In November 2020, Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg) embarked on a DAAD-funded project that seeks to strengthen the international mobility of its staff members and students through the development of a strategy for collaborative online teaching that reaches across institutional and national borders. The project is being carried out in partnership with Deakin University (DU) in Melbourne, Australia. We are now working together with DU to create an internationally co-taught inverted- and blended-classroom course that will be implemented in the dual degree programme during the summer semester of 2021.
By combining Architectural Conservation (taught only at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg) with Heritage Interpretation (taught only at DU) in a collaborative online format, the course will offer a new interface between the two disciplines that will enable students from both universities to benefit from each other’s cultural and academic perspectives on the subject matter.
The learning materials and student project produced will be made available here as Open Educational Resources (OER).
In November 2020, Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg) embarked on a DAAD-funded project that seeks to strengthen the international mobility of its staff members and students through the development of a strategy for collaborative online teaching that reaches across institutional and national borders. The project is being carried out in partnership with Deakin University (DU) in Melbourne, Australia. Since 2015, BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg and DU have been collaborating as partner universities to offer a dual degree master’s programme that links BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg’s World Heritage Studies programme (WHS) with DU’s Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies programme, with students spending a semester at the partner university. We are now working together with DU to create an internationally co-taught inverted- and blended-classroom course that will be implemented in the dual degree programme during the summer semester of 2021.
By combining Architectural Conservation (taught only at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg) with Heritage Interpretation (taught only at DU) in a collaborative online format, the course will offer a new interface between the two disciplines that will enable students from both universities to benefit from each other’s cultural and academic perspectives on the subject matter. Students will apply the concepts and research methods taught through asynchronous self-study units and subsequent online discussions with lecturers, fellow students and experts to a case study in the vicinity of their respective places of residence. If possible, the course will also include a field visit to the Günter Litfin Memorial at the Berlin Wall for the students in Germany, who will then use digital methods to share their observations and findings with the students who could not be present for the visit. In doing so, the students will be exploring ways in which cultural heritage can be interpreted and presented in a digital format (e.g. virtual tours, videos), thus gaining skills in media production while also contributing to research on the feasibility and effectiveness of such an approach.
The Chair of Architectural Conservation (BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg) and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts & Education (DU) are responsible for developing the course content and structure, with the aid of the e-learning team of the Competence and Service Centre for Digitalization in Learning and Teaching (IKMZ/MMZ) at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg, as well as DU’s extensive experience with e-learning. After consultation with the participating students and lecturers of the course, the learning materials and student project produced will be made available here as Open Educational Resources (OER).