Projects
Didactic Double-Decker for Digital Education in the STEM Field (D4MINT)
The joint project "Didactic Double-Decker for Digital Education in the STEM Field" refers to the "Guideline for the Promotion of Joint Projects as a Competence Center for Digital and Digitally Supported Teaching in Schools and Continuing Education in the STEM Field" of the Bereich“ des Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The overarching goal of the project is to develop new formats of continuing education for teachers in the STEM field, with which they can further develop digital education in schools in a research-based manner. Within the framework of subproject A.3 "Advanced training for vocational teaching offers", concepts and materials for advanced training offers/formats are being developed with which teachers are to develop competencies regarding the design or use of individualized, digitally supported learning environments (e.g. using digital gamebooks, authoring systems and AR/VR environments) in action-oriented teaching-learning processes at vocational schools. The Prorector for Teaching at RWTH Aachen University is responsible for coordinating the consortium. Other active consortium partners (in addition to RWTH Aachen University) are the universities of Giessen, Oldenburg and Potsdam.
Contact: Susanne Korth, Jens Drescher
Funding: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF); Duration: 2023-2025
(Digital) construction kit for the work-oriented promotion of basic literal skills in (training) profes-sions in the construction industry (BauliG)
The joint project "(Digital) construction kit for the work-oriented promotion of basic literal skills in (training) professions in the construction industry" refers to the "Guideline for the promotion of development projects in the field of work-oriented literacy and basic education" of the Federal Ministry of Education and Training Research (BMBF). The aim of the project is to train trainees in reading and writing skills in industrial and technical training professions.
As part of BauliG, digitally supported teaching and learning modules are to be developed that enable trainees to further develop their literary (and digital) skills in professional contexts. Bundled in a "construction kit", reading and writing tasks should be able to be processed flexibly, independently of location. The kit is initially aimed at trainees and trainers in inter-company vocational training centers. In addition to the development of the learning opportunities, the qualification of the training staff is a central objective of BauliG. In this sense, trainers are made aware of the didactic uses of the modular system and receive specific suggestions for the design of teaching and learning processes. As far as possible, all relevant actors (companies, chambers, guilds, industry associations, employment agencies, educational institutions, etc.) should be integrated via a network in order to integrate the topic of literacy and basic education sustainably into existing training and further education structures. The project management lies with the teaching and research area Fachdidaktik Bautechnik at RWTH Aachen University. Other active consortium partners are the Chair for Contemporary German at RWTH Aachen University, Cornelsen eCademy & inside GmbH and the vocational support organization of the Bauindustrie NRW gGmbH (Kerpen training center).
Here you can find the leaflet in german: BauliG-Broschüre.
Contact: Daniela Fast
Funding: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF); Duration: 2021-2024
Polymer Excellence - Further Vocational Training Platform for the Plastics Processing Industry (PolyEx)
The joint project PolyEX is located in the BMBF guideline for funding projects on "INVITE - Innovation Competition Digital Platform for Further Vocational Training". The overarching goal is the development of a digital Further Vocational Training platform that provides centralised further training offerings from the plastics processing industry. PolyEx primarily addresses professionals with a completed initial training in technically oriented industrial and craft professions. In addition to the Academic and Research Department Technical Didactics of Structural Engineering at RWTH Aachen University the consortium consists of the Institute for Plastics Processing at RWTH Aachen University as the consortium leader, the Institute of Information Management in Mechanical Engineering at RWTH Aachen University and the Carl Hanser Verlag (publishing house).
The core content of the project is the networking of existing providers of further education content in the plastics industry and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in the holistic optimisation of addressee-specific further education measures. PolyEx will be developed as a central contact point for searching for plastics-specific, vocational and in-company further training offers. For this purpose, the partners will operate a central platform whose contents can be dynamically expanded by further partner offers through standardised interfaces. In accordance with "blended learning", PolyEx contains classroom and e-learning continuing education offers in order to enable users to carry out further training as independently as possible.
Contact: Susanne Korth
Funding: Federal Ministry of Education and Research; Duration: 2021-2024
Digital learning environment in structural engineering as an integrated concept
The joint project "Digital Learning Environment Structural Analysis as an all-time Concept" is part of the funding line OERContent.nrw (Open Education Resources) of the Digital University NRW (DH.NRW). It promotes innovative concepts for digital teaching and learning formats at universities in NRW. In addition to RWTH Aachen the University Duisburg Essen, the Technical University Dortmund, the FH Aachen and the TH Cologne are involved in the association.
The project aims to develop a modular digital learning environment for civil engineering students in basic subjects of civil engineering. Different (digital) teaching/ learning formats (teasers, screencasts, videos of experiments, training tools, virtual laboratories and inverted classrooms) are combined to support the achievements of the relevant curricular learning/ qualification goals. The range of curricula/ learning offers addresses students in the 3rd and 4th semester of the bachelor´s degree in civil engineering at technical colleges and universities.
