ConnectS UP

Universities of Applied Sciences must specifically prepare students for their future professional practice. This requires teaching methods that blend theoretical knowledge with practical experience. Such a practice-oriented approach boosts students motivation, increases their willingness to learn, and contributes to their academic success. At the same time, they develop interdisciplinary skills that enhance their employability.

While well-established methods like dual study programs, field trips, guest lectures, and practical projects provide valuable insights, they are often limited to individual events. Field trips and guest lectures are typically one-off occurrences, while practical projects are often supervised mainly by academic staff. Continuous interaction between students and companies is frequently hindered by a lack of structured concepts and clear objectives.

The issue can be addressed through the targeted use of digital technologies in combination with traditional methods. This enables ongoing interaction between students and industry partners, making education more practical and effective.

The project aims to develop and research innovative teaching concepts that, through the combination of digital and analog elements, allow for better integration of companies into university teaching. This will strengthen the link between theoretical knowledge and practical application.

Core Project Questions:

• Which teaching and learning elements are attractive to both students and companies and enable targeted skills development?
• How can these elements be integrated into in-person teaching, blended learning scenarios, and other teaching context with the help of digital tools?

Unique Aspects of the Project:

• Interdisciplinary Development: Educators, students, and company representatives collaboratively develop practice-oriented teaching concepts. This collaboration fosters the integration of diverse perspectives and expertise.
• Methodology “Gaming the System”: This methodology identifies and eliminates motivational obstacles in teaching concepts early on. It is based on findings from the EMPAMOS research project at Nuremberg Tech.

The two development teams from the Faculties of Economics and Law (WR) and Engineering and Computer Science (IWIN) worked on appropriate concepts for courses with the support of staff at Nuremberg Tech. The “Gaming the System” methodology is used for the design. “Gaming the System” is a methodology developed at Nuremberg Tech in which the knowledge gained from the ongoing research project “Empirical Analysis of Motivating Game Elements” (EMPAMOS) serces as a “springboard for ideas” for new teaching concepts.

In the subsequent implementation and evaluation phase of the project, the courses involving corporate participation have been conducted in both departments and have been continuously evaluated. At the final meeting, the evaluation results have been presented and any challenges that arose were jointly analysed. Successful teaching elements have been identified and integrated into a new, interdisciplinary teaching concept.

The video series (in german) explains how we used the EMPAMOS methodology to identify motivating game elements and successfully integrate them into teaching. You can find the EMPAMOS video series in german on our german project page.