Audience Response Systems (ARSs) provide a promising opportunity to address issues occurring in traditional higher education, e.g., the lack of interaction, by allowing students to participate anonymously in lectures using their mobile devices. This can promote the students' attention, increase the interaction between the lecturer and the students and foster active thinking during class. In order to choose an appropriate ARS, numerous surveys list and classify these systems according to different criteria, e.g., supported features and platforms. [From the introduction]

Purpose – Back in the year 2000, the European Council (2000) declared in its Lisbon Agenda that the European Union should become “[…] the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.” This vision encompassed far more than just societal and economic growth in a global world; it also included educational strategies and an e-learning action plan. For example, in 2011, the European Commission mentioned the following as a key policy issue (Communication 2011): to “better exploit the potential of ICTs to enable more effective and personalised learning experiences, teaching and research methods (e.g. [sic] eLearning and blended learning) and increase the use of virtual learning platforms.” In accordance with this roadmap, higher education institutions are called on to reflect and re-engineer their educational systems, adapt them to current and future technological and didactical demands and address new generations of teachers and students. New concepts like connectivism (Siemens 2004) and the recognition of non-formal and informal learning (OECD 2016) enhance traditional formal learning settings and lead far beyond the provision of mere learning content management systems. New e-learning and blended learning arrangements like MOOCs (Cormier & Siemens 2010), collaborative learning in the virtual classroom (Tawileh, Bukvova & Schoop 2013) and flipped classroom approaches (Hussey, Fleck & Richmond 2014) are evolving and must be explored, evaluated and then strategically implemented into everyday teaching and learning processes. A comprehensive e-learning strategy should therefore address four fields: didactics, technology, organisation and economy and culture (Seufert & Euler 2004). Besides orientation on the actual trends, the strategy development should also recognise and integrate practical local experiences of early adopters and actors of e-learning in the field. Therefore, a community of knowledge experts in e-learning application has been involved in the strategy development. Design/methodology/approach – Best practice report of a comprehensive quality initiative for the sustainable improvement of everyday teaching and learning processes at a large university. The challenges of current and future trends in formal and informal learning, collaboration in virtual classrooms and internationalisation of research and teaching processes are analysed and addressed by the strategy implementation plan and a regular evaluation and improvement concept is presented and discussed. Originality/value – The e-learning strategy presented was developed, discussed and adopted in 2015. Its implementation plan is currently at the final discussion stage, having been due for adoption in January 2016. Practical implications – The e-learning strategy’s implementation plan lists targets and sub-targets, underlined by concrete measures, tools and methods, responsible institutions and persons and financial sources. Regular evaluations and improvements will give elearning providers a set of proven instruments to further improve their activities and provide the broad range of students and teachers with a set of best practices to follow, enabling them to discover the benefits of e-learning for their everyday processes.

Purpose – Gamification or related concepts such as serious games and playful design are discussed intensively in the field of academic education. Since 2011, gamification has continuously been recorded as a medium-term trend of online education in the annually published Horizon Report. In all areas in which engagement, participation, and motivation of individuals are the key success factors, strategies of gamification are considered. But, what are potentials of gamification in the field of higher education? How can educational technologies such as learning management systems be gamified? An essential part of this article is a study regarding the gamification of the learning management system OPAL. Design/methodology/approach – Based on a master thesis at the faculty of educational sciences, a study was conducted in order to investigate how the use of game elements can increase the attractiveness of OPAL for students. OPAL is the central learning management system at the Technische Universität Dresden. The study should answer the question: Which game design elements increase the attractiveness of OPAL for students? The research question was answered with a qualitative approach, while the collection of data was carried out by a focus group and expert interviews. The sample included six master’s students and one expert. The findings provide recommendations for redesigning OPAL. Originality/value – Often gamification is related to tools like points, badges, and leaderboards. But what elements exist beyond these? The contribution initially provides conceptual foundations and refers to game mechanics as the specifics of games. Based on this, the potential of gamification in higher education teaching was discussed. Practical implications – The article describes the concept of gamification and how this approach can be used in university teaching, especially for designing Learning Management Systems.