The subject and research area of constructional engineering didactic (in cooperation with the subject and research area of constructional engineering didactic at University Duisburg Essen) is responsible for the group in concept development and evaluation.
Vocational College Teacher! (BeLEK) – Cooperative support of teacher training for vocational colleges in Rhineland educational region at RWTH Aachen University in association with selected technical universities
Funding: Ministry for Innovation, Science and Research of North Rhine-Westphalia; Term: 2013–2017; Amount: 2,500,000 Euro
In North Rhine-Westphalia, there is an urgent need for teaching personnel for vocational colleges, especially in the industrial/technical area. Due to the low demand for these fields of study, only relatively few students are trained at the universities of North Rhine-Westphalia. Added to this is the fact that bachelor students at technical universities usually do not see teaching at a vocational school as a career option.
In order to meet the future demand for teaching personnel, measures are needed to improve the recognition structures, acquire new interest groups and ensure the necessary competencies for the fields of action of vocational schools systematically and sustainably. The aim of RWTH Aachen University together with technical universities in the Rhineland educational region is to train more teachers in industrial/technical disciplines for the vocational school, ensure the necessary technical didactic and professional pedagogical competencies for a skilled occupation in this field of action by establishing collaborative training structures and guaranteeing polyvalency for them at the same time. In addition, training modules in the area of vocational education for the second and third phase of the teacher training are to be developed, which aim for a differentiation of the competency building initiated in the first phase.
To this end, the Faculty for Civil Engineering of RWTH Aachen University cooperates with the Department of Civil Engineering of FH Aachen so that interested FH students can participate in a combined study program of the major vocational discipline of structural engineering together with the minor vocational disciplines of wood technology or civil engineering. A cooperation with TH Köln is currently being planned.
Vocational College Teacher! (BeLEK) – Cooperative support of teacher training for vocational colleges in Rhineland educational region at RWTH Aachen University in association with selected technical universities
Vocational College Teacher! (BeLEK) – Cooperative support of teacher training for vocational colleges in Rhineland educational region at RWTH Aachen University in association with selected technical universities
Funding: Ministry for Innovation, Science and Research of North Rhine-Westphalia; Term: 2013–2017; Amount: 2,500,000 Euro
In North Rhine-Westphalia, there is an urgent need for teaching personnel for vocational colleges, especially in the industrial/technical area. Due to the low demand for these fields of study, only relatively few students are trained at the universities of North Rhine-Westphalia. Added to this is the fact that bachelor students at technical universities usually do not see teaching at a vocational school as a career option.
In order to meet the future demand for teaching personnel, measures are needed to improve the recognition structures, acquire new interest groups and ensure the necessary competencies for the fields of action of vocational schools systematically and sustainably. The aim of RWTH Aachen University together with technical universities in the Rhineland educational region is to train more teachers in industrial/technical disciplines for the vocational school, ensure the necessary technical didactic and professional pedagogical competencies for a skilled occupation in this field of action by establishing collaborative training structures and guaranteeing polyvalency for them at the same time. In addition, training modules in the area of vocational education for the second and third phase of the teacher training are to be developed, which aim for a differentiation of the competency building initiated in the first phase.
To this end, the Faculty for Civil Engineering of RWTH Aachen University cooperates with the Department of Civil Engineering of FH Aachen so that interested FH students can participate in a combined study program of the major vocational discipline of structural engineering together with the minor vocational disciplines of wood technology or civil engineering. A cooperation with TH Köln is currently being planned.
Vocational College Teacher! (BeLEK) – Cooperative support of teacher training for vocational colleges in Rhineland educational region at RWTH Aachen University in association with selected technical universities
Funding: Ministry for Innovation, Science and Research of North Rhine-Westphalia; Term: 2013–2017; Amount: 2,500,000 Euro
In North Rhine-Westphalia, there is an urgent need for teaching personnel for vocational colleges, especially in the industrial/technical area. Due to the low demand for these fields of study, only relatively few students are trained at the universities of North Rhine-Westphalia. Added to this is the fact that bachelor students at technical universities usually do not see teaching at a vocational school as a career option.
In order to meet the future demand for teaching personnel, measures are needed to improve the recognition structures, acquire new interest groups and ensure the necessary competencies for the fields of action of vocational schools systematically and sustainably. The aim of RWTH Aachen University together with technical universities in the Rhineland educational region is to train more teachers in industrial/technical disciplines for the vocational school, ensure the necessary technical didactic and professional pedagogical competencies for a skilled occupation in this field of action by establishing collaborative training structures and guaranteeing polyvalency for them at the same time. In addition, training modules in the area of vocational education for the second and third phase of the teacher training are to be developed, which aim for a differentiation of the competency building initiated in the first phase.
To this end, the Faculty for Civil Engineering of RWTH Aachen University cooperates with the Department of Civil Engineering of FH Aachen so that interested FH students can participate in a combined study program of the major vocational discipline of structural engineering together with the minor vocational disciplines of wood technology or civil engineering. A cooperation with TH Köln is currently being planned.