How are digital advances shaping our present and future? What subject-specific skills and competencies are essential for navigating this constantly evolving space? And how can we cultivate these crucial competencies at the university?  

Join us for the Digital Curriculum Closing Conference, where we will delve into these pressing questions and share findings from the cross-institutional project, Digital competence development in the digital age from the perspective of the curriculum that has been running from 2020-2024.  

The conference revolves around four key perspectives: 

  • Digitalisation of Society: How is digitalisation shaping our day to day lives? What is the impact on graduates from the Humanities and the Social Sciences? 

  • Research Integration in Education: How has digitalisation initiated new research questions and research methods, and how does student participation in research projects contribute to scientific as well as job-oriented digital competencies? 

  • Educational Development: How are digital competencies embedded into the educational curriculum and how do they impact teaching practices. 

  • Support and Competency Development: What does digitalisation require in terms of support and competency development for teaching staff? How can it be organized? 

Join us for an exploration of digital competence and its implications for the future. 

Register now!

When: 03 October 2024

Where: AULAEN, Building 1412, Nordre Ringgade 4, 8000 Aarhus & Vandrehallen and Aarhus University Conference Centre

Any questions? Contact Savhannah Schulz 

Keynotes

Perspectives on Digitalisation in Danish Higher Education, Mikkel Leihardt

The cross-institutional Digital Curriculum Project has since 2020 been funded by the Danish Ministry of Education and Science. We are therefore happy to announce that Mikkel Leihardt, Director General for the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science, will deliver the opening remarks at the conference. He will be setting the stage for the conference by highlighting the important issues facing higher education in Denmark in light of the ongoing digitalization of society. Through his talk, we will learn more about how the ministry has worked to put digital competencies on the national agenda, and what are seen as relevant future strategic efforts.

Educating towards digital citizenship, Peter Lauritsen

Teaching digital competencies involves more than just developing relevant professional skills. It also encompasses a societal and civic dimension, requiring that students gain the ability to understand and engage thoughtfully and proactively with digital issues that extend beyond their core expertise. 

In his keynote, Peter Lauritsen, Professor in Science and Technology Studies and Center Director of SHAPE, will explore how digitalization is not only a matter of acquiring job-related technical skills but also includes the capability to reflect on and respond to broader digital challenges. He will discuss strategies for fostering digital citizenship through education, emphasizing the importance of integrating both technical and civic competencies to prepare individuals for active and informed participation in a digital society. 

What should every student learn about digital methods? Mads Rosendahl Thomsen

Over the past decade, digital humanities has had a varied impact, both across and within disciplines. However, a clearer understanding is emerging regarding the essential methods and resources that students should be introduced to. Additionally, there is growing insight into how educators can enhance student engagement by integrating their own research into teaching. In this talk, I will draw on examples from comparative literature to illustrate how disciplines can evolve—rather than undergo a revolution—through multiple levels of engagement with digital research methods.

From Concept to Cloud, Kristoffer Nielbo

Embedding digital competencies in educational programs places new demands on technical infrastructure, support, and competency development amongst educators. The variety of the technological landscape and associated legal issues call for ongoing reflection, exchange of experiences, and cross-institutional collaboration. 

In his keynote, Kristoffer Nielbo, Director of the Centre for Humanities Computing, will discuss how him and his group are navigating this problem space and are pioneering digital solutions for research-based teaching in the Humanities and the Social Sciences.

Shaping the digital curriculum in a time of generative AI, Tina Bering Keiding & Niels Lehmann

New research methods and questions, emerging alongside generative AI, demand a rethinking and adaptation of the curriculum in educational programs. This applies to the competencies students should acquire and how generative AI can be embedded into the curriculum to enable students to build the desired competencies. 

In their keynote, Niels Lehmann and Tina Bering Keiding will address this complex problem space and unpack how the digital curriculum is shaped by generative AI but also will be shaped through collegial competence development, curricular models, and leadership.



