This research-to-practice full paper proposes a structured approach to cooperatively develop, review, and employ open educational resources (OER) for pre-service teachers focusing on computer ethics and digital competences. The rapidly progressing digital and social transformation requires students as well as teachers and staff to adapt their teaching and learning. While this holds true for the vast majority of educational contexts, (pre-service) teachers are particularly challenged into acquiring digital skills and almost at the same time passing on the respective knowledge and digital skills to their students. Understandably, pre-service teachers long for reliable, easily accessible resources that they could use in class to effectively support them in preparing their students for their future jobs and lives. The current paper presents the authors' student-centered approach to developing OER on computer ethics with emphasis on including students in all phases of the development and testing of the OER, sparking students to measurably advance their digital competences. To provide accessible, high-quality resources, the focus will be on presenting the student-centered quality assurance approach we introduced while testing the OER in class and improving them based on secondary-level students' feedback. Methodologically, this paper employs the cyclic participatory research approach, which involves analyzing students' reflections and feedback, the researcher's personal observations throughout the process, the feedback of secondarylevel students during the pilot testing in the classroom, as well as the perceptions of the master students implementing the OER in a lesson in class. As a result, this study presents a set of OER developed in a student-centered manner, specifically designed to meet the needs of pre-service and early career teachers. Furthermore, the paper suggests and reflects a genuinely student-centered process of developing, evaluating, and improving OER. It aims to inspire educators, staff, educational researchers, course designers, administrators, (pre-service) teachers and interested tertiary-level students to constructively and collaboratively engage in a learner-centered development of OER and thereby support our society's learning and democratic living with the digital transformation.

This research-to-practice full paper showcases the integration of AI-enhanced game-based learning in an IT project management course, aimed at improving students' Agile project management skills. We provide a qualitative analysis of students' reflections on teamwork in the IT project management course, alongside standardized course feedback. Students collaborate in teams of 5–7 on self-selected topics, creating coarse prototypes. The analysis revealed key success factors in teamwork, including effective communication, apportionment of work, regular meetings, and high motivation. Barriers included poor time management, unproductive meetings, external obligations, and absenteeism. Course feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with students valuing the course structure, atmosphere, and lecturer. Suggestions for improvement focused on workload reduction. Then, from these 48 teamwork reflections, we identify requirements for developing an AI-enhanced game-based project simulation platform. The main goal of the platform is to enhance the Agile skills of the students. The course and prototype serve as valuable resources for educators and curriculum designers, with future work focusing on student evaluation and further AI integration.

This research-to-practice full paper explores the effectiveness of coaching interventions with the goal of enhancing teamwork and project management skills among students in higher education. The paper reviews related studies on coaching practices aimed at developing students' professional skills as part of their higher education. It proceeds by investigating computer science students' perspectives on selected team coaching interventions. These build upon agile practices are targeted at facilitating and accelerating students becoming professional and productive - a ubiquitous need in the industry. To assess the efficacy of introducing team coaching in a project management course of the faculty of computer science at a large mid-European university, the researchers employed a method triangulation consisting of a pre-survey, focus groups, and retrospectives. The pre-survey assessed students' prior experience with teamwork, perception of project success factors, and interest in coaching interventions. Besides conducting a one-hour coaching workshop for all course participants, two out of eight student-teams expressed particular interest in participating in regular coaching sessions conducted remotely and in-person throughout the semester. The coaching sessions introduced students to various frameworks and approaches, including the Tuckman stages of team development, and focused on improving communication, organization, and task distribution within teams. Regular retrospectives allowed teams to reflect on their progress, identify areas for improvement, and implement action items for the next milestone. At the end of the semester, in-person retrospectives and focus groups illuminated students' experiences and preferences regarding coaching and teamwork. Results of the study indicate that optional team coaching interventions have the potential to improve students' team projects, application of agile practices, teamwork, and organizational competencies, given that students are open and willing to invest their time. Thus, this paper seeks to build a basis from which to spark curriculum designers, educators, educational researchers, and administrators to consider ways to include targeted team coaching interventions into undergraduate computing curricula.

