.dcall Lehre 2020

1_ General information

A specific focus of the digitalization strategy of TU Wien lies on teaching and learning at the University which will be developed further through the interaction of lecturers, students and the involved service units.

Furthermore, the summer semester 2020 confronts TU Wien and especially its lecturers with tremendous challenges: Forced by security measures to protect the population from COVID-19, the entire teaching had to be switched to distance learning. Lecturers thus had to adapt their teaching concepts to digital media on short notice and pressed for time, partly using entirely new methods.

Do you have ideas circling your brain but you neither have time nor resources at the moment to follow up on them? TU Wien invites all lecturers to participate in the digitalization project call ".dcall Lehre 2020". The objective of the call is to prompt ideas for innovative teaching and learning concepts and to further develop existing teaching and learning concepts at TU Wien respectively. It may be the current semester where lecturers, having to use distance learning activities are presented with manifold new challenges, may find interesting starting points for developing new concepts. Your innovative ideas contribute to shape teaching at TU Wien in an even more attractive way. The Rectorate will further a maximum of 10 projects for the digital transformation in teaching. Your commitment and your project respectively will be supported by a maximum of € 30.000.

If you have always wanted to try out creative teaching ideas, if you have already thought about innovative concepts or even developed them due to the current circumstances and are now looking for a possibility to actually implement them - this is the place to be!

2_ What information do we need from you and what kind of framework do we envision for the projects?

If you are a lecturer at TU Wien and you are planning to submit your project proposal as project lead you have already met the first requirement. In addition, the following has to be observed and taken into consideration:

• The overall objective of the project pertains to the digital transformation at TU Wien, with a special focus on teaching.
• All submitted projects have to pertain to at least 2 items of the formulated digitalization objectives (see below).
• Your team should include all necessary experts on the project topics. As this is a digitalization call focussing on teaching, you should also actively include students in your project.
• The project's objective has to be the development of new methods or the expansion and further development of existing offers.
• Sustainability and scalability are of great concern to us. The developments of the projects have to create or encourage synergies with lectures in other research units/institutes/faculties. It is great if you have fantastic ideas you are willing to try out in form of a test run within the scope of a project. However, please ask yourself the following: Would it be possible to extend this idea to other areas of teaching at TU Wien if the test run works just fine?
• Costs: In submitting the projects, innovative and sustainable project ideas can be implemented. Should you plan to build up/transfer know-how in the course of your project, e.g. by enlisting student staff, it will be rated as extra bonus in the assessment of your project proposal.
• Project duration: 6-12 months

Projects not pertaining to specific teaching and learning concepts (i.e. mentoring programmes, self assessments) cannot be considered for this call. Project proposals already submitted at the digitalization call for focus groups „.dcall FKG Projekte 2020“ are excluded from this call.

The Rectorate needs to get a clear idea of what you are proposing to do in your project. To achieve this "overall picture" of the project, a project proposal is necessary, helping you in decribing your idea in a comprehensible way for others. To help with your project proposal, we designed a proposal template for your project. In the template itself you will find guidelines within the text and tips to help you complete the necessary information. Activities and services already rendered at TU Wien (learning platforms, IT infrastructure, administration of lectures etc.) are not to be part of the funding. Should your project require any resources of these services, please state this accordingly in your project proposal and involve the respective TU experts in your project team.

Please take note of the deadline for submitting you project proposals: Only fully completed project proposals that are submitted on time can be considered for .dcall Lehre 2020. Any further details concerning the project proposal can be found directly in the guidelines of the proposal template.

All material has to be set up and edited in your own .dcall project space. To submit your project proposal you have to convert the page into a pdf file, sign it and transmit the pdf file digitally to digitaloffice@tuwien.ac.at. The .digital office is there to help with any questions you may have in creating your project proposal.

3_Objectives of digitalization for teaching and studying

Objective 1: Diversification, networking and flexibility in teaching

In using the options offered by digitalization in teaching at its best, TU Wien can increase the networking and flexibility in teaching. A special focus is on location- and time-independent access to lectures, a better reuse of resources of existing teaching and learning spaces as well as research- and network-oriented teaching.

• Large lectures (> 200) are offered in digitised form location- and time-independent in addition to attendance teaching
• Digital examinations and exercises will be enabled and supported campus-wide.
•  The „reusable content“-principle is lived: Basics from open resources and also self-generated TU Wien-specific content will be made available digitally (connecting existing content)
• Digital offerings will be used as low-threshold information supply/alignment offers/deepening offers for prospective students and current students:
  • Insight into the studies (before starting to study);
  • Closing knowledge gaps (at the start of the lectures);
  • Deepening knowledge (at the time of lectures and after).

Objective 2: Digital skills and competencies

Skills and competencies, which are in even higher demand due to the digital transformation, are better represented in all of the studies offered at TU Wien and further enhanced. Should the need arise, the study programme will be accordingly expanded. Students have extensive command of competencies of the digital domain, no matter what their selected studies are.

• Allowing for lifelong learning for alumni
• Deepened training for students in digitalisation through dissertations, work on projects
• Training of student staff as support in digital teaching

Objective 3: Digital laboratories

TU Wien sets up digital laboratories and thereby creates rooms where digital methods, processes and applications can be tested, especially in regard to their efficiency and feasibility.

• Integration of Digital Media Classrooms to use in teaching and learning concepts of the lecture
• Integration of online learning spaces for students in teaching and learning concepts of the lecture

4_ What can you expect from us?

Start of submission of .dcall Lehre 2020: April 16, 2020

Submission deadline: May 25, 2020

Relaying of the project proposals to and decision of the Rectorate: End of May/beginning of June 2020

Assignment of the projects by the Rectorate: Starting in mid-June

Implementation of the projects: Starting in autumn 2020

Project duration: 6-12 months

The .digital office continuously views all submitted project proposals up to the submission deadline and checks whether they are complete and comprehensible. The .digital office gives feedback whether a project proposal can be relayed to the Rectorate without any changes or if adaptations and amendments are necessary. When the project proposals are finalized they will be relayed to the Rectorate at the end of the submission deadline, where the decision for or against the assignment of the project is made.