Digital Education Ecosystem (DEE) for a Virtual Master School

Abstract

Master Schools are an organizational pattern for systems of interlinked Master’s programmes which can be run by different higher education institution (HEI), even in different countries. Such Master Schools focus on a specific topic which couldn’t be addressed sufficiently by one Master’s programme or one HEI – both in terms of capacity and in terms of competence. Joining forces in a Master School gives the HEIs the chance to build an attractive educational portfolio which comes along with a special learning experience – interdisciplinary, intercultural and international. This paper is based on the case study of a cross-border Master School which is experiencing the digital transformation. Digital tools and methods provide the chance to integrate the Master School even deeper and to open up the learning and teaching experience to more people. One – already ongoing - aspect is the digital transformation, support and augmentation of the existing international exchange concept. Nevertheless, a comprehensive digital transformation of the content, delivery and community has to go goes beyond this. It transforms the way competences are delivered and received. To support this, the Master School is put on the new base of a fully digital ecosystem – this contribution calls it a Digital Education Ecosystem (DEE). This includes a cross-border IT infrastructure, but also new didactic formats, new ways of content and knowledge production, and finally new virtual student journeys and new, individualized processes of competence development. The paper aims at developing the structure, taxonomy and nomenclature of the DEE by describing the concepts implemented in the case study.