Shaping International Digital Teaching Together First round of ProDiGI funding line at TU Braunschweig starts in April

Learning from each other and shaping international digital teaching together: This is the aim of the project “Promoting Digital education through Global Interconnection” (ProDiGI). Previous experience and already developed solutions in the field of digital teaching are now conceptualised to become usable in the long term. In this way, an international range of courses will be created at the Technische Universität Braunschweig and students will be enabled to gain international experience independent of physical mobility. In a university-internal funding line, ProDiGI supports projects within the faculties and subject areas to establish and expand digital international study programmes and modules with the aim of establishing them as part of the curriculum. The first round will start in April 2022.

Picture Credit: Miriam Eck/Projekthaus

“An important component of the project is its focus on networking between the participants so that knowledge can be shared and efficiently applied – integration instead of isolated solutions,” explains Katrin Renkwitz, project coordinator of ProDiGI. For the first funding line, seven projects were selected from 19 submitted applications: Bilingual online tasks for engineering mathematics, a machine learning challenge in medical informatics, an exit room game for electrical engineering and a diverse digital course programme for the field of modern electrochemistry are among them.

Furthermore, virtual alternative teaching-learning methods are being tested in biology as well as in a digital course in the Master’s programme “Kultur der technisch-wissenschaftlichen Welt”, in which intercultural and interdisciplinary teams will cooperate. With “Engineering Acoustics”, a new international, hybrid Master’s programme is being designed. All these projects specifically incorporate the student perspective and prepare students for the demands of the international research and job market.

Physical and virtual contact point, initiator and distributor: The Digital Incubator

Depending on the scope of the project content, the funded projects will be supported for six to twelve months with material and personnel resources as well as (media) didactic expertise. In addition to regular exchange meetings, there will also be networking opportunities – bundled in the “Digital Incubator”. This platform brings together impulses and relays them back not only into the funding round but into the university as a whole.

Second funding round starts in September

“The second round of the funding line will start in September 2022. Applications can be submitted until 15 May 2022,” announces project coordinator Katrin Renkwitz. A virtual event with information on the eligibility of projects and tips on how to apply will take place on 30 March 2022 from 4-5 p.m. Registrations are possible on the ProDiGI website.

About ProDiGI

The extensive experience gained so far in the area of digital teaching at the TU Braunschweig is to be made sustainably usable in the project “Promoting Digital education through Global Interconnection” (ProDiGI) – especially in international English-language teaching. The project, which runs until 2024, is funded by the Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre with 2.3 million euros. The foundation, under the umbrella of the Toepfer Stiftung gGmbH, has the task of promoting innovation in teaching and learning, bringing relevant stakeholders together and supporting the transfer of science. It was launched by the Federal and the Länder Governments in 2019 as part of the “Innovation in der Hochschullehre” agreement. 150 million euros will be provided annually in the long term.