Fehlende Kompetenzen in Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften werden von Studierenden als ein Grund für den Studienabbruch in Ingenieurwissenschaften angegeben (Heublein et al., 2017). Welche Kompetenzen für Studierende zu Beginn des Ingenieurstudiums relevant sind, ist jedoch bisher wenig empirisch untersucht. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Studie ist, relevante mathematische Kompetenzen von Ingenieurstudierenden zu analysieren und dabei sowohl Wissensbestände als auch die Anwendung von Wissen und die Zusammenhänge zwischen beiden Bereichen zu berücksichtigen. Dazu wurde eine Studie im Mixed-Methods Design entwickelt. In dieser werden die Studierenden hinsichtlich ihrer Dispositionen in Mathematik und Physik zu Beginn des Studiums und am Ende des ersten Studienjahres mit quantitativen Methoden getestet. Zu diesen beiden und einem weiteren Zeitpunkt am Ende des ersten Semesters wurden zudem die situationsspezifischen Fähigkeiten bei der Bearbeitung von Mathematik- und Physikaufgaben mit Hilfe eines theoretischen Rahmens zum mathematischen Problemlösen mit qualitativen Methoden untersucht. Dieser Theorierahmen umfasste für die Mathematikaufgaben die Aspekte Heurismen (Bruder & Collet, 2011; Schoenfeld, 1980) und Problemlösephasen (Polya, 1957) sowie das Modell der Epistemic Games (Tuminaro, 2004) zur Analyse der Bearbeitung von Physikaufgaben. Die Ergebnisse zeigen Zusammenhänge zwischen mathematischen und physikali-schen Dispositionen. Zusätzlich wird die Bedeutung von Aspekten des Problemlösens deutlich, um die Prozesse bei den Bearbeitungen von Mathematik und Physikaufgaben im ersten Studienjahr zu analysieren. Auf Grundlage der qualitativen Beschreibungen konnten Cluster von Fällen von Studierenden gebildet werden. Mit Hilfe dieser Cluster zeigen sich Zusammenhänge zwischen den Dispositionen und situationsspezifischen Fähigkeiten bei den besonders leistungsstarken und leistungsschwachen Studierenden. / Missing competences in mathematics and sciences are cited by students as a reason for the drop-out in engineering sciences (Heublein et al., 2017). However, the competences that are relevant for students at the beginning of their engineering studies have so far not been investigated in an empirical way. The aim of this study is to analyse relevant mathematical competences of engineering students, taking into account both knowledge and the application of knowledge and the interrelationships between the two. A study in mixed method design was developed for this purpose. In this study, students are tested with regard to their dispositions in mathematics and physics at the beginning of their studies and at the end of the first year of their studies using quantitative methods. At these two points in time and a further time at the end of the first semester, the situation-specific skills in processing math and physics tasks were examined with the help of a theoretical framework for solving mathematical problems, using qualitative methods. This theoretical framework included for the mathematical tasks the aspects heuristics (Bruder & Collet, 2011; Schoenfeld, 1980) and problem solving phases (Polya, 1957) as well as the model of Epistemic Games (Tuminaro, 2004) for the analysis of the processing of physical tasks. The results show interrelationships between mathematical and physical dispositions. In addition, it became clear that there is a need of problem solving aspects in order to analyse the processes involved in the working on maths and physics tasks in the first year of studies. Based on the qualitative descriptions, clusters of student cases could be formed. These clusters show the interrelationships between dispositions and situation-specific skills of particularly high-performing and underperforming students.

