The new HFD Community Working Group (CWG) is investigating what motivates university teachers to digitise their teaching. The HFD Community Working Group (CWG) “Motivational factors for lecturers to implement digitally supported teaching” is a group of participants* of the HFD Summer School 2019 within a “barcamp session”.

The digital transformation of all areas of life is picking up speed more and more – also in teaching. Hardly any German university has not yet put the integration of digitally supported teaching on its agenda. A broad acceptance and application of digital teaching and learning concepts, however, is not yet evident. With the exception of a few Early Adopter who are pioneers in the field of teaching digitisation/reconceptualisation, many lecturers are (still) sceptical about the digitisation of teaching/learning concepts at universities. The concerns of these lecturers, often triggered by a lack of resources, lack of access or information and practical examples of use, pose problems for universities in implementing the objectives set for digital teaching transformation. 

The question remains, therefore, how university teachers can be won over to this cause and exactly where the obstacles lie. Here good advice is usually expensive!

The same question was asked by a group of participants* of the HFD Summer School 2019 during a “Barcamp session“. What sounds like a humid event was rather a profound discussion of a heterogeneous collection of lecturers and advisors* for digital teaching at different universities, who all complained about the same suffering: “What factors motivate lecturers to implement digitally supported teaching at their universities, or what are the reasons for their failure to do so? The HFD Summer School was followed by several online meetings and a joint application to the HFD, so that the Barcamp session resulted in the new HFD Community Working Group (CWG) “Motivational factors for lecturers to implement digitally supported teaching”.

The core team of this CWG consists of Stefan Sesselmann (Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule Amberg-Weiden), Tobias Ademmer (Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften Neu-Ulm), Fabian Schumacher (Bielefeld University), Sophie Bülter (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz) and Anika Kneiphoff (Ruhr University Bochum).

The work of the team is to be supported by proven experts* in the field of digital teaching. A kick-off date is planned for November 2019 at the premises of the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK) in Bonn, at which a questionnaire for lecturers at German universities will be drafted. This questionnaire will then be disseminated to all German higher education institutions via the HFD channels in spring 2020 and subsequently evaluated by the CWG. Further meetings will follow.

The members of the CWG hope to gain new insights into attitudes, barriers, motivations and possible incentives for the use of digital teaching by lecturers at universities through the broad quantitative and qualitative survey.

As product motivational measures and concepts in the sense of a portfolio of incentives and measures are to be developed. The focus will be on the lecturers themselves – especially those who have so far been rather critical of digital innovations.

The publication of the results is planned for summer 2020. In the future you can follow the progress of the project on this blog.

Main contact person of the Community Working Group is Stefan Sesselmann.

Here you will find a digital map locating the five CWG participants.