Teaching Professional Knowledge to XL-Classes with the Help of Digital Technologies

How can the systematic use of digital technologies affect a lecture of 1500 or more students? Moreover, to what extent will it affect the learning outcomes of the students? At RWTH Aachen University, subjects like Mechanical Engineering have to cope with a very high number of students each semester – currently the number lies at approximately 1500 with an estimated increase up to 2000 in the next semester. In order to create an interactive learning environment despite these difficult conditions, the IMA/ZLW&IfU (Institute of Information Management in Mechanical Engineering, Center for Learning and Knowledge Management and Assoc. Institute for Management Cybernetics) of the RWTH Aachen University is currently developing a pilot scheme that includes the application of Audience Response Systems in lectures with such large numbers of student listeners. The implementation of the described system demands a redesign of the lecture with special regards to the content. Questions have to be developed that allow the students to interact with the lecturer as well as each other. This variety of questions ranges from multiple-choice questions to the inquiry of calculation results etc. When giving students the chance to actively take part in a lecture of the described size by answering questions the lecturer asks with the help of technical equipment – which could in the easiest case be their own mobile phones – the lecturer creates a room for interaction. In addition to that he has the chance to get an immediate insight into the perceived knowledge of his or her students. This in turn enables the lecturer to react to obvious knowledge gaps that obstruct successful learning outcomes of the students. An additional benefit hoped for is that the attention of the students – which is a difficult issue for lecturers that face lectures with such a large number of students – might be kept at a higher level than average. The described redeployment of a lecture of the mentioned size is expected to bring about an enhancement of the quality in teaching of professional knowledge. The presumptions made in this paper will be surveyed and thoroughly analysed during and after the realization of the project.