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The project VIROR was created in July 1998. It is a five-year joint project of the universities Freiburg, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe and Mannheim. Its goal is to create a multimedia educational program in various fields, making it possible to study at four universities at the same time. The main focus of VIROR is the development, application and evaluation of the potential of multimedia technology to improve and increase the efficiency of teaching and possibilities for studying. Our department in IIG is involved in VIROR in the partition T1.1 (computer science and content creation).
The department offers telelectures and teleseminars on this topic, namely „Computer Science and Society“. During the 1999 summer semester in Freiburg, a telelecture on this topic was held and transmitted via Mbone to Mannheim, Karlsruhe and Bonn. For this purpose, we used the Whiteboard DLB (digital lecture board) developed at the University of Freiburg.
In addition to the multimedia learning applications, learning modules were generated and published on the VIROR platform in the internet for the topics: computer science and society, software engineering and quality assurance. They can be integrated in lectures and seminars as well as in larger learning applications of the specific fields.
The evaluation of the telelecture showed that learning with new media and working with interdisciplinary questions and the didactic approach of constructivistic-based teamwork are highly beneficial to the future working conditions of computer science students. According to statements made by economic representatives, the more technically directed computer science studies often do not prepare the students enough for professional practice. Those working in the professional field of computer science work in teams and have to communicate very often with changing partners. The multimedia learning settings serve as a good preparation for the presently changing work-structure and the job-market. More and more professionals in the IT-area work in international teams, and it is part of their everyday life to co-operate efficiently between several locations.
Currently, the interdisciplinary orientation and the didactic approach will be carried further into the organisation of teleseminars on „Gender Studies and Computer Science.“ This, in addition, will be supplemented by asynchronous learning environments (e.g., a MOO: Multi-user, Object Oriented Domain). The seminars will be conducted interdisciplinarily and internationally, since contacts with other specific fields and with foreign universities promote the desired effects on learning as well as motivate students to participate. In this sense, the VIROR program of IIG concentrates on expanding the network of the different universities and other colleges as well as on the extension of contacts outside the VIROR project
In the winter semester 2001/02, a joint seminar with international video conferences on the topic „Technology and Gender“ will be held with many different partners, including the Institute of Sociology in Freiburg and Tübingen, the teacher training college and the college of applied sciences in Freiburg, and the Institute of Computer Science and Society in Tübingen. Another seminar dealing with gender studies and computer science is planned for the winter semester 2002/03
Project Director: | |
Staff: | Oliver Kaiser |
Christoph Taubmann | |
Léa Meyer | |
Christine Zimmer | |
Collaboration: | Prof. Dr. Nina Degele, Institut für Soziologie, Universität Freiburg |
Prof. Dr. Cornelia Helfferich, Prof. Dr. Reinhard Lohmiller, Evangelische Fachhochschule Freiburg | |
Prof. Dr. Sylvia Buchen, Pädagogische Hochschule Freiburg | |
Dr. Cecile K. M. Crutzen, Faculty of Science and Technology, Open University der Niederlande, Heerlen | |
Funding: | Land Baden-Württemberg: "Virtuelle Hochschule" |
Contact: |