At a glance
For: prospective students, students, teachers
Topics: Flexible studying, sustainable studying, individual course of study, pilot study programs and projects, cross-course transfer, university-wide project week
Sub-project of making the study programs at Fulda University more flexible
Location: Fulda University
Flexibilization pilot project in the “B.Sc.” degree program Food Technology”
Challenges
The department of food technology is currently facing a sharp decline in student numbers and, against this background, offers its central bachelor's degree program - the B. Sc. Food Technology - from the coming winter semester 2023/24
also in English in addition to the existing course offerings. Since it is to be expected that not all students from abroad will be able to be present on site and take part in face-to-face studies right at the beginning of the winter semester due to delays in issuing visas and the difficult living situation,
there will be more flexibility for the first semesters the design of the modules through online, hybrid or blended learning formats.
Goals
The following goals are at the center of the efforts to increase flexibility:
- New students from abroad are given the opportunity to take part in the courses and acquire the desired skills through digital teaching and learning offerings right from the start, even if they cannot yet be present on site.
- The aim is to integrate students into existing on-site learning groups at an early stage using hybrid teaching formats and individualized (digital) feedback formats.
- The exchange of international students with teachers and learners is promoted and dropout rates are reduced.
- Existing digital teaching-learning arrangements will be consolidated and further developed and used to open up new target groups for the department.
- The aim is to implement and test new learning formats that take into account the teaching load.
Concept
Making the design of individual modules more flexible can be tested in different ways:
Variant 1: Accompanied online study (see presentation of the Patern GO-IN project)
Provision of self-study materials to be processed asynchronously and regular digital practice tasks in weekly learning packages. Digital exchange and feedback formats on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to clarify questions and support the students' (individual) learning process.
Variant 2: Blended learning design (see presentation of the Patern GO-IN project)
Provision of self-learning materials to be processed asynchronously in learning packages (see variant 1) and weekly face-to-face/hybrid or online meetings to summarize and deepen the content from the learning packages . Depending on how much teaching load is available,
the in-depth appointments can be carried out in a hybrid form or, if several parallel appointments can be offered, an in-depth appointment can be implemented completely online.
Variant 3: Hybrid event
The regular event dates are held as a hybrid event so that international students can join in on the ongoing face-to-face events. An individualized
consultation hour or support offer for this group of students appears to be effective (e.g. supplementary online tutorial).
Variant 4: Alternating mode
Since English and German-language events run in parallel, weekly face-to-face appointments are only held in German (every even week) or in English (every odd week). The event that is not held in person will be
made available in the respective language as a commented Powerpoint file.
Further ideas from the teachers for implementing the English-language course of study will be specifically taken up and integrated into the project as it progresses.
Focused dimensions
The project aims to increase methodological, spatial and temporal flexibility.
Further development and expansion of the project
The experiences of the project can be expanded to include the design of individual modules in existing study programs. The flexibility here particularly addresses target groups who are unable to attend full face-to-face studies due to professional activities or care/care tasks at home and are therefore currently confronted with delays in the course of their studies or even dropping out of their studies.
Furthermore, considerations can be given to the design of new study programs such as: B. use a part-time and/or dual bachelor's degree program in the department.