Higher education in Germany traditionally follows a one-size-fits-all paradigm. The ignorance of diverse students’ needs jeopardizes high-quality and equal educational opportunities for all. Digital technologies can provide economical solutions to individualize teaching and learning, even in large university classes. However, their design has to incorporate pedagogical theories, specific contextual requirements, and users’ needs (Laurillard, 2008). In this project contribution, we want to demonstrate our approach to this challenge. We briefly describe how we connected the pedagogical concept of mentoring to theories of self-regulated learning and used this as a framework for developing formative assessment and automated feedback tools as digital mentoring interventions. The mentoring nterventions aim at facilitating self-regulated learning, especially self-monitoring and strategy-adaption. We present three different implementations in structured and illstructured domains and the key results of a qualitative evaluation survey. [Aus: Introduction]

Bisher erhalten potenzielle Studienanfänger, Studenten und Hochschulabsolventen kaum empirisch begründete Antworten auf ihre Frage, was den beruflichen Erfolg beflügeln könnte. Im Vordergrund der hochschulpolitischen Diskussion stehen vor allem Studiendauer und Alter der Absolventen. Wie groß oder klein deren Einfluss auf den (individuellen) beruflichen Erfolg aber tatsächlich ist, wird selten reflektiert. Andere, in der Ratgeberliteratur vielfach genannte Einflussmöglichkeiten für den beruflichen Erfolg wie zum Beispiel die Nutzung persönlicher Kontakte zu Hochschullehrern, aus Praktika usw., aber auch Indikatoren sozialer Kompetenzen wurden bisher kaum untersucht. Auch die Auswirkung einer Berufsausbildung vor dem Studium wurde bislang oft nur aus der Perspektive der Ausbildungskosten und der geringeren zur Verfügung stehenden Lebensarbeitszeit der Absolventen diskutiert. Und schließlich kann auch die soziale Herkunft der Absolventen Einfluss haben. Im Rahmen der Dresdner Absolventenstudien konnten bereits für einige Fakultäten bzw. Fachrichtungen der TU Dresden Untersuchungen zu Bestimmungsgründen beruflichen Erfolges unternommen werden. In dem vorliegenden, neu aufgelegten und überarbeiteten Bericht zu Bestimmungsgründen beruflichen Erfolges konnten nun erstmals Daten der Absolventenstudien aller Fakultäten bzw. Fachrichtungen der TU Dresden, d.h. von knapp 2.000 Befragten einbezogen werden. Damit liegen wohl erstmals in Deutschland derartig detaillierte Untersuchungen für alle Fakultäten einer großen Universität vor. In der hiermit vorgelegten Publikation soll - ergänzend zu den bereits vorgelegten fachspezifischen Analysen - eine fächerübergreifende Analyse von Bestimmungsgründen beruflichen Erfolges dokumentiert werden. Hiermit wird immer wieder gestellten Fragen entsprochen, welche individuellen Merkmale von Absolventen - also welche (Vor)Erfahrungen und gegebenenfalls Brüche im Lebenslauf, welche (zusätzlichen) Qualifikationen, sozialen und beruflichen Kompetenzen, Einstellungen, soziodemographischen Eigenschaften und Strategien - und welche Rahmenbedingungen der Bildungsbiographie (mit Fokus auf die Hochschul- und Studienqualität) fächerübergreifend Einfluss auf den beruflichen Erfolg haben. Hierzu war zunächst zu definieren und auf Eignung zu prüfen, was als Maßstab des Erfolges gelten soll. Allein das Einkommen - vor allem wenn es nur zu einem Zeitpunkt erfasst wird - ist als Erfolgskriterium nicht hinreichend zu bewerten. Außerdem ist für die Absolventen selbst das Einkommen wesentlich weniger wichtig als z.B. eine interessante Tätigkeit oder ein gutes Arbeits- und Betriebsklima, so dass diese sich im Zweifelsfall wohl für eine geringer bezahlte, aber interessantere Stelle entscheiden würden. Und dies gilt für fast alle Fächergruppen. Daher wurden für den Berufserfolg das Einkommen zu mehreren Zeitpunkten sowie als weitere Kriterien die aktive Suchdauer bis zur ersten beruflichen Tätigkeit, die Zufriedenheit mit der beruflichen Situation und - zusätzlich zur vorangegangen Untersuchung - nun auch die Ausbildungsadäquanz der Beschäftigung operationalisiert. Die Analysen erfolgten in zwei Schritten: Im ersten Schritt werden für einen ersten Eindruck von der Stärke (und gegebenenfalls Richtung) des wechselseitigen Zusammenhangs jeweils zweier Variablen die Korrelationskoeffizienten auf Hochschul- und Fakultäts- bzw. Fachrichtungsebene ermittelt. Der zweite Schritt und Schwerpunkt der Untersuchungen sind die Regressionsanalysen. Da dieses komplexe Analyseverfahren deutlich größere Fallzahlen erfordert, konnte es für die Dresdner Absolventenstudien an den einzelnen Fakultäten bislang nur vereinzelt eingesetzt werden. Jetzt können mit dessen Hilfe auch Zusammenhänge zwischen mehr als zwei Variablen berücksichtigt werden (multivariate Analyse).

