Are Students Competent, Active and Constructive Partners in the Improvement of Teaching and Learning? A Text Analysis of Contributions to Idea Contests

In the Competence and Service Centre TeachING-LearnING.EU students are involved in the improvement of teaching and learning using the strategic instrument of OpenBologna. It is based on the concept of Open Innovation developed and used by companies in the business sector to integrate customers actively in new product developments. The main methods within this strategic instrument are idea contests and lead student workshops. This paper presents the main results of the first three idea contests, in which 80 ideas were submitted in total. With the method of qualitative content analysis, the students’ e-mails through which they submitted their ideas are investigated on a deeper level. As a result, the paper shows if students can be considered competent, active and constructive partners in terms of the improvement of teaching and learning. Moreover, it points out those areas in which the students see the biggest need for action. Since most ideas were submitted to the topics of virtual learning environments, organization/resources and digital technologies in lectures, the results of these topics are presented elaborately. The authors come to the conclusion that especially in the areas of virtual learning environments and digital technologies, students deliver a valuable input for the improvement of teaching and learning in engineering education.