Project – Figments.NRW

AR/VR.nrw

Integrating augmented and virtual reality more strongly into teaching and research at NRW universities – this is one of the goals of the project “AR/VR.nrw – Augmented and Virtual Reality in University Teaching”. It is now being funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Digital University NRW (DH.NRW) for three years with around 1.5 million euros as part of the “Digital Tools in University Teaching” program. Together with Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, RWTH Aachen University and Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences, the Institute for Systems Research in Information, Communication and Media Technology (SIKoM) and the Chair of Technologies and Management of Digital Transformation (TMDT) at the University of Wuppertal are one of five partnes to receive funding.

Using Augmented and Virtual Reality in higher education

Considering the increasing importance of AR and VR for the support and design of learning processes, the current state of development and dissemination is not satisfactory: “There are many isolated solutions for specific requirements, but the often monolithic software systems are mostly hardly transferable or adaptable to new use cases,” explains Prof. Meisen. A lack of compatibility between the systems as well as the fact that most developments are not available as open source stand in the way of a cooperation of ongoing projects as well as a broad transfer into different teaching and learning settings. “The content design of applications by teachers or learners also requires in-depth information technology expertise, including programming skills, as well as high time and personnel resources for most systems to date,” says Meisen.

Figments.nrw

Against this background, the “AR/VR.nrw” project opens up two perspectives: First, a solution is being developed, tested and made available that teachers with little IT expertise can use and fill with their own teaching content via an authoring tool. Secondly, the developed solution will be available as open source so that researchers and developers at universities in NRW can further develop it for new research and teaching purposes. In addition, exemplary learning scenarios will be developed and services offered to universities to support teachers in the use and development of their own AR/VR teaching and learning content.

“With the help of this approach, the basis is being created for university lecturers, research groups and students to develop their own AR/VR content, exchange it across universities and thus succeed in integrating this technology on a broad scale,” says the Wuppertal project manager. Likewise, the open-source approach will allow future research and development on AR and VR to be based on an existing system, thus stimulating interdisciplinary research in NRW.

With the “Digital Tools in University Teaching” program, the Ministry of Culture and Science and the Digital University NRW (DH.NRW) are funding the cross-university production of digital tools to the tune of around four million euros. The five selected projects, each involving collaboration between at least three universities, will receive up to 1.5 million euros.

The program is part of the statewide digitization offensive with which the ministry is supporting universities in NRW to jointly coordinate and develop their digitization strategies in teaching, learning, research and infrastructure.

AR/VR.nrw aims to integrate the key technologies augmented and virtual reality more strongly into teaching and research at universities and to improve collaboration in this area. For this purpose, software will be developed and made available under an open source license. In addition, exemplary learning scenarios will be developed and services for universities will be established to support teachers in the use and development of their own AR/VR teaching and learning content.

Consortium leader: HS Bonn-Rhein-Sieg
Consortium: RWTH Aachen, University of Wuppertal, HS Hamm-Lippstadt
Duration: 09/2020 – 08/2023

DIGITAL TOOLS FOR UNIVERSITY TEACHING

Funding Line of DH.NRW

With the program “Digital Tools in University Teaching”, the Ministry of Culture and Science NRW and the Digital University NRW (DH.NRW) are funding the cross-university production of digital tools, also known as software tools, to the tune of around four million euros. The five selected projects, each involving collaboration between at least three universities, will receive up to 1.5 million euros. The digital tools are intended to expand cross-university teaching and learning platforms such as “Moodle” or “Ilias” with specific applications, as there is often still a need for development here, for example in the integration of software for online examinations, document management of student work or accessibility. “With the Digital Tools in Higher Education funding line, the state government is consistently developing learning management systems at universities and expanding them to meet the requirements of online teaching. Digital exams, which we are addressing specifically with this funding, are particularly relevant now in Corona times, but will also retain a high priority after the pandemic. We are relying on open source solutions so that the software tools can be used freely and adapted to specific sites,” says Science Minister Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen. A jury of representatives from DH.NRW and the universities in North Rhine-Westphalia reviewed the applications and judged five out of eleven to be worthy of support. One requirement is that the software tools can be easily integrated into higher-level teaching and learning platforms at the universities. The funding line therefore also focuses on the further development of existing teaching and learning technologies, rather than on fundamental new developments. The Ministry of Culture and Science NRW and DH.NRW intend to launch another funding call for the “Digital Tools in University Teaching” funding program in 2021. Rejected and revised funding applications can be resubmitted in further funding calls. All state universities of art and music, universities and universities of applied sciences in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia are eligible to apply. As part of the state government’s digitization initiative, the Ministry of Culture and Science is providing universities with an additional 50 million euros a year until 2021 via the Digitale Hochschule NRW, and 35 million euros each year thereafter until further notice. Further information on the new funding lines and all programs of the digitization offensive can be found at www.dh.nrw.