Teaching and Learning at the ‘Baltic Sea Region’s Virtual University’

Standard image digital learning - photo: ©Till_Junker
Standard image digital learning - photo: ©Till_Junker

Digital teaching and learning offers have become more and more important during the COVID-19 pandemic. The digital, international teaching project ‘Baltic Sea Region’s Virtual University’, which was initiated by Prof. Dr. Cordelia Heß from the University of Greifswald’s Department of History, is also expanding the extent of courses taught in English at the University. This applies in particular to the new master’s degree course ‘History and Culture of the Baltic Sea Region’ and the subsidiary subject for trainee teachers ‘Bilingual Teaching and Learning’. Partner universities from Stockholm, Tampere and St. Petersburg are collaborating on the project.

To make sure the digitisation surge that has resulted from the coronavirus restrictions also becomes established in international higher education collaboration, the Chair of Nordic History, held by Prof. Dr. Cordelia Heß, has developed a series of collaborative courses taught in English. The project is part of the University of Greifswald’s Internationalisation Strategy. The collaboration between members of teaching staff shall also feed Greifswald’s key field of research, ‘Cultures of the Baltic Sea Region’.

The courses taught as part of the teaching project are held in a virtual classroom. Members of teaching staff and students from Greifswald, Tampere, Stockholm and St. Petersburg meet up in the joint digital room despite the current travel and contact restrictions. The first teaching module ‘Religious Mobility in the Pre-Modern Baltic Sea Region’ will be provided in winter semester 2020/21. The module will look at various kinds of religious mobility in the Middle Ages – from the Crusades, to pilgrimages and missionary work – and their cultural heritage in the Baltic Sea Region. The course combines face-to-face with online teaching. The lectures and seminars shall be provided jointly by a team of international teaching staff. This means the students will have access to course contents that are available online for self-study (asynchronous teaching) and take part in online sessions with all of the students and members of teaching staff (synchronous teaching), as well as self-organised group work in international working groups. Travel restrictions permitting, the courses on offer will be rounded off by a one-week excursion that will focus on topics tackled during the course.

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is funding the partial project ‘Religious Mobility in the Pre-Modern Baltic Sea Region’ as part of the teaching project ‘Virtual University of the Baltic Sea Region’, belonging to the programme ‘International Virtual Academic Collaboration (IVAC)’.  The basic funding is being provided by the Federal State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’s ‘State Funds for Digital Teaching’.

The IVAC programme has received a grant from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) amounting to approximately 5.5 million euros. DAAD President Prof. Dr. Joybrato Mukherjee stresses: ‘In times of a global pandemic, virtual exchange and digital collaboration provide bridges to the rest of the world.’

Further information
Project Virtual University of the Baltic Sea Region [de]
Chair of Nordic History at the University of Greifswald [de]
DAAD press release [de]
International Virtual Academic Collaboration (IVAC)


Contact at the University of Greifswald

Prof. Dr. Cordelia Heß
Department of History
Chair of Nordic History
Domstraße 9 A, 17489 Greifswald
Tel.: +49 3834 420 3330
cordelia.hessuni-greifswaldde

Coordination Office
Paul Kirschstein
Department of History
Chair of Nordic History
Domstraße 9 A, 17489 Greifswald

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