E-Learning Overview
Below please find an overview of the E-Learning measures implemented by the School. If any of them catch your interest or if you require further information, please get in touch with the School's E-Learning team.
Flipped Classroom
The basic idea behind the "flipped classroom" concept is that of the traditional lecture switching roles with a student's self-study. New material is initially studied by the student at home via videos which contain exercises and questions for the student to tackle. These are grouped into compact units that can be adapted to the individual learning pace of students as well as to their individual level of prior knowledge. Students and professor then use the lecture period to intensify and deepen through questions and discussions the knowledge that students have already acquired from self-study.
This video demonstrates how the Flipped Classroom learning concept is implemented by the School of Business and Economics. What is particularly interesting is that the content that was produced for the course "Einführung in die Betriebswirtschaft" integrates all of the School's Blended Learning elements.
MOOC
The acronym MOOC stands for "massive open online course" and describes online courses with open access and unlimited large-scale participation. Contents of such courses are specially prepared within a didactic framework and are subject to a competent quality control. MOOCs can be consumed anywhere, as often, as fast or as slow as the individual learner wants them to be.
In June 2015, RWTH Aachen University was accorded the status of a privileged member of the internationally leading MOOC platform, EdX, and is actively involved in the further designing and developing of the learning platform. See Pressemitteilung.
Here you can find further information about the RWTH MOOC Einführung in die BWL (Introduction to Business Administration). As of January 2016, the School of Business and Economics course Introduction to Venture Capital will be available on EdX.
transAction
TransAction is a web-based serious game in which students move along a supply chain, using the knowledge that they acquire in class to increase their success. The game is played throught the entire semester but the workload is limited to about one hour per week. TransAction enables students to apply their knowledge in a practical context; it makes teaching content more attractive and gives students a more holistic perspective of business and economics. The game regularly repeats contents from earlier semesters so that student players can refresh their knowledge.
Dynexite
Dynexite automatically creates learning and exam materials. It offers students the opportunity to automatically create and complete exercises and to monitor their learning progress thanks to the automated evaluation of results. During a semester, students can take part in intermediate exams which can be counted towards the final semester exam and potentially improve the final grade. In this way, students are encouraged to engage in continuous learning and are rewarded for doing so.
E-Examinations
E-Examinations are gaining increasing relevance in academic education. For many German universities they are already a standard method of examination (e.g. University of Duisburg-Essen, Freie Universität Berlin, and several others). The computer-based generation and evaluation of tasks enables teaching staff to design their examinations in a more efficient, more learning-goal-oriented, and more legally secure way. Since 2003, RWTH Aachen University has succesfully implemented the web-based platform- and browser-independent online examination system OPS for conducting its E-Examinations. OPS enables examiners to implement internet and intranet-based exams, tests, and surveys both online and offline (German test source: RWTH Logbuch Lehre).
Lecture Hall Experiments
Lecture hall experiments are a relatively simple way of bringing some variety into a lecture. Effectively incorporated, they can emphasize and illustrate lecture contents, and they enable students to get actively involved in a lecture. With mobile terminals, students take part in experiments and the results then directly graphically analyzed
In this way, economic games, such as the wellknown "prisoner's dilemma" and "beauty contest" can be played during a lecture with all students.
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Educational Videos
Educational videos involve much more than recordings of lectures - whether they be lectures in the classical sense or those produced for the flipped classroom approach: complex contents and examples can, with the help of (animated) videos, be made more accessible for students and easier to learn. In addition, as videos can be viewed independently of time or location, they can be adapted to individual learning paces.
Not only do videos facilitate the absorption of theoretical and factual knowledge, they can also facilitate the learning of competencies and skills. In the area of communication training, the video recording individuals' presentations is a very popular way of demonstrating the perception of behavior. A further area of application is that of user generated content. By taking part in videos, students are compelled to interact intensively with a subject of learning either by conducting expert interviews or documenting or presenting a project or producing their own educational videos.
RWTH E-Learning Offerings
RWTH Aachen University also offers the following E-Learning services:
RWTHmoodle learning spaces
RWTHmoodle is the central web-based learning platform of RWTH Aachen University. Its virtual learning spaces offer an extensive range of functions for implementing digital learning and teaching formats. Thanks to a wide array of plugins offered by the Moodle open source community, the platform is flexibly extendable.
Since the previous teaching and learning platform L2P will be discontinued as of the end of the summer semester 2021, we strongly recommend that all users who have learning and teaching spaces on that platform secure relevant contents in good time.
RWTH-App
There is a direct feedback function integrated into the RWTH-App. Students can submit questions to the lecturer during the lecture. For more information, follow this Link.
Logbuch Lehre
In Logbuch Lehre you'll find full up-to-date information about the latest E-Learning topics.
ExAcT
ExAcT is also useful if you want to know more about RWTH Aachen University's E-Learning offerings.