Asked why he has decided to increasingly digitalize his teaching practice, Ulrich Krühne’s answer isn’t hard to understand. Because students want it, and because digitalization—including an avatar of Ulrich Krühne—will eventually free up a lot of time that Ulrich Krühne can spend on more individual guidance.
“An avatar is perfect for delivering lectures because it’s designed to present the same content over and over again, while I can spend my time offering individual guidance to many more students,” explains Ulrich Krühne.
The avatar hasn't been developed yet. However, Ulrich Krühne and his colleagues have produced six videos that guide students in the correct use of six of the more than thirty pilot installations that make up DTU Chemical Engineering’s Pilot Plant.
According to Lars D. Christoffersen, Dean of Studies and Student Affairs at DTU, Ulrich Krühne’s teaching practice is a concrete example of how the use of new technology can benefit students.
“With his digital initiatives, Ulrich Krühne is demonstrating how digitalization can be used by lecturers to strengthen learning and the building of competences among students. This is in line with DTU’s mission to develop and create value using the natural and technical sciences to benefit society, and very important in a digitized world,” he says.
Have good ideas, need programmer
The videos are played on flatscreens next to the six pilot installations, but the students can also watch them online, and the videos are only the beginning of the digitalization journey, according to Ulrich Krühne.
“The idea is to create a curriculum-based computer game that is so good that the students will not only play it because they have to, but because they want to and because it’s fun,” he explains.
The game will feature a virtual copy of the Pilot Plant, where students can practise using the various installations and preferably make a lot of mistakes that they can learn from before starting to use the actual Pilot Plant.
“However, you have to be able to code in Unity if you want to create a computer game, and unfortunately I can’t, so I’m looking for a skilled programmer,” adds Ulrich Krühne.
For Ulrich Krühne, digitalization is both an important tool for engaging students and an opportunity to make sure they are better prepared for their exams.
“We’re introducing more and more digital initiatives within the teaching of chemical engineering. For example, I hold diploma courses where students learn to programme. When programming, they work with the curriculum in a different way, which makes them perform better at their exams,” he explains.
As a new initiative, students will also be using artificial intelligence (AI) to practise conducting audits. An audit involves investigating whether a company’s or institution’s products, services, working methods, etc. meet a number of specific quality requirements.
The AI being used was developed by Ulrich Krühne and his colleagues, and they call it a ChatGMP—GMP being short for Good Manufacturing Practice. The students ask the ChatGMP questions as if it were the executive officer of a company, and the answers give them an insight into what information you can access during an audit.
“The students will be able to try out a lot of different approaches to auditing, and they will learn how audits work in the real world, preparing them for the day when they—as graduate engineers—will be conducting audits at real workplaces,” says Ulrich Krühne.
