Funding: your digital international teaching projects

Within the ProDiGI funding line, funding is announced (usually every six months) with which we would like to support you in the implementation of teaching projects on international digital teaching. You can apply for support for your activities in the establishment and expansion of international and digital teaching in the form of study programmes and modules at TU Braunschweig and actively participate in the university-wide exchange on this topic. The funding is provided the Foundation Innovation in Higher Education [Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre] since summer 2021.

Background for this call for proposals

Many of you are actively involved in shaping TU Braunschweig's goal of strengthening the internationalisation of teaching through the further development of digital teaching/learning formats and the establishment of new international course offers. In doing so, you face a whole range of challenges, such as an increased amount of time for planning and implementing teaching, while capacities are already tight.

This is where ProDiGI comes in, with the particular aim of expanding those international study programmes and modules at TU Braunschweig that combine innovative methods and digital technologies in new progressive teaching/learning formats. ProDiGI promotes the further development of digital teaching at TU Braunschweig in the context of international teaching. For this, the English language as the "medium of instruction" is, in many respects, a basic prerequisite. In addition, the digital structures created in recent years, which offer a multitude of new possibilities and synergies, can be used for this goal of internationalising teaching.

Funding is available for projects to develop and expand digital international modules and study programmes. It is explicitly desired that projects in various stages of development, from conception to implementation and further development, apply for funding.

An essential feature of measures eligible for funding is their planned long-term curricular integration. Methodological innovation and its transferability are the basis of a growing knowledge database that supports future developments in teaching in English. The central building block for this is the Teaching Toolbox, which makes experiences and results available to teachers of all status groups. In this way, the funding line also aims to create synergies and joint inspiration and thus addresses the additional time and personnel burden on teachers during changes and innovations in teaching. The Teaching Toolbox acts as a virtual contact, interface and distribution point for the further development of innovative multilingual study programmes. Projects supported within the framework of the funding line actively fill it with structured content.

Within the framework of the ProDiGI project, various thematic impulses are initiated and events are organised for networking and the transfer of ideas, some of which are organised for all teachers at the TU and some of which are offered specifically for the projects supported in this funding line. The measures are continuously evaluated by accompanying research conducted by the Department of Further Education and Media, Institute of Educational Sciences at TU Braunschweig.

All teaching projects funded by ProDiGI must focus on the (further) development of digitally supported international study programmes or modules (e.g. as hybrid teaching, as a virtual exchange or as digital teaching/learning scenarios, e.g. in the form of (digital) game-based learning, mobile learning, visualisation).

The eligibility criteria that will be used to determine the eligibility of your proposed teaching project are:

• a clearly visible added value for the development and expansion of English-taught courses
• recognisable innovative character, which shows a novel approach to the internationalisation of modules or study programmes in the sense of Internationalisation@Home. This refers to all measures and activities through which intercultural and international dimensions are meaningfully integrated into the curriculum. The aim of Internationalisation@Home is to use the knowledge and experience of a diverse student and teaching body to improve curricula, to enable global learning and to create international (teaching/learning) communities in which everyone feels welcome and included.
• Pure transfer of a course from German into English is only given secondary consideration in this funding line. The pure translation of teaching materials without further modification of the course is also only given secondary consideration.
• involving students in the conception, realisation or improvement of modules and study programmes and addressing added value for students in at least one of the following aspects: a) "future skills" b) intercultural competenc c) diversity orientation (e.g. with a focus on accessibility)
• a didactic, technical and organisational coherence and feasibility
• a clearly recognisable long-term curricular anchoring
• potential for transferability of your project idea to other subjects at the university

The funding period of the projects is six months. The funds can be used for personnel as follows:

1. the creation or increase of a staff position (50%, TVL-E13) for project implementation*. For more extensive projects, a staff position of up to 100%, TVL-E13 can be applied for. A justification is required.

As well as additionally

2. Student assistants (up to 25 hours per month)

* Subject to a corresponding agreement or regulation in your faculty, the funds can also be used for a reduction in teaching load through a temporary substitution of teaching by academic staff.

In addition, a limited amount of material funding of max. 700 euros per individual project is available. Please state the amount of these costs as precisely as possible in your application. Equipment and consumables that are part of the basic equipment of the respective subject cannot be funded. This includes office equipment, PCs, notebooks and related regular work software (MS Office, etc.) and office supplies.

Furthermore, in the event of a funding being granted, you will receive

• access to a central pool of support staff to support your activities, for example in the form of technical support for hybrid courses or the use of digital tools.
• support through centralised and decentralised cooperation with other participants in the funding line.
• organisational, media, technical and didactic support according to your needs and requirements.