Johannes Kretzschmar offering a digital photonics workshop.

Digital Teaching

Digital teaching is a vital part of our education concept.
Johannes Kretzschmar offering a digital photonics workshop.
Image: Anne Günther (University of Jena)

Digital Teaching at the Abbe School of Photonics

User Interface of the XRTL Adaptive Optics experiment.

User Interface of the XRTL Adaptive Optics experiment.

Screenshot: Fabian Lukas

Digitalization has finally become essential for excellence in future academic education, research and collaboration! Physical mobility can already be replaced by intelligent mobility – a mixture of physical and digital presence. At our school, a digital teaching team works at the frontier of this vision. Strong support and synergies are created by our collaboration with the excellent equipment and the experts of the Digital Teaching Lab of the Max Planck School of PhotonicsExternal link.

All our digital teaching activities fulfill a twofold purpose. On one hand, we provide support for our faculty in their basic teaching activities, including didactic and technical aspects of digital education, such as course design, technical realization and broadcasting. On the other hand, we are working on solutions for pertinent challenges of digital education, such as hybrid photonics laboratories at different locations.

Our Current Activities 

Pagination Page 1 of 63

More Digitalization Tools and Opportunities

  • An impression of teaching via the ASP lightboard.
    Image: Falko Sojka
    The digiPHOTON project (2020-2022) The digiPHOTON project was funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) from 2020 until 2022 and was a milestone for enabling studying remotely through digitalization of the M.Sc. Photonics program.
  • Screenshot of the Augmented Reality Fourier Optics App, available at every App Store.
    Image: Kids Interactive, 2023.
    Fourier Optics: Augmented Reality App on YOUR SmartphoneExternal link This App was built to teach the basics of Fourier Optics in combination with an according lab experiment. It is intended for undergraduate students in Physics, Photonics and Optical Sciences.
  • XRTL experiment sidview
    Image: Clara Henkel
    Build your own device in the Lichtwerkstatt!External link In order to facilitate remote students’ active participation in the laboratory experiments, a remotely controlled system was developed in close collaboration with the Lichtwerkstatt Jena. This development is ongoing and open for new ideas and extensions.
  • Demonstration of a virtual photonics lab.
    Image: Steffen Walther.
    AR and VR methods Essential parts of the research-oriented training and central laboratory internships are transferred to virtual rooms. Technology and interaction schemes from virtual and augmented reality are used. It is possible to enter laboratories virtually and complete the training modules without the need for a real presence.
  • ACP PI Prof. Malte Kaluza offering a hybrid lecture on ultrafast physics.
    Image: Jens Meyer (University of Jena)
    Hybrid Learning Solutions In addition to the streaming-ready lecture halls at our University, our digital team has installed additional conference systems in all seminar rooms of the ACP building to enable both students as well as lecturers to attend events remotely and interact with one another.
  • Jari Domke demonstrating ASP's streaming setup.
    Image: Falko Sojka
    Mobile Streaming Setup This Setup was made possible by the Max Planck School and allows to create an environment for studio quality records including Green Screen Technology in nearly every location.
  • Claudia Rödl explaining fundamental math concepts in a hybrid lecture.
    Image: Falko Sojka
    Studio for Educational Videos To prepare for unexpected terms of absence from daily studies, some core elements of the initial study phase like the Prep Course Math were recorded and edited to serve as backup learning material in case of lecture outages.
  • Prof. Rick Trebino (Georgia Tech University), winner of the 2019 SPIE Maria J. Yzuel Educator Award.
    Image: SPIE
    Open Photonics Lectures for EverybodyExternal link One of our prime collaborators is Prof. Rick Trebino (Georgia Tech University, Atlanta, USA), an international expert in ultrafast optics and spectroscopy. For quite some years, Prof. Trebino has been developing high-quality courses of PowerPoint lectures for four college-level optics and physics courses, complete with pictures, movies, animations, and derivations. This material is provided on his website and fully open to every student, teacher, and lecturer for use and distribution.
  • JOSDES 2022
    Graphic: Subham Adak
    Jena Online Symposium for Digital Education in STEM 2022 This exciting event was the first online conference on digital education held in the Gather.town twin of the Abbe Center of Photonics!
Fabian Lukas
Abbe Center of Photonics
Abbe Center of Photonics, Room 202
Albert-Einstein-Straße 6
07745 Jena Google Maps site planExternal link