Project Overview
Advancing Global Collaboration through Digital Education
The DIVA project aimed to expand and enhance digital teaching collaborations at our university, building on the experience of our lecturers and our connections within national and international networks. This initiative aligned with our university’s goals of internationalization and digitalization, emphasizing the development of intercultural competencies and teamwork among students and faculty.
Project Goals & Course Components
With the DIVA project, we aimed to expand existing offerings and create new collaborations in digital teaching formats at our university in conjunction with existing national and international networks. In doing so, we explicitly drew on the extensive experience of our lecturers and their many years of cooperation in various international research and teaching contexts. The project was directly linked to the university’s internationalization and digitalization concepts and aimed to promote the development of intercultural skills and teamwork in dialogue between students and lecturers.
It took place in close coordination with the International Office and the university‘s Vice-Rectorates for Research & Internationalization and Studies, Teaching, and Lifelong Education. Initially, two comprehensive course components (synchronous/asynchronous and virtual/physical) were developed and tested to be anchored in the curriculum and administration. Co-teaching and peer learning, as well as courses offered jointly with the international cooperation partners, were the central building blocks of the project.
Digital Teaching Materials
In addition to the online courses (synchronous/asynchronous) and the mobilities associated with the project, the components also included a variety of digital teaching and learning materials such as educational films, podcasts, eLogBooks or teaching units (asynchronous). For this purpose, various blended mobility offers for students were created in the participating departments in cooperation with the partner universities in Australia and Israel. All measures were developed in direct collaboration with the respective partners and were generated according to the respective needs and circumstances, especially on the part of the students.
Guiding Principles
All measures were based on four guiding principles
Digitalization of teaching
Didactic anchoring in the curriculum
Systematic implementation of blended mobility
Promotion of intercultural competence
Community of Practice
The overarching goal of the DIVA project was to foster a community of practice at the participating universities. This community, built on the foundation of intensive idea and concept exchange, was instrumental in creating digital products that could enhance the scalability of the project results. Moreover, the project facilitated concrete cooperation at both student and academic levels, thereby deepening international university cooperation and establishing new cooperative digital mobility patterns (blended mobility) on a broad scale. This collaborative approach ensured that all stakeholders were part of a larger, shared vision.
Impact of COVID-19
Due to the coronavirus pandemic at the time, all physical mobilities had to be canceled. The German student group’s trip to Australia was later rescheduled.