The goal of this research full paper is to provide insight into most recent findings of interviews with faculty members teaching digital skills in an integrated and innovative way embedded into courses on subject didactics of a teacher education program. Pre-studies analyzing students' perspectives regarding the inclusion of digital competences in the teacher education program of a large Central-European university revealed that less than half of the students who were at an advanced stage in their studies felt sufficiently prepared to impart digital competences in their daily teaching. Given the importance of being digitally competent in the modern, digital era, the question arises, how digital competences can be sustainably included in the curriculum of a teacher education program. This paper analyzes interviews with five faculty members successfully teaching digital skills in concert with subject didactics of Geography in order to identify best practices for the integration of digital competences. The first author asked our Interview Partners to provide insight into the content they mediated, the integration of digital competences and tools in their courses, how their teaching could be further improved, and what challenges they encounter. Eventually, we looked for best practices and collected instructors' thoughts on improvements on a curricular level and examples of transferring the good practices to other subjects, such that future students could benefit from a better integration of digital competences. For this paper, we analyzed the data with a mixture of narrative analysis and thematic analysis. Improving the mediating of digital skills and competences in a wider range of subjects at the university level should eventually help students, and ultimately their students, to implement digital know-how such as modern teaching tools into their courses, making teaching more effective and computational thinking as well as related fields of computing more accessible to academic as well as secondary and younger students. The research so far has shown promising results considering examples of tools that can be used on a broad spectrum of subjects and lead to a factor of learned new digital competences if used properly. On the other hand, lecturers also warned about relying too much on technology in specific tasks such as orientation on a map or analyzing statistical data. We conclude that combining existing approaches with new, more modern didactics can be the key to transferring the competencies required for our students' future.

The goal of this research-to-practice full paper is to present current findings of the evaluation of a learner-centered course on IT project management aiming to foster digital skills along with professional competencies and share derived good practices. The 21st century and the ongoing digitization pose new challenges to the workforce and, in particular, young professionals in the IT sector. Digital skills, personal skills, and interpersonal skills have never been more relevant, which especially applies to project teams of the IT sector. This paper uses a qualitative content analysis of students' teamwork reflection forms to identify success factors and barriers of teamwork in the 21st century from the perspective of 42 students of a learner-centered course on IT project management as part of the computer science bachelor degree program of a large mid-European university. Within this context, the present study carried out in the summer term 2022 utilized four research instruments: a pre-course questionnaire, a teamwork reflection form, a standardized course evaluation survey, and an analysis of the teams' performance. The results show that students predominantly relied on online collaboration during self-regulated working phases, whereby “interpersonal skills” and “communication” were the most frequently mentioned success factors. The standardized course feedback revealed that students were satisfied with the course, scoring a mean rating of 1.5 on a scale from 1 (very good) to 5 (very bad). Positive feedback revolved around the attitude of the lecturer, the provided freedom, and teamwork. Based on the course experience, the paper proposes six recommendations for modern student-centered project management courses. We conclude that developing interpersonal skills should go hand in hand with a high quality of interacting with digital tools and be emphasized in managing students' IT-projects for which the described course is intended to serve as a source of inspiration for instructors, study directors, and curriculum designers.

The aim of our paper is to provide good practices for teaching data science to non-computer science students and find out how we can motivate female students to take MINT (Mathematics, Computer science, Natural science and Technology) classes. The analyzed data science course is offered at University of Vienna in the Business Analytics, Data Science, and Digital Humanities faculties as part of the masters' programs. In this work, we outline the course structure and present findings gained through teaching it. Moreover, we highlight the main differences between the editions of the course. Anonymous surveys, grade analysis, and student interviews, show that female students achieved the same learning outcomes as their male peers in all the terms as measured by the total score and all three sub-scores, namely the project submission, the mid-term quiz, and the final quiz. In 2020 and 2021, no significant differences could be found in student performance by their attended study program. In 2022, a difference could be found in the midterm exam; however, no significant difference could be found in the final exam and the project work, indicating that the course was able to harmonize the learners' diverse background. This suggests that the diverse learning opportunities offered in this course fit the individual needs of students of different backgrounds, which increases the accessibility of the data science field among non-computer science students. We propose the course as described in this paper as a good practice of teaching 21st century digital skills in a studentcentered way and conclude the paper with five recommendations.

