Benedict Bender

Project "Digitalisation of Teaching – An Inquiry in the Context of the COVID-19 Crisis"

In response to COVID-19, universities around the world abruptly stopped face-to-face classes and switched to technology-mediated instruction. As a result, the use of technology in the learning processes of students across disciplines was inevitable and, for months, the only way to teach, communicate, and collaborate. In this crisis context, we conducted a longitudinal study at four German universities that addressed the following aspects: (1) student acceptance of technology-mediated learning, (2) how this acceptance changes during the semester, and (3) differences in acceptance between different disciplines. The survey results will be analyzed, published, and further studies prepared.

Project "Perspectives and limitations in the use of digital platforms in teaching"

Based on the study of students' experiences during the fully digital semester, we explore how these experiences and learners' attitudes are related to different teaching and communication platforms. We shed light on the biggest challenges to digitizing teaching from the students' perspective, as well as the optimal balance between online and presence-based teaching. As part of the research, we address the perceived limitations of knowledge transfer, social interaction and instructional design in digital learning opportunities as well as the assessment of the pedagogical competencies of their instructors in the digital teaching space.

Business models and acceptance of digital platforms

Digital platforms are increasing in their importance in different areas of everyday life. The motivation of all platform participants is important for the success of multi-sided platforms. For the group of contributors and the sustainability of the business model is an important building block. For the scaling of the platform, additional participants must be continuously recruited on all platform sides in order to benefit from positive network effects. With regard to the participants, knowledge about the selection between platform alternatives, in particular, represents a success factor. In the context of the collaboration, these potential success factors for platforms will be investigated. Among other things, this provides a basis for subsequently exploring the special features of digital learning platforms.