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Optimisation of the self-study phase (optes)

The joint project "optes - Optimisation of the self-study phase" was a joint project of the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University, the Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences, the University of Hamburg and the ILIAS open source e-learning association in cooperation with the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg and the Heidelberg University of Education. It was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in a second funding phase from 1 October 2016 to 31 December 2020 as part of the Teaching Quality Pact - a federal and state funding programme to improve study conditions and the quality of teaching at universities.

The overarching aim of the optes project network was to improve students' ability to self-study in basic maths-related subjects and thus increase their chances of successfully completing their studies. To this end, the respective sub-projects developed a wide range of measures and learning materials to compensate for the heterogeneity in basic mathematical knowledge before the start of studies and to support the self-learning phases through individual learning support.

The primary task of our sub-project "Process support and didactic counselling" within the project consortium was to accompany the process of developing and implementing the optes measures at the partner universities and to examine together whether the intended effects were achieved. In addition, our sub-project contributed to didactic quality assurance and sustainable optimisation of the offer through evaluations and our own developments.

We regularly analysed interim results together with the network partners. The results of this formative evaluation were fed back into the project in the form of feedback and individual counselling in order to further develop the measures (cyclical re-design). In addition, the formative evaluation ensured that the various components of optes were linked together in a didactically meaningful way and could be used by the users in a targeted manner.


In addition, we advised and supported the partners in close cooperation with the mathematics didactics department on general and media didactic issues as well as through the development and implementation of (subject) didactic quality criteria. Own didactic developments served in particular to promote practising as a reflective practice in the university context. The importance of reflective practice as part of self-learning skills was emphasised with the aim of practically improving practice both with learning support from e-mentors and with problem-oriented optes resources (e.g. exercises). Among other things, this led to the development of a "free training area", which also offers users the opportunity to work on or practise tasks in a closed area without assessment or time pressure. The optes offering was thus expanded to include an important aspect and rounded off in terms of general, specialised and media didactics.

The results of the joint project have been published as an open access eBook by Springerverlag under the title "Selbststudium im digitalen Wandel" (http://www.springer.com/de/book/9783658312787). It contains the following four contributions by HUL staff:

  • Paul, D., Schmidt, C., Reinmann, G. & Marquardt, V. (2021). Digitales, begleitetes Selbststudium. In R. Küstermann, M. Kunkel, A. Mersch & A. Schreiber (Hrsg.), Selbststudium im digitalen Wandel (S. 7-15). Wiesbaden: Springer.
    (Download des Beitrags: http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-658-31279-4_2)

  • Reinmann, G., Schmidt, C., Marquardt, V. & Paul, D. (2021). Üben als reflexive Praxis und Übeangebote im Rahmen von optes. In R. Küstermann, M. Kunkel, A. Mersch & A. Schreiber (Hrsg.), Selbststudium im digitalen Wandel (S. 43-53). Wiesbaden: Springer.
    (Download des Beitrags: http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-658-31279-4_5)

  • Schmidt, C., Marquardt, V., Reinmann, G. & Paul, D. (2021). Evaluation im Projekt optes. In R. Küstermann, M. Kunkel, A. Mersch & A. Schreiber (Hrsg.), Selbststudium im digitalen Wandel (S. 299-306). Wiesbaden: Springer.
    (Download des Beitrags: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-658-31279-4_26)

  • Schmidt, C. & Reinmann, G. (2021). Qualitätssicherung im optes-Projekt. In R. Küstermann, M. Kunkel, A. Mersch & A. Schreiber (Hrsg.), Selbststudium im digitalen Wandel (S. 289-297). Wiesbaden: Springer.
    (Download des Beitrags: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-658-31279-4_25)

In addition, we published our thoughts on promoting practice as a reflective practice in the university context in an article that is also freely available on the Internet.

  • Reinmann, G., Schmidt, C. & Marquardt, V. (2019). Förderung des Übens als reflexive Praxis im Hochschulkontext – Hochschuldidaktische Überlegungen zur Bedeutung des Übens für Brückenkurse in der Mathematik. Impact Free. Journal für freie Bildungswissenschaftler, (21).
    Verfügbar unter http://gabi-reinmann.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Impact_Free_21.pdf [07.12.2020]
Financing Qualitätspakt Lehre (Förderkennzeichen 01PL17012D) gefördert vom Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)
Duration Oktober 2016 till December 2020
Staff members Victoria Marquardt, Daria Paul, Christian Schmidt
Keywords Process support, counselling, evaluation, quality assurance, e-learning, self-study, practice
URl for further infromation https://www.optes.de