This research full paper is concerned with the question, in how far advanced pre-service teachers at the University of Vienna feel ‘fit’ to mediate digital skills as part of their instruction at secondary levels K5–K8. While the digital transformation is progressing rapidly, digital skills have become indispensable for all stakeholders in the educational field. To address this issue, we composed an online questionnaire consisting of closed- and open-ended questions. It was distributed among 4,054 students of the teacher education degree program and generated 322 full responses. In the survey, the students were asked to state their opinion on the integration of digital competencies in their attended teacher education degree program and how to improve it. With the use of qualitative content analysis (QCA), we analyzed which competencies and tools they missed the most in their studies or had to acquire on their own.The results of this mixed methods study indicate a lack of essential digital skills in the studies of most students, and that they feel a lack of preparation for the challenges to come as a teacher in the modern world. Moreover, most students agree that they had to acquire more than 75% of the required digital competencies on their own and pointed out the skills and tools they required the most throughout their study program or during their work as a teacher. Yet, some students report good practices in use in elective courses and in courses of various subject didactics. The paper provides a short overview of which digital competencies students wish most to be covered in their studies, including a truly professional handling of MS Teams and other tools such as learning apps, response systems, and tools for issuing learning materials and quizzes. As much as we value students’ capacities for self-learning in the digital sphere, we conclude with implications for a thoughtful integration of digital skills in teacher education programs to optimally prepare students for tomorrow’s challenges.

The aim of this research-to-practice full paper is to present the results of most recent analyses of the long-term school pilot project named "learning office approach". The learning office represents an alternative branch of a technology-oriented vocational secondary school in Europe encompassing the grades K9–K13 and has been implemented at the IT department in 2016. Students of a learning office cohort have flexible course schedules allowing them to choose between several subjects on a daily basis, which in turn enables differentiation and individualization: Students seeking help or striving to deepen their knowledge and skills may visit chosen subjects more often. Since learning office subjects do not rely on lectures and direct instruction, teachers become facilitative coaches helping students become self-responsible learners and study in a self-driven, self-directed way, which in turn fosters their 21stcentury skills.The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting emergency remote teaching strategies demonstrated the supreme importance of digital competences and self-efficacy: Students were abruptly required to work autonomously with digital systems and study at home in a self-driven way. Since the learning office heavily relies on students working with digital educational material and tools in a self-directed and student-centered way, the question arises if learners show indications of increased ICT competences and self-efficacy in the learning office.This paper evaluates the interplay of students’ self-reported ICT skills, school-specific self-efficacy, and academic performance in the learning office approach and traditional classrooms. Based on an extensive literature review, a questionnaire was developed and distributed among all 552 students of the grades 9–13 and students’ final grades of the winter term 2021/22 were analyzed. The results show a significant increase in self-perceived problem coping skills and ICT competences in the learning office approach, including the sub-scales "general ICT self-concept", "communication", "process and store", and "generate content". We conclude that technology-enhanced student-centered approaches, such as the learning office, are a viable method to foster students’ 21stcentury digital skills.

This Full Paper in the Research-To-Practice Category illustrates what an online survey of students’ opinions reveals about students’ perceived learning and take-away from a course on Data Science. The course is offered at University of Vienna in the Business Analytics, Data Science, and Digital Humanities faculties as part of the masters’ programs. In this work, we outline the course structures, goals, modules, and present preliminary findings gained while teaching the course. Due to the global pandemic and resulting lock-downs, the course was held online, hence, we also analyze the effects of the current situation on the students.The results revealed that the structure of the course is appreciated by the students. Furthermore, the students liked the open source software taught in the course where they can create visual workflows with an intuitive, drag-and-drop style graphical interface, without the need for coding. The results also confirmed our hypothesis which showed that working in groups is more complex and difficult using online tools. We learn that the instructor-generated technique for forming the groups assigning to each group students with different backgrounds, lead to teams that are able to solve problems faster as they are more cognitively diverse. These findings confirm that the approach used in the Data Science course is viable for teaching computer science skills to non computer-scientist and can be used by other educational institutions.

