Quelle: Sandra Schön Autor: sansch

#COVID19 was and is a big challenge for many people, for teachers as universities as well. And of course we love to share experiences we made or have seen at the TU Graz as well to enrich the contributions on teaching and learning with technologies in HEI.

This time we contributed to a book which collects 133 (!) experiences from colleagues worldwide, all available under CC BY NC ND. Please have look and check:

Our contribution describes:

To train future Austrian teachers in using digital media, a novel didactic design was implemented at several universities in Austria in summer semester 2019: The course includes the participation in a MOOC (massive open online course) on the topic, an accompanying group work at the universities and multiple-choice tests conducted at the universities. In the summer semester of 2020, due to the COVID-19 crisis, the group work and exams had to be switched to virtual space as well. Because the course materials are available under an open license, i.e. as open educational resources, further use is possible and offered.

Ebner, Martin & Schön, Sandra (2020). Remote Future Teacher Training with MOOCs. In: R.E. Ferdig, E. Baumgartner, E., R. Hartshorne, E. Kaplan-Rakowski, & C. Mouza, C. (Ed). Teaching, Technology, and Teacher Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Stories from the Field. Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Pp. 493-497. Book is available under CC BY NC ND: https://www.learntechlib.org/p/216903/. Preprint at ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342261714_Remote_Future_Teacher_Training_with_MOOCs

Quelle: Sandra Schön Autor: sansch

After my debut as a researcher at Graz University of Technology, the first article has now been published in which I actually participated as an official employee of Graz University of Technology. Now it is probably due to the great team of Martin Ebner, the Educational Technology Team of TU Graz, that the article about their role and acitivities and effects during the first three weeks of the COVID-19 crisis at TU Graz gets so much attention (and probably also automatisms around the hashtag #covid19 ), but hey: This second article since my start at TU Graz rocks (again) up to the top of TU Graz at Research Gate!

By the way, since 1.4.20 I was always the only woman in the #researchgate #tugraz top 10, now there are my femal co-authors as well! <3<3<3

Reference: Ebner, M.; Schön, S.; Braun, C.; Ebner, M.; Grigoriadis, Y.; Haas, M.;  Leitner, P.; Taraghi, B. COVID-19 Epidemic as E-Learning Boost?  Chronological Development and Effects at an Austrian University against  the Background of the Concept of “E-Learning Readiness”. Future Internet 2020, 12, 94. [full article @ ResearchGate] [full article @ journal’s homepage]

Quelle: Sandra Schön Autor: sansch

My first research article as a team member of Graz University of Technology is a research article concerning the situation of COVID-19 titled „COVID-19 Epidemic  as E-Learning Boost? Chronological Development and Effects at an  Austrian University against the Background of the Concept of “E-Learning  Readiness”. It’s really inspiring to be part of such a smart and commited Educational Technology team who did such a great job, not only but especially in the crazy first weeks of COID19 crisis in Austria.

Abstract:
The COVID-19 crisis influenced universities worldwide in early 2020. In Austria, all universities were closed in March 2020 as a preventive measure, and meetings with over 100 people were banned and a curfew was imposed. This development also had a massive impact on teaching, which in Austria takes place largely face-to-face. In this paper we would like to describe the situation of an Austrian university regarding e-learning before and during the first three weeks of the changeover of the teaching system, using the example of Graz University of Technology (TU Graz). The authors provide insights into the internal procedures, processes and decisions of their university and present figures on the changed usage behaviour of their students and teachers. As a theoretical reference, the article uses the e-learning readiness assessment according to Alshaher (2013), which provides a framework for describing the status of the situation regarding e-learning before the crisis. The paper concludes with a description of enablers, barriers and bottlenecks from the perspective of the members of the Educational Technology department.

Website Future Internet

Reference: Ebner, M.; Schön, S.; Braun, C.; Ebner, M.; Grigoriadis, Y.; Haas, M.;  Leitner, P.; Taraghi, B. COVID-19 Epidemic as E-Learning Boost?  Chronological Development and Effects at an Austrian University against  the Background of the Concept of “E-Learning Readiness”. Future Internet 2020, 12, 94.

Quelle: Sandra Schön Autor: sansch

As part of the book Current State of Open Educational Resources in the “Belt and Road” Countries we did a chapter about the current state in Austria.

Abstract:
In Austria, located in the center of Europe, when compared earlier in relation to other German-speaking countries in Europe, individuals and groups started to develop and work on the idea of freely available and usable learning content on the Internet. A first Austrian milestone was the coordination of an international conference on open educational content in 2007 as the final activity of the first European project that was focused on OER (olcos.org). Within the contribution an overview of current state and developments of OER activities in Austria is given, also describing its infrastructure, policy, existing resources, curriculum and teaching methodologies, outcome, stakeholders and impact for education. The chapter gives a comprehensive overview of all OER activities in Austria and outlines the benefits for the educational system as well. It can be summarized that the Austrian way seems to be successful even though the steps forward are often small.

