News

20/12/2023 New Publication

Happy to announce a new publication by Helen Jossberger and Miriama Schlachtová entitled "Specialists’ views on feedback at the medical workplace", which was published in the Australian Journal of Adult Learning. If you are interested in reading the article please find it here.

Abstract

The present study aimed to explore the role of feedback in the medical workplace in the domain of radiology. Feedback is considered essential for learning, performance, and professional development, as it helps to build knowledge and skills, to correct errors, and to provide safe and autonomous patient care. Fifteen specialists were interviewed about what role feedback played in their own professional development. Moreover, we enquired about how they interact with residents and how they provide feedback in their daily work. Content analysis was used to categorise participants’ answers. Results show that specialists see feedback as an omnipresent phenomenon at the workplace and perceive it as central to training. Feedback is usually provided face-to-face to reinforce and transfer knowledge, improve domain-specific knowledge, reduce mistakes, improve the outcome for the patient, change behaviour patterns, or increase social skills. Although feedback at the workplace was considered important for professional development, physicians stressed that there is often not enough time to discuss performance and possibilities for performance improvements. Forming tandems between less and more experienced physicians, so that learning becomes more embedded in medical practice and work activities might be a facilitating condition at the workplace.

Coming up

20/11/2023 Impressions from Turku

Currently, our Double Degree students, Sophia Wäldele, Ellen Heimburger, Veronika Süß and Chantal Bogutz are enjoying their semester abroad at University of Turku. Thanks for sharing some beautiful pictures!

Goodbye

Johanna Reill, Rieke Breffka, Sophia Wäldele and Agnes Müller, thanks a lot for your valuable contributions and being part of our team for the past years. We wish you all the best for your future careers and hope to stay in touch. You are always most welcome to drop by!

Welcome to Regensburg

We warmly welcome Richard Göllner at the University of Regensburg. For the forthcoming year, he will be the acting chair, teaching in the Bachelor and Master Educational Science, and supporting the research team. Have a smooth start and an inspiring time with us!

06/10/2023 EARLI Centre for Excellence in Research (E-CER)

We, Dorothy Duchatelet (Open Universiteit), Andreas Rausch (University of Mannheim) and Helen Jossberger, are grateful and honoured that the review committee has accepted our E-CER application. Starting from the 1st of January 2024, our E-CER group can start its activities. The E-CER initiative is aimed to stimulate excellence in research in an international context. Our group can meet twice a year for a period of four years. We are happy to have Halszka Jarodzka (Open Universiteit), Charlott Sellberg (University of Gothenburg), David Gijbels (University of Antwerp), Piet van den Bossche (University of Antwerp/Maastricht University), Marcella Hoogeboom (University of Twente), and Bas Kollofel (University of Twente) in the team. We look forward to collaborating and sharing our findings.

Partial Retirement

Time flies. Enjoy the partial retirement. We keep in touch!

28/08/2023 JURE and EARL Conference

In August, the 27th JURE 2023 Pre-Conference invited Junior Researchers from around the world to engage in compelling discussions on educational research. Immediately after this vibrant meeting, the 20th Biennial EARLI Conference took place. The conferences were hosted by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the University of Macedonia. This year, the conference theme was "Education as a Hope in Uncertain Times". Barbara Hrabetz, Stefan Hanus, Simon Schmidt, Helen Jossberger and Hans Gruber participated actively and profited from meeting academic colleagues from across the globe in Thessaloniki (Greece). Check out the programme if you want to learn more about the contributions. Thanks a lot for this inspiring and well-organised event!

31/05/2023 New Publication

Happy to announce a new publication by Isabell Stein, Helen Jossberger and Hans Gruber entitled "MAP3D: An explorative approach for automatic mapping of real-world eye-tracking data on a virtual 3D model", which was published in the Journal of Eye Movement Research. If you are interested in reading the open access article please find it here.