The teaching project HIS (Holistic International STEMs – Learning with case studies and real life industry experiences) is presented as part of the poster session. Experience shows that German (outgoing) and international (incoming) students have difficulties to communicate properly at the workplace in Germany as well as abroad due to language differences, especially in STEM terms. In addition, young professionals often do not have experience in working in international or virtual teams. All those challenges are current job requirements, not just in global companies. But: How to teach this in higher education? The classical formats of lectures or seminars are not suitable. Therefore, there is a need to develop and prove new teaching formats, within the curriculum as well as extracurricular. With focus on STEM subjects the presented project combines three current impacts on higher education: Internationalization, digitalization, and labor market orientation. The concept of the project is that STEM students from different countries will attend an international, virtual summer school (April to June 2016). They solve real-life job case studies together in small interdisciplinary teams. The participants are mentored by national and international industry partners and STEM professors. With such, the participants will improve language and communication skills, and apply and exchange their expertise as well as gain intercultural work experience. The concept was awarded by the “Stifterverband für die deutsche Wissenschaft” (Donors association for the promotion of humanities and sciences in Germany). The poster introduces the project and exemplary the three-dimensional assignments of one case study (occupational, lingual, and intercultural). At present, the project should be handled as a “project in progress”. Keywords: technology, teaching projects, STEM, internationalization, digitalization, labor market orientation, employability, job orientation, competencies, development of new curricula

In dieser Dissertation werden die Themen Studienstrukturreform, Beschäftigungsfähigkeit und die besondere Situation der Absolventinnen und Absolventen der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften untersucht. Im Theorieteil wird entlang der Modernisierungstheorie nach Ulrich Beck eine Analyse des gesellschaftlichen Wandels der Teilbereiche Arbeit und Bildung vorgenommen. Die Modernisierung, die als multidimensionaler Vorgang beschrieben wird, ist als Ursache und Motor für die Bologna-Reform zu verstehen, so die Grundthese der Arbeit. Beschäftigungsfähigkeit stellt ein zentrales Ziel der Bologna-Reform dar. Im Rahmen der Untersuchung wird entlang eines Diskurses um den Begriff und dessen Verwendung untersucht, welche Fähigkeiten, Kompetenzen und Kenntnisse Studierende der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften vermittelt bekommen sollen, damit sie Beschäftigungsfähigkeit erwerben. Ein dritter Schwerpunkt des theoretischen Abschnitts kennzeichnet die Beschreibung der Bologna-Reform. Im Rahmen des empirischen Teils wurden die an der Bologna-Reform beteiligten Akteure unter Verwendung von quantitativen und qualitativen Methoden der empirischen Sozialforschung untersucht. So brachte die Dokumentenanalyse relevanter Bologna-Dokumente hervor, dass auf allen Ebenen der Hochschulpolitik Beschäftigungsfähigkeit thematisiert wird. Ein weiteres zentrales Ergebnis der empirischen Untersuchung ist, dass sowohl die befragten Absolvent/innen der Philosophischen Fakultäten der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin als auch die Arbeitgeber/innen die Integration von praxisrelevanten Elementen ins Hochschulstudium begrüßen. An der praktischen Umsetzung wird jedoch Kritik geübt. Trotz Thematisierung der Beschäftigungsfähigkeit und Einführung praxisrelevanter Elemente in die Curricula bleibt die Akzeptanz des Bachelorabschlusses insbesondere in den Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften auf dem Arbeitsmarkt eher gering. / This graduate thesis is analysing the reform of structur regarding to studies, employability as well as particular circumstances of graduates in humanities and social sciences. Regarding to the theory of modernization according to Ulrich Beck the social change with its parts of labor and education is analysed it the theoretical part. You need to understand modernisation - which is described as multidimensional event - as cause and influential force of the (educational) so called Bologna reform, so the main thesis of this paper. Employability is a chief aim of Bologna reform. To analyse how students of humanities and social sciences are getting skills, expertise and knowledge so they’ll acquire employability there is a discourse about the term and its utilisation (of employability). The third focus within the theoretical part is the description of the Bologna reform. In the context of the empirical part involved parties of the Bologna reform has been analysed based on quantitative and qualitative methods of empirical social research. To impart employability is an aim that you can find within discussions at the European Higher Education Area via higher education policy in Germany to the point of practical study regulations at HU Berlin. On the one hand both the polled graduates of the faculty of philosophy at HU Berlin and the employer are acclaiming/welcoming the integration of practical oriented units into university studies; on the other hand they are finding fault with the implementation. Even though employability is picked out as a central theme as well as practical oriented units are integrated into curricula the acceptance of a bachelor degree on labour market is still on a low level in particular within humanities and social sciences.