Programme

9.45-10.15 Registration, Coffee, and Croissants 
10.15-10.25 Welcome 
Vice-Dean Niels Lehmann, Faculty of Arts, Aarhus University
10.25-10.50

Perspectives on Digitalisation in Danish Higher Education
Mikkel Leihardt, Director General for the Danish Agencyfor Higher Education and Science

10.50-11.20

What should every student learn about digital methods?
Prof. Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, Center for Language Generation and AI (CLAI)

11.20-11.35

Break

11.35-12.05 From Concept to Cloud: Pionering digital solutions for research-based teaching in the Humanities and the Social Sciences
Prof. Kristoffer Nielbo, Center for Humanities Computing (CHC)
12.05-12.35 Shaping the digital curriculum in a time of generative AI
Tina Bering Keiding, Head of Curriculum Development, Centre for Educational Development & Niels Lehmann, Vice-Dean, Faculty of Arts, Aarhus University
12.35-13.40 Lunch
13.45-16.00 Parallel Sessions (see Track information below)
16.00-17.30  Closing Reception & Networking
with Refreshments and Snacks

Afternoon Tracks

Track 1: Research Integration in Education

Moderator: Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, Director of Center for Language Generation and AI (CLAI)
Location: M2.3

Digitalisation creates new research objectives, questions, and methods. If education is to remain up-to-date, a decision must be made on the extent to which digitisation of research should be integrated into the educational programs. The session provides examples of how digitalisation of research has influenced and challenged the existing research integration in education. Furthermore, it is discussed how digitalisation of research contributes to essential labour market competencies.

Track 2: Curriculum development

Moderator: Tina Bering Keiding, Head of Curriculum Development, Center for Educational Development
Location: Richard Mortensen Stuen

New research methods and questions, alongside emerging stakeholder expectations, demand a rethinking and adaption of the curriculum in educational programs. This applies both to the digital competencies students should acquire and how digital elements are embedded into the curriculum to enable students to build the desired competencies. The session provides models and examples of how educational programs have worked on their curriculum to cultivate a new digital profile.

Track 3: Subject specific digital methods in teaching

Moderator: Dorte Sidelmann Rossen, Special Consultant, Centre for Educational Development
Location: Preben Hornungsstuen

The shift from utilising digital methods and tools in research to integrating and conveying them in teaching can pose significant challenges. This pertains to the structuring of teaching and the subsequent learning process for students, as well as the practical implementation of teaching. The session provides examples of different didactic approaches that educators have used in their own teaching and the opportunities and challenges they have experienced.

Track 4: Technical support and Competency Development

Moderator: Kristoffer Nielbo, Director of Center for Humanities Computing (CHC)
Location: 1483-5th floor 

Embedding digital competencies in educational programs places new demands on technical infrastructure, support, and competency development amongst educators. The variety of the technological landscape and associated legal issues call for ongoing reflection, exchange of experiences, and cross-institutional collaboration. The session provides examples of how technical support and technological infrastructures have been developed and organized in the project.


Lessons from the Past on Urban Resilience, Izabela Romanowska

Cities are on track to become the primary environment for human groups – a process that started millennia ago and is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. They are also known for their spectacular tendency to collapse, sometimes taking whole empires down with them. Archaeology provides us with the longest and most comprehensive record of urban activity, evolution, and decline, but it's a record that has not yet been explored to its full potential. To understand the complex processes and webs of interactions that shape the ups and downs of urban dynamics, we need vast amounts of humanities data and robust formal methods. 

In this keynote, Izabela Romanowska, Senior Researcher at CHC, will dive into the world of humanities' big(gish) data and computational methods that allow us to draw lessons on urban resilience from the past that are directly applicable to the present. She will discuss aggregating large comparative datasets across continents and millennia, using top-notch simulation methods, and counteracting the common view of the past as a collection of interesting yet largely irrelevant anecdotes. In the process, Izabela will introduce a recently launched ERC project "The Model City" and discuss why combining humanities skills and a computational toolkit is a winning formula to address some of the biggest challenges we face nowadays.