All teaching staff at WiSo have their own experiences, knowledge, views and practices on digitalization in education. For example, how higher education teaching can benefit from digitalization or what challenges may be presented by digitalization from an instruction design perspective. Around 300 members are using the ‘WiSo Digitalization in Education’ community to share their experiences or take part in meetings. This platform allows members to learn with and from other teachers and people interested in digitalization at WiSo. A community thrives on exchange, interaction, and participation. Each new member is welcome to share their knowledge and exchange opinions regardless of their level of experience. The WiSo Digitalization in Education community is looking forward to welcoming you! Joining the community on StudOn is free and open: WiSo Digitalization in Education Community

The e-learning coordinator at the School of Business, Economics and Society is available to support lecturers and students and provide general advice on the topics of digitalization in education, e-learning, as well as multimedia or virtual education. He is also responsible for the ‘WiSo Digitalization in Education’ community.

The e-learning coordinator is further responsible for:

• General advice and information on digitalization in education and e-learning
• Individual consultation – Switching to online teaching
• Training and skills development of teaching staff in the field of multimedia in education

Ansprechpartner:

• Are you looking for advice on university teaching in general? The Center for Continuing Education in University-Level Teaching (FBZHL) can help you. This central institution is responsible for higher education training at FAU and offers an extensive program of seminars on diverse topics in higher education.
• Are you planning to implement an online course? The Innovation in Learning Institute (ILI) is a central institution at FAU for e-learning and offers assistance with the design, conception and implementation of online courses. ILI is responsible for operating and developing the central learning platform StudOn.
• Are you already one step further and need help with media production? The Multimedia Center (MMZ) at the Erlangen Regional Computing Centre (RRZE) provides support services for media production.

A variety of support and information resources are available for using digital tools. The landing pages of the  RRZE Multimedia Center (MMZ) and FAU’s schnell digital program for the rapid implementation of online teaching:

StudOn Learning Management System

• The central learning management system at FAU is StudOn and this system has a number of features. It can be used for managing objects related to your course (course units, registration procedures, etc.), for communication (forums, Etherpad and chat), for providing learning resources (file upload, learning modules, videos, etc.), for assessments (tests and exercises) as well as for evaluation and feedback (surveys, votes and LiveVoting). For a more detailed description, see the section Which digital tools are suitable for my teaching format?

Media production

• Video production
  • ZOOM offers a recording function (https://www.anleitungen.rrze.fau.de/faq/wie-kann-ich-in-zoom-das-aufzeichnen-von-veranstaltungen-aktivieren/) of meetings. This allows to record presentations, speeches and screen sharing and saves them as a local file. A post-processing option is not available in ZOOM. A recording with participants requires their consent (more information on legal issues).
  • Camtasia is suitable for creating screencasts (screen recording) and, to a limited extent, also for video post-processing. FAU has a campus license for Camtasia: Further information and guide
  • Opencast Studio: Free browser-based screencast software. Guide
  • Screen recording with PowerPoint. Limited screen recording features. Guide
• Audio recording and post-processing
  • Smartphones frequently offer a record function with an acceptable recording quality
  • Windows: Voice recorder (Windows 10) and Audio recorder (Windows 7 and 8) with limited post-processing capabilities. Note: a microphone is required
  • Audacity: Free audio recording and post-processing software with many features. Note: this tool is not officially approved by FAU.
  • Adobe Audition: Extensive audio post-processing. Order via the RRZE:
  • VLC Player: Feature for converting audio files.
• Convert PowerPoint and Word documents to PDFs and add media using Adobe Acrobat Pro. Guide

Audio and video conferencing at FAU:

FAU has approved four audio and video conferencing systems: DFN, ZOOM, Jitsi and Microsoft Teams. The MMZ offer a reference table to help you decide which tool to use based on the level of confidentiality and features required. Reference table: which video conferencing tool?

• RRZE information on DFNconf, DFN-MCU and Adobe Connect
• RRZE Guide to using DFNconf
• RRZE Guide to using Adobe Connect
• RRZE Information and Guide to using Zoom
• RRZE Information and Guide to using Jitsi
• RRZE Information and Guide to using Microsoft Teams
• Advice and instructional design tips from the e-learning coordinator for using video conferencing for online teaching

Handouts

• Ideas and design aspects from the e-learning coordinator for the use of videoconferencing tools for the design of your virtual course offering
• FBZHL handbook: Designing student-friendly online teaching