In view of the ongoing Corona pandemic, the Thuringian Ministry of Science will continue to provide additional funding for digitization at Thuringian universities in 2021. To this end, the special fund "Digital University Teaching II", which was launched in 2020, was once again provided with 2.8 million euros to expand digital teaching formats.
The funds will be used in particular to hold lectures and seminars digitally or to expand the range of such digital teaching formats, to award additional teaching assignments and to recruit the additional teaching assistants and student assistants needed for this purpose. "In this particular situation, we want to use the special fund to support the universities in providing digital offerings of the necessary breadth and quality," said Thuringia's Science Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee.
200,000 euros in 2020 for digitization of teaching
The TU Ilmenau benefited with 200,000 euros from the special funds of 2.2 million euros made available in 2020. The President of TU Ilmenau, Prof. Kai-Uwe Sattler:
The uncomplicated and rapid provision of additional funds has helped us a lot in the past year to quickly expand our online offerings and to convert teaching operations within a short period of time. In 2020, the five faculties were each provided with 40,000 euros for measures to support teaching staff and the procurement of equipment.
The departments used the money from the special fund to purchase additional cameras, microphones, laptops, tablets and monitors with pen input functions in order to develop modern digital teaching. Part of the funds went towards the central equipment of recording rooms with appropriately equipped PCs and lighting, while another part was made available to the departments to cover the need for their own equipment still required. Professor Gunter Schäfer, Dean of the Department of Computer Science and Automation, is delighted with the special fund provided by the state: "The fact that these funds were made available by the state in a quick and uncomplicated manner has enabled us to quickly procure precisely those items that were most urgently needed by the individual lecturers for a rapid and comprehensive conversion to online teaching: From cameras, microphones and lighting, to appropriately equipped laptops and PCs for video production, to tablet computers for electronic proofreading of submitted assignments and the creation of pre-configured production workstations for course recording."
The Dean of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Professor Thomas Fröhlich, is also pleased with the additional funds:
The money from the special fund has helped us a lot to be able to offer the entire course material completely online or to successfully use digital teaching formats to supplement face-to-face courses.
Among other things, the faculty has purchased hardware such as interactive LCD touch displays. Like a traditional blackboard, they can be used to show presentations, high-resolution videos and many other types of content. With the WLAN module and a ScreenShare app supplied with each, content can be shared, streamed and edited directly on the screen from any device. The touch displays are thus ideal for active teamwork in seminars or meetings. Faculty departments have also been able to equip themselves for digital teaching, including tablets, iPads, webcams and headsets that are used for tele-lectures and lecture recordings.
250,000 euros in 2021 for seminar rooms
In 2021, TU Ilmenau will receive another 250,000 euros from the special fund "HochschullehreDigital-Extra II". The university intends to use these funds to further professionalise the equipment of shared teaching rooms. Ten seminar rooms in the Humboldtbau, the central and largest teaching building of the TU Ilmenau, will be equipped for face-to-face and online teaching, so-called hybrid seminars. For this purpose, the rooms will be equipped with state-of-the-art video conferencing technology for recording and streaming. In addition, at least two rooms can be interconnected to at least double the seating capacity for face-to-face events. Five seminar rooms will receive a wireless presentation system with an interactive 86-inch display. Professor Sattler:
The additional money from the state's special fund will allow us to equip our seminar rooms with state-of-the-art technology to support the hybrid teaching we expect to see in the next few months, keeping pace with current developments in the delivery of university teaching.
And the university can also benefit from this in the long term: It is technically equipped for modern teaching that sensibly combines presence and digital offerings and thus expands the repertoire of teaching and learning forms. "Modern teaching is part of a modern university," says the Vice President for Studies and Teaching, Professor Anja Geigenmüller. "Teachers from various faculties have successfully applied for projects for innovative digital university teaching. I am pleased that the university has created a very good basis for transferring the innovative ideas and approaches of these projects into teaching at TU Ilmenau and thus making them accessible to all students."