BU:LB - the Bergisch University Teaching Blog has been launched
The"Gute Lehre Blog" of Kiel University,"inno.teach - Der Blog für innovative Lehre" of Bielefeld University, the"Notizblog Lehre" of Freiburg University: if you look around a little, you will find well-organised and interesting blogs from German universities and colleges from north to south (you could just as well go from west to east). So why add another blog to this number?
Those who respond to this with the laconic remark that "that's what you get at a German university these days" are not entirely wrong from a statistical point of view, but in their latent cultural pessimism they also overlook the fact that the statistical fact has its deeper cause in a striking characteristic of university education. If you look at blogs of the type referenced above pars pro toto, you will quickly notice the local relevance of most posts. Of course, this is due in no small part to marketing or the desired self-presentation of the respective university or college (which is expressly nothing reprehensible - honour to whom honour is due, and all the more honour to those who perform their teaching duties particularly well). To another, by no means small extent, this is also an indirect consequence of the different framework conditions and local focuses of the posting locations. There are different campus licences, the hardware in the lecture halls comes from very different manufacturers, and some university and college locations generally emphasise the advantages of face-to-face teaching, while others are looking for a stronger future in hybrid teaching/learning settings. What has demonstrably produced good teaching/learning results at one university location and is rightly regarded there as a component or tool of so-called "good teaching" may fail spectacularly at another location, simply because the composition of the student body is different, the basic teaching philosophy of the faculties or the technical distribution of resources is different, etc. etc. - To cut a long story short: a blog that specifically addresses topics relating to teaching at the University of Wuppertal is justified.
Because that's what BU:LB is all about. The blog aims to provide low-threshold information about important news concerning teaching at BUW (e.g. new regulations, new lecture theatre equipment, new digital possibilities), but also to present examples of good practice in teaching. If the justified objection is raised at this point that all this information can already be provided in other places - official notices, house notices, newsletters from the Vice-Rector for Studies and Teaching or individual faculties: the author of this post fully agrees. However, the crucial point is that the information relating to teaching has so far been distributed across various channels and, at least in the case of the official announcements, has been formulated in a rather legalistic and sober manner with little concrete focus on teaching practice. The blog therefore sees itself as an option to draw attention to news (in case the reader has missed the crucial page in the last HM) and to provide supplementary information. Last but not least, the formal framework conditions for blog entries are more flexible than in the information options mentioned above. The blog's editors will have to find out exactly how flexible in the next few posts.
But why the acronym BU:LB? Admittedly, at least Western European marketing experts would throw up their hands in disbelief at the associated sound, and the author of this post, who is also a volunteer paramedic at the BUW, readily admits that he knows this sound from listening to patients with suspected acute abdomen. The abbreviation does not have to be carved in stone for all eternity; on the other hand ...... why not?
BU:LB is the acronym for Bergische Universität Lehre Blog and thus names the two decisive core aspects that should characterise this blog: it is a blog with a very strong focus on the Bergische Universität and it is a blog that relates exclusively to teaching. (The last B is self-explanatory). The acronym BLB for "Bergischer Lehre Blog" might have been interesting, but this is already in use by the Bau- und Liegenschaftsbetrieb NRW. (If that doesn't ring a bell: this is the state organisation that is responsible for all the construction sites on the main campus, among other things). Furthermore, as a university we must not overlook the fact that good teaching is also practised at schools in our beautiful city and it would be unfair to claim the L unquestioningly for the university sector. Ergo: BU:LB.
But the acronym has another background. BU:LB (or bulb) is one of the English-language terms that can be used to describe a light bulb. And the light bulb - as the reader will have guessed - is the classic graphic symbol for when a light comes on for someone, and don't we all want our students to see the light? It is not without reason that the mission statement teaching process has also chosen a light bulb (admittedly in a creatively symbolised form) as its icon and used it on posters and in the Moodle course. Since the mission statement teaching process and the establishment of this blog pursue the same goal, namely to further promote the enthusiasm of our teaching staff for teaching and to contribute to the success of good teaching through information and reflection, the choice of the acronym BU:LB is perhaps even consistent.
