Digital but still social:
Group Work 2.0
Description
Group work is a proven form of knowledge acquisition and enhances the methodological and social competence of students. However, the concept is only partially transferable to digital teaching.
In order to carry out group work digitally, but also independently and in an engaging manner, gather.town was used in this project: The presence-based group work was transferred into a virtual reality, in which participants could move freely, and instructors could communicate with everyone, groups, or individual participants.
Universities
Publications
Modules
104
Students
2
Mar:
Grant Application
Jun:
Grant Pledge
Jul-Sep:
Preparations and Pretests
including a presentation at the "Digitalisation of the Higher Education in Saxony" Symposium, virtual
Oct:
Start of Semester
Nov-Dec:
Presurvey and Start of the Teaching Units with gather.town
Jan-Feb:
Evaluation of the Teaching Units with gather.town
Feb:
Evaluation of the Modules and Conclusion of Semester
Mar-Aug:
Analysis, Preparation and Propagation
including a presentation at the "15th annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies" (EDULEARN), Palma de Mallorca (Spain)
Aug:
End of Project
2022
2023
Module 'Fundamentals of Sustainable Development' in the Sustainable Real Estate Management program at Mittweida University
Students are familiar with the aspects of sustainable development in general and the influence of the building sector on sustainable development in particular.
Module 'Project Management and Entrepreneurship' in the Global Communication in Business and Culture program at Mittweida University
Through this module, students are empowered to systematically and comprehensively plan and structure projects and business ideas from goal definition to implementation.
Module 'Artificial Intelligence' in the Applied Computer Science program at the Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg.
The students should be able to understand the essential methods and techniques of Artificial Intelligence and contextualize new Artificial Intelligence techniques within a scientific context.
Module 'Database Systems' in the Applied Computer Science program at the Technical University of Bergakademie Freiberg.
The students should master the principles of relational and object-relational database systems and data modeling.
Results
Digital group work is an enrichment of the teaching and learning setting. It is advisable for instructors to continue actively using tools like gather.town. Students benefit from this approach as it provides them with diverse opportunities for learning and interacting with their peers.
However, digital group work should, if circumstances allow, be considered more as a supplement to traditional face-to-face teaching and group work, rather than a complete replacement.
Rooms in gather.town
Both instructors created different worlds in gather.town for their respective two modules, each with up to five rooms. The rooms were tailored to various use scenarios, such as group work, poster presentations, or lectures, and students could move around freely within them and interact with each other.
Evaluation Results
The surveys reflect a high acceptance of the serious gaming environment. Participants recognize clear advantages of this type of digital group work over traditional video conferences. Gather.town was a relatively unfamiliar tool; however, students quickly familiarized themselves with it due to its user-friendly nature. The majority of them stated that the tool facilitated group work and that they would recommend its use for future cohorts.
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Dr.-Ing. Stefanie Walter - Lecturer
"We, instructors, should also continually educate ourselves and be willing to venture into new territory! Only then can our teaching meet the diverse needs of today's students. I am very pleased that Hochschule Mittweida and Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg have collaborated so intensively on this."