The importance of universities as knowledge hubs is increasing due to knowledge production via research and teaching. An emerging aspect of knowledge management literature is the study of the knowledge requirements of universities. In particular, the transformation from knowledge creation to knowledge sharing has proved to be important in the university context and is subject to cultural differences. For example, previous research has indicated that a physician’s Tacit Knowledge Capacity (TKC) is affected by social software and social media. This creates opportunities to carry out new research on different occupations that have an intense TKC. As part of this research, a survey was conducted in order to assess the TKC of lecturers in both Germany and North Cyprus. These are two countries that have universities providing knowledge management programmes. The research determined the TKC in both countries and compared the two in order to determine if cultural factors affect the TKC of the profession. Through this research, the authors aimed to contribute to the ongoing research on the knowledge requirements of universities that will enable them to be knowledge intensive institutions. The Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences at Near East University, which has 2200 students and 20 chairs, was compared with the Faculty of Business and Economics at the Technische Universität Dresden, which has 2800 students and 23 chairs. The study was carried out to provide an intercultural comparison, which is currently lacking in the Knowledge Management field. The research findings have highlighted the factors influencing the transfer and the accumulation of tacit knowledge.

Purpose – Since April 2014, the alliance of leading German Institutes of Technology (TU9) has been jointly producing and running massive open online courses (MOOCs) on the subject of engineering. On the one hand, the collaborative MOOC@TU9 project aims to combine the unique characteristics and strengths of the engineering courses offered by the TU9 universities, making inter-institute, cooperative, open learning both visible and accessible. This will enhance both local teaching and the national and international marketing of the universities. On the other hand, the project also aims to help build communal experience and develop quality and production standards for the use of different MOOC formats in digital higher education teaching. In this sense, the MOOC@TU9 project contributes to the vital development of sustainable digitalisation strategies at German universities in the form of a feasibility study, which can then be used in other contexts as a valuable example of best practice. Design/methodology/approach – The MOOC@TU9 project has a primarily practical approach. The focus of the collaboration between the TU9 universities is therefore the discussion, exchange and coordination of concrete actions in addition to the evaluation and assessment of the solutions reached and implemented. The collaboration within the TU9 network results in inter-organisation working and learning processes for the parties and institutions involved. These have a particular value, as this is how, through collaboration, we can build an effective, sustainable, multi-dimensional experience. Originality/value – MOOC@TU9 is a joint inter-university project with the aim of strategically testing the possibilities, parameters and benefits of using massive open online courses in higher education teaching, the like of which has never been seen before in Germany. There is, therefore, currently no systematic development of quality and production standards for MOOCs: a gap, which MOOC@TU9 is actively attempting to fill. Practical implications – Results and findings of the project are not only taken from specific practical work, they are also fed directly back into it. In this respect, it can and should provide valuable insights not only for course participants, but also for other universities and/or initiatives.