Reference: Schön S., Ebner M. (2020) Open Educational Resources in Austria. In: Huang R., Liu D., Tlili A., Gao Y., Koper R. (eds) Current State of Open Educational Resources in the “Belt and Road” Countries. Lecture Notes in Educational Technology. pp 17-33. Springer, Singapore

Quelle: Sandra Schön Autor: sansch

Nowadays, the value of a researcher is evaluated with scientific output and indices like the h-index. At my previous employer, the Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft, my publications were listed in the top ten in Research Gate Statistics. This is not particularly surprising, as publications did not play a major role among my colleagues. – I also had the company’s highest RG index.

With one of my new employers, Graz University of Technology, things look quite different, of course. Here I am just a literally „small number“. As I just started at first of April at the TU Graz: Only one publication currently adorns my research profile at Graz University of Technology.

And hey, it’s not real research either. But last week, this first and single article had THE HIGHEST READS of all the contributions of Graz University of Technology at Research Gate.

I’ll print it out and frame it. – what a debut! – And we are again on top this week

Thanks a lot to my co-author Martin Ebner and to Jochen Robes who wrote about the article <3<3<3

Quelle: Sandra Schön Autor: sansch

Quelle: Sandra Schön Autor: sansch

Proud about DOIT Europe: multilingual descriptions with some of my answers were published in CORDIS magazine just after my leave from Salzburg Research:

(c) CORDIS 2020

CORDIS Europe (2020, 2nd April): DOIT: practical experiences for future innovators, URL: https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/415749-doit-practical-experiences-for-future-innovators

Quelle: Sandra Schön Autor: sansch

Some people were upset about my „cliffhanger“ – and because of corona and homeschooling I just didn’t make it earlier – SORRY! .

This is where I ended up after my departure at Salzburg Research at first of April 2020:

1. First of all, I started a new project called „Development of an OER certification body for universities“ at the Forum Neue Medien in der Lehre Austria (Association for New Media in Teaching Austria) as project leader. OER stands for „Open Educational Resources“ and within the next four years, we should have made it possible that all Austrian higher education institutions could certifiy themselves and their lecturers their OER expertise and activities. I am looking forward to working with many old acquaintances as well as new people and last but not least to the friendly reception:

„I don’t think we could have found anyone more perfect for the job.“

(blush) – I hope I will not disappoint the high expectations.

In fact, the project is amibitioned and, despite all the positive attitudes towards OER, not at all a self-runner: many different positions and stakeholders have to be considered and involved.

2. Furthermore, I started, also part-time, at the Graz University of Technology and support the team of Martin Ebner and „Educational Technology“ in research and publications. What was previously a wild cooperation has now become formal

And I am delighted that I was able to start working with Martin’s wonderful team at this highly exciting time – one of our first projects is a paper on the corona effects in e-learning at Graz University of Technology.

3. And then, as before, I have further research and teaching assignments as T3C, among others. One of them sounds pretty crazy and I couldn’t quite believe it either – I am now also part of the staff of the Universitas Negeri Malang (State University of Malang, Indonesia). More about that later

Quelle: Sandra Schön Autor: sansch

Am 31. März hätte der RFDZ Informatik Fachtag in der Steiermark eigentlich als reale Veranstaltung stattfinden sollen. Nun wurde auch hier umgestellt auf eine Online-Veranstaltung und ich freue mich, dort die Keynotes vortragen zu dürfen. Herzlichen Dank für die (wiederholte!) Einladung!

Schön, Sandra (2020). Lernraum Makerspace – Chancen und Herausforderungen für Schulen. Online-Keynote auf dem RFDZ Informatik Fachtag der Steiermark, 31. März 2020

Quelle: Sandra Schön Autor: sansch

Also Abschied nehmen hat auch etwas Gutes: Man bekommt unglaublich viele nette Nachrichten. Danke, ihr lieben Kolleginnen und Kollegen bei der Salzburg Research, ich freu mich schon auf das nächste öffentliche Event und einen Besuch bei uns Euch!

„Ich finde es sehr schade, dass du jetzt nicht mehr Teil des Teams bist. Deine Energie und dein innovativer Blick nach vorne waren nach meiner Wahrnehmung beispiellos! Mit dir geht auf jeden Fall ein Unikat verloren!“

„Es war immer mit viel Freude verbunden, mit dir zu arbeiten. (…) Schade, dass du uns verlässt.“

„Danke für die angenehme Zusammenarbeit die wir hatten. Ich wünsche dir alles Gute für deinen weiteren Weg!

„Ich wünsche dir viel Freude und Erfolg im beruflichen Umfeld und weiterhin soviel Kreativität.“

„Danke für die vielen tollen und spannenden Jahre der Zusammenarbeit!“