participatory and co-creative manner. The vision teams are supported by the HFD as well as by the ranks of the DigitalChangeMaker initiative. In their role as mentors, the student peers primarily act as idea providers and sparring partners in the exchange with the university teams. They also take on facilitation assignments and support the HFD team with organizational and content-related tasks. In June 2023, DigitalChangeMaker Johannes Schleiss will publish a paper (“Co-creating Visions with Higher Education Institutions: A Case Study in the German Higher Education Landscape”) featuring the Results from the evaluation of the first two HFDvision cohorts at the EDEN 2023 Conference “Yes we can!” – Digital Education for Better Futures presented in Dublin.

In the summer of 2022, DigitalChangeMaker Paula Paschke and Lea Bachus, with support from the HFD, launched the project AGG 2.0 project with support from the HFD. In this context, the students deal with the handling of (digital) sexualized violence in the (German) university context. By means of formats such as blog posts and Talks at conferences, the project aims to raise awareness of the extent of the problem and to sensitize university staff. The team is currently working on a handout on recommendations for action for university lecturers on the prevention of digital violence. Cooperation with projects working on similar topics is also sought.

With the aim of providing university members with low-threshold Methods for the establishment of student participation processes to strengthen student participation in everyday university life, the idea of the PartiDeck was born in December 2022. Deck of cardswhich uses different methods of participation in structural development processes in the sense of a “How-To-Participation” and should be implemented in digital and analog form. Led by members of the DigitalChangeMaker initiative, a cross-status community team is currently tackling the challenge.

Too often, the discourse on digital transformation processes at universities is still about students instead of with them. Students can and should be strong partners in shaping sustainable universities. With this conviction, we at the Hochschulforum Digitalisierung founded the DigitalChangeMaker initiative in 2018 and, together with committed students, are expanding it into a nationwide DigitalChangeMaker network.

The goal of the DigitalChangeMaker initiative is to systematically strengthen student participation in favor of a learner-centric design of the digital transformation at universities. The initiative provides a cross-university collaboration framework to bring together student innovators, promote students in their role as innovation and design partners at eye level, and actively shape the national and international discourse through student perspectives.

The members of the DigitalChangeMaker initiative see themselves as a nationwide student think tank, which

• develop student demands (e.g. on the organization of student participation, the design of learning, examination and room concepts, the use of AI technologies) in cooperation with relevant actors and multipliers,
• actively contributes student perspectives and visions to discourses on learner-centered higher education transformation and sustainable higher education and thus plays a decisive role in shaping them,
• supports universities and cross-university development processes by providing impetus, advice and support.

• Speaker:in and author:in assignments: In order to help shape the discourse in a learner-centered way and to contribute DigitalChangeMaker positions, we use invitations to keynote speeches, panel discussions and workshops on the one hand, and proactively search for exciting event and communication opportunities on the other.
• Exchange and collaboration formats: Collaboration and support by the Hochschulforum Digitalisierung team takes place in a form-follows-function–mode (e.g. in joint workshops, brainstorming sessions & writing sprints: for the development of positions & discourse contributions, selective calls). A fixed component of the DeepDive phase are content-related and interdisciplinary qualification workshops as well as exchange opportunities with experts, innovators and central decision-makers from universities and politics.
• DigitalChangeMaker Forum: Regular opportunities for topic-specific and open digital/presence meetings with DCM alumni:ae. This creates a common resonance space in which synergies become visible and productive exchange can take place.