After three semesters of online teaching, lecturers can once again offer restricted in-person teaching during the winter semester. Due to the existing 3G rules and social distancing rules however, not all students will be able to attend seminars or lectures in person at the same time. So-called hybrid teaching formats offer a solution to this.
Hybrid teaching refers to a system whereby part of the student body participates in an event in person while another part switches on online via Webex. Different versions of blended learning also exist: part of the teaching is done in person and other parts online.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Media department (NFL) of the TIK has been working closely together with the Center for Higher Education and Lifelong Learning (ZLW), more precisely the Hochschuldidaktik [de]. Both institutions support members of the teaching staff by holding training and advisory sessions on hybrid teaching.
Hybrid teaching
You can find an initial introduction to hybrid teaching on ILIAS [de]. There, different teaching scenarios are sketched out with their respective content-related and technical frameworks and challenges. The TIK has carried out a two-fold technical upgrade to support teaching staff in these scenarios.
- Members of staff have fitted out 40 lecture halls for broadcasting events via Webex. They have laid the necessary cables in each one of these rooms and checked that the recording equipment works. This means that teaching staff can hold in-person lectures, which students can connect to via Webex. Parallel recording is also possible. The instructions for this are available on ILIAS [de].
- For smaller rooms, the TIK has acquired 50 Panacast video conferencing cameras [de] which enable a 180° view of the room. This means that all participants can be seen in Webex. The use of these devices is particularly suitable for smaller, highly interactive courses. The devices are currently distributed across the university.
In addition to this, there are also two new self-study courses for students: "virtual presence [de]" and "hybrid teaching [de]". Both courses can be booked via the ILIAS section “Beratung, Support und Schulungsangebote” (Advice, Support and Training Offerings). The dates of the training sessions for Webex and Conceptboard will be posted there shortly.
Those who want to be the first to find out the latest offerings relating to technology, training sessions or instructions can subscribe to the newsletter "Digital Teaching" [de].
All universities in Baden-Württemberg work closely together to develop hybrid and digital scenarios for teaching and learning. One supporter of this is the university network “Digitalization in Teaching” (HND-BW), which the University of Stuttgart is also part of. You can read more about how digital teaching works from a technical, didactic and organizational perspective on the HND-BW website [de].