Interactive Learning in Smart Learning Ecosystems

Abstract

The increasing heterogeneity of students at German Universities of Applied Sciences and the growing importance of digitalization call for a rethinking of teaching and learning within higher education. In the next years, changing the learning ecosystem by developing and reflecting upon new teaching and learning techniques using methods of digitalization will be both – most relevant and very challenging. The following article introduces two different learning scenarios, which exemplify the implementation of new educational models that allow discontinuity of time and place, technology and process in teaching and learning. Within a Blended Learning approach, the first learning scenario aims at adapting and individualizing the knowledge transfer in the course Foundations of Computer Science by providing knowledge individually and situation-specifically. The second learning scenario proposes a web-based tool to facilitate digital learning environments and thus digital learning communities and the possibility of computer-supported learning. The overall aim of both learning scenarios is to enhance learning for diverse groups by providing a different smart learning ecosystem in stepping away from a teacher-based to a student-centered approach. Both learning scenarios exemplarily represent the educational vision of Reutlingen University – its development into an Interactive University.