Platforms, selection processes, and recommendations for learning opportunities
Platforms included in the Course Catalogue
The Course Catalogue offers free learning opportunities in digital competences for all members of public universities in North Rhine-Westphalia – including students, lecturers, researchers, and technical and administrative staff. The learning opportunities are designed to meet the diverse needs of university members and to ensure broad accessibility.
Learning opportunities from the following platforms are therefore included in the Course Catalogue:
- digibasics
- fdm.nrw – Landesinitiative für Forschungsdatenmanagement
- HÜF-NRW – Hochschulübergreifende Fortbildung NRW
- iMooX
- KI-Campus
- openHPI
- ORCA.nrw
- Marburg University
University-internal learning opportunities
When looking for suitable learning opportunities, it is worth checking not only the #Digitalkomptenz.nrw Course Catalogue, but also to check offers of your own university. Below are some examples of points of contact at the four universities involved in the project.
Universität Bonn
Technische Hochschule Köln
Hochschule Niederrhein
- University library
- For university staff: web portal for internal events (e.g. human resources department and university library; access is restricted to the university network or via a suitable VPN connection)
Further universities
Your university is bound to offer internal training programmes in digital skills. Why not find out more from, for example, the library, the centre for teaching and learning, the centre for key competences or the human resources department?
Selection criteria for the Course Catalogue
Learning opportunities are selected in a two-stage selection process.
1. Selection of platform providers
The platforms whose learning opportunities are included in the Course Catalogue must meet the following criteria:
- Fit with the digital competence model: The leanring opportunities are based on the digital competence model and cover relevant areas such as Creating and Editing Digital Content, Generative Artificial Intelligence, and Protecting Data in Digital Environments.
- Target group orientation: The content is tailored to the needs of university members.
- Free access: The learning opportunities must be accessible to members of universities in North Rhine-Westfalia at no additional cost.
- Reputation of the platform: Preference is given to platforms with
- public funding (e.g., from the federal or state government) and/or
- cooperations with universities or other recognised educational institutions.
2. Selection of individual learning opportunities
Following the pre-selection of platforms, each individual learning opportunity is additionally checked for its fit with the competence model. This ensures that the overall range in the Course Catalogue
- covers different levels of competence (from beginners to experts) and
- includes a variety of learning formats (face-to-face, online, and self-study offers).
Quality assurance
The quality of the learning opportunities in the Course Catalogue is ensured by the two-stage review process described above. Criteria and processes have been identified and implemented for this purpose.
To ensure an up-to-date, high-quality catalogue, continuous updating is essential. This is made possible by two software solutions:
- a crawler that collects the educational offers from the platforms and
- an AI application that
- checks how well the learning opportunities match the underlying competence model and
- estimates the competence level of the learning opportunities.
To verify the reliability of the AI application, its assessments were compared with human ratings. The underlying statistical analysis has shown that the assessments made by the AI application are very similar to the human assessments. This ensures that new learning opportunities can be reliably assessed on an ongoing basis and included in the catalogue according to the defined criteria.
The basis for recommending learning opportunities
When recommending learning opportunities, each learning opportunity is matched against your profile of interests and competences. The key factor here is your level of interest in the 13 areas of competence: generally speaking, the higher your interest, the better the match. An area of competence only counts if you have indicated an interest in it and it is addressed by the learning opportunity. In addition, your level (as determined by the Skills Assessment or the information you have provided) is compared with the level of the learning opportunity and factored into the calculation of the match score – you can see the match score as a percentage next to each course. The highest score across all areas of competence is displayed; the courses are sorted in descending order according to the match score.
In short: a learning opportunity ranks highly if, in at least one area that interests you, its content is a strong match, it aligns well with your level.
Curious? Explore the course catalogue now!