Didactic research and activities

Research about efficient teaching at university level

Concerning teaching mathematics at university level, I'm particularly interested in the didactics of large classes.
There, one direction is dedicated to the study of potential applications of modern AI tools and techniques, and another direction is dedicated to the best incorporation of digital tools, in particular for assessments.

In that latter direct, I recently was granted a 2-year long Innovedum project, The future of written (math) assessments: new, efficient and digital tools for manual grading
The aim of this project is to establish and develop cutting edge digital tools for the efficient manual grading of handwritten problem solving and proof based (open) questions in (math) assessments. Such tools are crucial as the capability of students to solve problems and transfer acquiered knowledge to new situations has to be a consistent part in assessm but risk to be reduced due to growing student numbers overpassing the grading capacities at disposal.
In this project we bring tagether specialists for the IT side as well from the didactics side adn include also the students' perspective.

Before, I was the PI of the project Principles of Productive Failure at the assessment level, one element of the bigger ETH+ Project Future Learning Initiative of Prof. Dr. Manu Kapur.
In this project we investigate the effectiveness of feedback-rich assessment (multiple-choice questions) and how such tools are best used in teaching at university level, in particular how efficient feedback is given. The project team includes - besides Manu Kapur and myself - Vera Baumgartner (PhD-student) and Dragan Trninić (PostDoc).

In the background of all my research in didactics, there is always the question of scalability of didactical concepts. Which concepts can be implemented for small groups of students as well as in large classe of several hundred students, what has to be adapted and how efficient are these concepts?
And the other point that I always have in the back of mymind is the question where the personal interactions between learners and teachers is at its best and where modern tools like e-learning tools are best incorporated.

Many thoughts, insights and hands-on help and advise is summarized in my personal Blog about didactics (of mathematics) at university level

Research networks

As part of my research, I'm a member of several international didactics research networks as e.g. SASIM, or a newly established network discussing the use, risks and technical aspects of AI technologies in university didactis (network comprising Universities from Norway, Sweden, Estonia and the United Kingdom) or the STACK researchers network.

Support activity

Apart from that, I am also the coordinator of the MELETE group at the department of mathematics and the editor in chief of our MELETE blog.
This group is dedicated to the evaluation, elaboration and dissemination of modern teaching techniques - in particular for big lectures. We work closely together with the LET.
One of our missions is to support colleagues and spread new ideas and techniques.