Without a doubt, the digital society must open up new ways of learning. Nevertheless, the corona crisis revealed that many higher education institutions and study programs are not sufficiently up to the digital age. The rapid switch to improvised online lessons accompanied additional difficulties. In many basic and specialized subjects, there is a lack of suitable digitized teaching materials, or the generally available online instruments are hardly or not adequately used by university teachers, and the students do not have the appropriate learning skills. However digital content can be more than just a stopgap solution in a crisis, because it can open up new possibilities for contemporary design, individualization and differentiation of teaching. From our point of view, the life experiences of the students with the various forms of digital interaction and their already accustomed learning settings should be linked with academic learning and the educational settings at universities. The project results to be achieved should lead to the elimination and bridging of the mentioned deficits and gaps. This is not just a temporary solution for the current situation, but attention is paid to sustainable change and quality improvement in German study programs, which should do justice to the new digital age. In this regard, the pilot project “Germanistik Digital” intends to create a platform for Online German Studies, where, thanks to the open educational resources (OER), professional competence in different disciplines of German Studies should be developed. Among other things, attention is paid to the development of one's own learning skills and individual learning progression. The primary target group of this output are the German studies students. At the same time, the project is also about supporting and expanding the digital skills of teachers who are supposed to work with the teaching materials developed, since the involvement and motivation of the learners depends heavily on trained teachers and their ability to use the new technologies. In order to help the teachers and to provide them with theoretical knowledge that is adapted to university teaching in the online environment, as well as with practical recommendations, methodological recommendations for online teaching of German studies are to be included in the project and a recommended curriculum must be developed. Part of the project is also the blended mobility of the students, as part of which innovative elements are introduced into the classroom. The students can use the GERMAN-ON platform and complete individual online courses that are carried out by leading experts in the partnership. In addition to the flipped classroom method, in which the traditional teaching room is to be converted into a learning room, it is about the initiation of international learner groups with the help of social media. The idea behind this is that the students should enter into an international exchange with other students with the same goals. The real student mobility at the partner universities is an additional added value. Overall, the project aims to implement innovative educational measures that are intended to contribute to the digitization of German studies. In this way, student-centered and reverse learning is sought which, using current didactic approaches, ICT and collaborative processes, on the one hand better corresponds to the learning needs of the students and on the other hand can lead to the transformation of German studies for the future. The project is carried out as part of a strategic partnership between 6 universities from three different regions in Europe. The leading institution is Univerzita sv. Cyrila a Metoda v Trnave (Slovakia), the project partners include: Vilniaus Universitetas (Lithuania), Univerza v Mariboru (Slovenia), Ventspils Augstskola (Latvia), Univerzitet u Beogradu (Serbia), and Univerzita J. E. Purkyně v Ústí n. Labem ( Czech Republic). The German departments of these institutions are involved in the collaboration.
The main goal is to create conditions for education in the field of German studies that lead to overcoming the problems of online learning and to making educational materials freely available. The aim of the project "Germanistik Digital" is to create a platform for online learning in German Studies, through which freely available learning materials can be used to learn and acquire subject competences in the various sub-disciplines of German Studies. Attention is also paid to the development of one's own learning competences. In order to facilitate the work of teachers and to provide them with theoretical knowledge adapted to university teaching in an online environment, the project has developed methodological recommendations for online teaching, which are available in seven European languages. Overall, the project aims to introduce innovative ways of learning that contribute to the digitalisation of German language learning and are oriented towards the needs of students. The project is implemented in a strategic partnership of 6 universities from Europe.
There is no doubt that an increasingly digital society needs to create new ways of learning. The pandemic situation has revealed to us that many institutions of higher education and their curriculum teaching are not sufficiently prepared for the digital age. The rapid transition to impromptu online teaching has been accompanied by further difficulties. For many core subjects and professional seminars, there is a lack of suitable digitised teaching materials or generally available online tools. These are hardly used or not used adequately by university teachers and students lack the corresponding learning competences. However, digital content can be more than just an emergency solution in a crisis situation, as they can open up new possibilities for the current form, individualisation and differentiation of teaching. Therefore, we believe that students' active experiences with different forms of digital interaction and their already established learning environments should be linked to academic learning and learning environments in universities.