Abstract

Mobile eye tracking helps to investigate real-world settings, in which participants can move freely. This enhances the studies’ ecological validity but poses challenges for the analysis. Often, the 3D stimulus is reduced to a 2D image (reference view) and the fixations are manually mapped to this 2D image. This leads to a loss of information about the three-dimensionality of the stimulus. Using several reference images, from different perspectives, poses new problems, in particular concerning the mapping of fixations in the transition areas between two reference views. A newly developed approach (MAP3D) is presented that enables generating a 3D model and automatic mapping of fixations to this virtual 3D model of the stimulus. This avoids problems with the reduction to a 2D reference image and with transitions between images. The x, y and z coordinates of the fixations are available as a point cloud and as .csv output. First exploratory application and evaluation tests are promising: MAP3D offers innovative ways of post-hoc mapping fixation data on 3D stimuli with open-source software and thus provides cost-efficient new avenues for research.

26/04/2023 SimPro Conference in Gothenburg

The third international conference on analysing practices and advancing pedagogies for professional learning (SimPro 2023) was held in Gothenburg on the 26th of April 2023. In his presentation entitled “Examining the transfer from simulation to patient: perspectives from a novel approach to teach airway management”, Stefan Hanus introduced the design of a planned empirical study aiming at investigating the transfer of skills learned in a simulated environment to real-life patients. The SimPro conference was focussed on bringing together research on simulation-based training from several professional domains. Researchers from Sweden, Norway, and Germany participated. The conference was held in a free hybrid format so that educators, researchers, practitioners, and students in simulation-based training could join. More information about the programme and the conference can be found here.

26/04/2023 Workshop at the HNPW

Helen Jossberger was involved in an interactive workshop entitled “Training the Next Generation of Humanitarian Workers Through University Simulation Exercises - An Interactive Workshop” that was organised by Marie Goss and Alicia Schumann (OTH Regensburg) at the Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks (HNPW) in Geneva. The HNPW is an annual event where humanitarian networks and partnerships organize meetings to inform about, and further advance related activities, and to collaborate with other networks and partnerships in areas of common concern. The objective of the workshop was to elaborate on the function of university simulation exercises like GLOBE in equipping next-generation humanitarians with important skills as well as competencies and in recruiting them for the humanitarian sector. In her presentation, Helen talked about the potential of simulations for learning followed by an engaging discussion with the audience. Here you can find more information about the programme and the conference.

13/02/2023 New Publication

Klaus D. Stiller, Silke Schworm, and Hans Gruber jointly contributed a chapter entitled “Learning with and from illustrations: Cognitive, motivational, affective, social and metacognitive processes” to a book edited by Dominic E. Delarue and Christoph Wagner (Institute of History of Art at the University of Regensburg). The book is a collection of essays from the “Sehen und Verstehen Alliance of the University of Regensburg”, an interdisciplinary network focusing on visualisations, visual artifacts and visual processes.

Abstract of the chapter: Illustrations are an essential component of all kinds of learning material. Although there is a long empirical tradition of investigating learning with illustrations, the research has been primarily based on cognitive theories. Two influential theories that continue to advance the literature is the Cognitive Load Theory and the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning. More recently, research has also focussed on motivational, affective and social processes that are triggered or influenced by illustration design and thus can affect learning processes, but studies in this area are limited. In this paper, we introduce an integrative theory of learning with media that builds on the two cognitive theories, discuss how illustrations affect learning by evoking and supporting cognitive, motivational, affective, social and metacognitive processes, report empirical evidence and present examples of how it can be put into practice.

27/01/2023 New Publication

Anja Taylor, Helen Jossberger and Hans Gruber published an article entitled "Purposeful practice as the key to superior sales performance: An exploratory analysis" in the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice. Interested readers can find the article here.

Abstract

Although sales performance is well researched, relatively little is known about what salespeople actively do to improve and achieve superior reproducible performance. We extend existing research by examining purposeful practice, a core concept from expertise research, as a potential contribution to skill development in sales, a heretofore unexplored framework. The exploratory research sets out for a better understanding of purposeful sales practice and potential activities that successful professionals engage in for self-improvement using a sequential two-phase research approach. By comparing different expertise level groups, particular characteristics of expert performance are identified and can be used so less-skilled salespeople become better.