This Research to Practice Full Paper investigates the impact of longer-term distance learning on the self-driven, student-centered learning office approach compared to traditional classrooms. The learning office is a school pilot project of a vocational secondary school (grades 9–13) introduced in 2016. Following the principles of learner-centered education, learning office students study in a self-driven way using flexible class schedules and self-explanatory course material. For the present study, we evaluated the average grade of all 548 students in both approaches upon the completion of the winter term 2020/21 and compared it to the data of the winter term 2019/20. Furthermore, we conducted an anonymous survey answered by 99 students allowing to gain insight into the students' perspective on online learning. The results revealed a significant shift in the location parameter of the average grade at the grades 9, 10, and 13 in the winter term 2020/21. The comparison of the grades of 2021 with the previous year showed that the average grade did not change significantly or has improved in the learning office. The average grading of the traditional approach has stayed at about the same level. These counter-intuitive findings, which may be a result of milder grading due to the challenging situation, are consistent with previous research found in the literature. The survey on emergency remote teaching revealed that the students did not report difficulties maintaining social contacts, were more satisfied with the used assessment methods in distance learning, had a quiet workspace, and felt that the teachers reacted appropriately to the switch to online learning. Learning office students reportedly saw the switch to online learning less difficult, felt more self-reliant, and perceived higher levels of support and appreciation by their teachers, but suffered from less cooperation compared to previous findings. We therefore conclude that while learning office students perform equally well in online learning, they are missing important advantages in distance learning otherwise granted by the self-directed learning office approach.

This Research to Practice Full Paper presents the results of the third evaluation of the learning office approach, an alternative, self-driven branch introduced at the information technology department of an Austrian higher vocational upper secondary school encompassing grades 9 to 13 (K9-13). Learning office students benefit from a flexible class schedule, which allows them to choose time and depth for most school subjects and helps students develop valuable 21stcentury skills.The results revealed a highly significantly lower variance of the grade point average in the learning office at grade 12 and a ratio of sample variances of 3.534. Expert interviews held with ten teachers showed that the most mentioned advantages of the learning office approach were an improved self-reliance of the students, enabling individualization, and supporting weaker students. Furthermore, the teachers rated the learning office as the most promising approach of a set of 14 selected methods of learning. A course evaluation conducted with one learning office cohort showed that the structure of the chosen learning office subject was rated significantly better than the structure of the selected traditional subject. Finally, students of the learning office revealed a significantly lower number of absent lab days at grade 12 and a significant correlation between absent lab days and the grade point average was discovered. The findings confirm the learning office as viable approach to 21stcentury education.

This Research to Practice Full Paper represents the second comprehensive evaluation of the learning office, a pilot project introduced at a higher technical secondary school. The project has reached its third year and encompasses six of our twelve cohorts from grade 9 to grade 11. Students taking part in the learning office project have a more flexible course schedule, allowing them to choose time and scope for almost all of their school subject with some restrictions. The results revealed that the dropout rate could be reduced from 54% to 40% in the learning office over the first two years and also confirmed previous evaluations showing that students choosing the learning office approach struggle in their first year due to the change of systems. However, after they passed the first year, the overall subject-specific learning outcome shows no noteworthy differences. The learning office students of grade 11 even slightly outperformed their control group in some regards. This suggests that once the learning office students adapted to the new system, their gain in transversal, personal, and social skills do not happen at the cost of subject-specific competences, but is an additional asset improving our students' qualification to meet the challenges of tomorrow.

eHealth has always been an interdisciplinary field and involves a variety of stakeholders coming from different working areas but have to collaborate for a greater goal. This setup can also be found in research projects and teams leading to the problem, that research data, measurements and other information - when not published - are often not stored permanently or not accessible for others or future tasks. In the age of knowledge data have been discovered as hidden and precious resources when putting them in new contexts - value can even be generated when not looking for it. This paper addresses the dynamic field of research, where the gathering of new knowledge is of special interest. The presented approach refers to an already existing laboratory infrastructure and aims to collect data from various linked resources. Therefore system requirements have been elaborated as well as a prototypical solution for setting up a platform that realises an integrated laboratory infrastructure. Having a central interface allows researchers to benefit from already available data resources. The solution is based on state-of-the-art-technologies which will also cover arising future demands.

This Research to Practice Full Paper depicts and evaluates a school pilot project introducing student-centered classrooms for applied mathematics and software development at a higher technical secondary school. These student-centered classrooms are an alternative organizational form: If students choose to participate in the pilot project, they have non-traditional class schedules. Students can choose freely which subject they want to work on each day and visit the respective room, called “learning office”. Self-explanatory learning material is available in each learning office and students work independently on exercises and projects at their own pace and level, allowing them to specialize according to their personal interests. Teachers accompany pupils as coaches who help them plan and structure.The evaluation showed that students choosing the student-centered form need time, about half a year, to adapt to the change of system and thus perform worse in their first attempt at exams. However, after passing the first year, there is no notable difference in software development and only a weakly significant difference in applied mathematics. The average grades and passing rate of the two approaches show no notable differences. By cooperating significantly more frequently they develop social skills and show significantly higher motivation for attending school.