P-8 ‘Digital Skills’ in Teaching 2021-2024

With the P-8 program, the federal government provides project-based funding, coordinated by swissuniversities, to strengthen digital skills in teaching. UZH participates in P-8 with the project "Digital Skills for You (DISK4U)" (duration 2021 to 2024).

The project aims to promote a wide range of digital skills in a low-threshold and level-appropriate manner. On the one hand, freely accessible training modules for lecturers are created and made available on the Teaching Tools platform. On the other hand, new courses for students are created, which are generally offered across faculties and are affiliated with the School for Transdisciplinary Studies.

DISK4U offers a platform for implementing projects to strengthen digital skills among students and lecturers. The project community regularly exchanges ideas and forms a growing network of experts for digitization in higher education. Below is an overview of all DISK4U contributors and their projects.

This project develops modules in which students gain an understanding and skills to practice Open Science (OS). Topics include: Open research processes, open science, implementation of transparency and its implications, ethical and scientific integrity issues of OS, reproducible programming, code and data management.

Courses for students

Project team:
Dr. Eva Furrer, Prof. Dr. Leonhard Held, Prof. Dr. Mark Robinson, Reto Gerber

This project aims at teaching digital core competencies in the humanities and enables students to apply their knowledge to various contexts and issues. A basic course and several advanced courses are offered:

Courses for students

Project team:
Christine Grundig, Prof. Dr. Tristan Weddigen

This project provides basic and practical skills in the areas of research data, open data and digital publishing, and open access. It also aims to create an understanding of the impact of the open science movement on the science system and the accessibility and usability of scientific results (publications and data).

Courses for students

Project team:
Dr. Melanie Röthlisberger, Dr. Stefanie Strebel, Dr. Elisabeth-Christine Gamer,Dr. Regula Zwicky, Dr. Andrea Malits

This project aims to teach basic data analytic skills to students in advanced semesters. The target group are students with little prior knowledge of mathematical statistics and computer science. The focus is on teaching basic skills to plausibilize, analyze, and visualize one's own data in the open source and freely available software environment R.

Courses for students

Project team:
Prof. Dr. Ulrike Held, Prof. Dr. Torsten Hothorn, Monika Hebeisen, Stefania Iaquinto

This project develops an online course that teaches advanced students skills in statistics, text mining, and web scraping. The course is aimed at students with no prior knowledge of statistics or programming. At the end of the course, a small project is carried out independently.

Courses for students

Project team:
Prof. Dr. Tilman Altwicker, Sophia Conrad

This project develops an interdisciplinary online course on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and their use in science. Students expand their general digital problem-solving skills and critical thinking skills and learn to think in an interdisciplinary way.

Courses for students

Project team:
Daniel Ursprung, Dr. Eike von Lindern

This project develops a module on Python as a programming language. Students from all disciplines receive an  introduction to computer science in a one-week bootcamp before the start of the semester. The newly acquired skills are consolidated during the semester through regular and carefully supervised exercises.

Courses for students

Project team:
Prof. Dr. Alberto Bacchelli

This project develops a workshop module in which students deal with the topic of cyber security. In particular, skills for obtaining information without using criminal means and methods such as malware are taught (summarized under the term Open Source Intelligence (OSINT)). OSINT has become an important cybersecurity tool in recent years, for example, helping companies and organizations protect themselves from unwanted access. OSINT methods and tactics are thus important digital skills for promoting cybersecurity. Likewise, OSINT also involves ethical, legal, and social issues that must be considered in tandem with technical skills.

Courses for students

Project team:
Dr. Markus Christen, Dr. Melanie Knieps, Dr. Leyla Ciragan

This project communicates the topic of transparency, reproducibility and societal benefit of scientific results to lecturers. Thereby, Open Science (OS) shall be promoted and strengthened as a standard method also in the context of teaching.

Teaching Tools

Project team:
Dr. Eva Furrer, Prof. Dr. Leonhard Held, Prof. Dr. Mark Robinson

This project tests different interaction tools in online teaching. Lecturers and students evaluate the tools together with regard to suitability, handling and didactic benefit.

Teaching Tools

Project team:
Dr. Hanno Degner, Dr. Petra Holtrup Mostert, Prof. Dr. Marco Steenbergen

This project shows how Game-Based Learning (GBL) can be implemented and how it is already used at UZH. In three modules it is explained how simulation games can be designed and how workshops can be conducted to create them, how GBL is used at UZH and how the use and didactic embedding of GBL in teaching succeeds in the best possible way.

Teaching Tools

Project team:
Roland Schläfli, Anja Zgraggen, Dr. Benjamin Wilding

This project reflects on practical aspects of digitized instructional communication on an empirical basis. The results and expertise developed from the analysis of audiovisual recordings of authentic teaching events are made available to UZH lecturers via three different modules.

Read analysis

Project team:
Dr. Kenan Hochuli, Johanna Jud, Prof. Dr. Heiko Hausendorf

This project helps lecturers to build up skills regarding the following: How do I create an online self-study area in the LMS? How do I create short learning videos for the self-service area and how can I make them interactive? How do I create interactive graphics? What possibilities are there in the self-learning area to check learning objectives digitally? 

Output

Project team:
Consuela Müller

This project provides lecturers with digital competencies in the area of analyzing open questions in exams, exercises and case studies. In addition, the opportunities and risks of automated correction are highlighted.

Project team:
Prof. Dr. Walter Farkas, Johanna Braun, Roland Schläfli

This project offers lecturers assistance in applying and improving their programming skills in the area of blended learning.

Project teams:
Prof. Dr. Prasenjit Saha

This project provides theory content for lecturers and new features in KlickerUZH to support interaction in (digital) teaching. Among other things, basics for the use of gamification and digital interaction in teaching are explained and demonstrated by means of case studies and teaching situations.

Output

Project team:
Roland Schläfli, Johanna Braun

The project aims to sensitize and train lecturers in the use of AI-supported software solutions and their possible applications in teaching. Through a series of initiatives, such as workshops with AI experts, exchange events, the provision of various materials on teaching tools and the establishment of a community of study programme managers, awareness and competence in the use of AI in teaching is to be promoted.

Output

Project team:
Dr. David Schmocker, Dr. Carina Klein, Nora Bertram, Jolanda Hunziker