"Digitalization at a glance"

On 19 May 2021, interested university members gathered on the occasion of this year's Teaching Day to discuss the topic: "Digitalization in studies and teaching - opportunity and blessing?".

The event, which took place for the first time entirely via BigBlueButton live broadcast, offered the more than 70 participants an interesting and varied program.

Opportunities and risks of digitalized teaching put to the test

The day began with the keynote speech "Small university, big opportunity" by the Vice-Rector for Education and International Affairs, Prof. Dr. Sophia Keil, and Mr Sebastian Riedel (Education Office) on the current status of the University for Future process at our university and the associated peer-to-peer strategy consultation of the Hochschulforum Digitalisierung and the Stifterverband. The event thus represented a follow-up to the HSZG's participatory strategy process, in which the opportunities and risks of digitalized teaching were discussed further with internal and external experts.

In the second part of the event, GOOD PRACTICES FROM DIGITAL TEACHING were presented.

• Prof. Dr. Mandy Schulze (Social Work Science, Faculty of Social Sciences) gave the participants an interesting insight into her teaching and presented how she promotes interaction with students in the seminar via BigBlueButton in a simple and comprehensible way.
• Prof. Dr.-Ing. Matthias Kunick (Energy Systems Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering) reported on the transition of his teaching to virtual space and how "chalk went digital". Technical aids were also discussed in order to better prepare the teaching content digitally and to transfer it to the virtual space in a didactically meaningful way.
• Prof. Dr. Rudolf Schmitt (Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences) presented in his lecture "A hard-of-hearing professor becomes semi-written" which limits but also opportunities digitalization offers to better promote inclusion. Professor Schmitt gave an impressive insight into his lectures, which make it possible to communicate with students without hearing, e.g. through task-centered teaching, extensive use of chats and shared notes in BigBlueButton.

Lavinia Ionica (Programme Manager Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft, Hochschulforum Digitalisierung and this year's moderator of the Tag der Lehre) discussed the opportunities and challenges of digital teaching with and after Corona in her presentation "University teaching in the age of digitalization" .

The event concluded with an exciting panel discussion on the question: "What do we do with the experiences from the coronavirus era for future teaching?" Participants in the discussion were representatives of the university management and students of the HSZG as well as representatives of the Hochschulforum Digitalisierung (HFD), the Hochschuldidaktisches Zentrum Sachsen (HDS) and representatives of other universities from the Saxon network:

A word

Prof. Dr. Sophia Keil

"Digitalization offers opportunities for national and international teaching cooperation and can increase the flexibility of studies. Nevertheless, a purely 'digital' course will never be able to replace the fascination of a face-to-face course, especially the social interaction and group dynamics between students and lecturers. It is very difficult to replace doing things yourself in laboratory experiments, e.g. in STEM courses, with digitalization."

Prof. Dr. Thomas Hofsäss (Head of HDS)

"The teaching of the future will be digitally underpinned, flexible in its formats and still essentially dependent on presence."

Florian Rampelt (Deputy Head of Office HFD)

"The university teaching of the future is characterized by cooperation and collaboration. Teachers develop new ideas together, give each other feedback and implement innovation in strong partnerships."

Prof. Dr. Anne-Katrin Haubold (Vice Rector for Teaching and Studies, HTW Dresden)

"During the coronavirus pandemic, we were 'trying things out out of necessity'. In future, we should move towards 'trial and error out of professional ethics' in teaching in the sense of a scholarship of teaching and learning."

Prof. Dr. phil. Kawalek, Jürgen (Head of the Center for eLearning)

"Despite coronavirus, the digitalization of teaching (and administration) at our university is nowhere near as important as it should be."

Timon Conrad (StuRa-HSZG representative)

"Interest-based, interdisciplinary & individual - the university teaching of the future must not only teach students in a practical way, but also inspire them and accompany them on their way."

The organizers look back on a very discussion-rich Teaching Day 2021 and would like to thank the speakers for the impulses from the lectures and the guests for their contributions to the discussions, the participants in the panel discussion and all the hard-working hands and supporters who contributed to the success of the day.

Text: Ronny Freudenreich