Einleitung

Potentials of Digitally Guided Excursions at Universities Illustrated Using the Example of an Urban Geography Excursion in Stuttgart

“…Overall, the digital format of the excursion can be considered a success, as 72.4% of the participants stated that they would like to participate in digital excursions in this or similar formats more often. Reasons for this are consistent with findings from other publications (among others Witt and Gloerfeld 2018 ; Arnold et al 2018 ): increased flexibility, autonomy, the opportunity to explore places independently and not being dependent on the pace of a large group and the explanations of an excursion leader. In contrast, 27.6% of the students were rather less convinced by the digital excursion: while 15.5% of the participants accepted the digital excursion only as an alternative during the pandemic-related restrictions, 12.1% of the students stated that they missed the guidance of lecturers who were available for questions.…”

“…With this in mind, digital excursions do not only offer themselves as an advantageous format in times of digital teaching and distance regulations during COVID-related restrictions. Rather, field trips in a digital format offer solutions to the challenges of classical overview excursions in frontal style teaching which were already mentioned: the use of mobile devices contributes to an increased flexibility, as it allows students to plan the implementation individually, independent of time, and thus allowing the adaptation to individual timetables and focal points of interest (among others Arnold et al 2018 , p. 9; Witt and Gloerfeld 2018 , p. 2). This applies in particular to the presented example as students have the possibility to choose from thematically different app-guided stations.…”

“…In recent years, the development of digital and mobile teaching content in schools and at universities has increased significantly (cf. Witt and Gloerfeld 2018 , p. 1) and has received a further boost by the impacts of the Corona virus pandemic. In addition to supplementary digital learning materials, as well as digital teaching and lecture videos, digital and virtual field trips have attracted particular interest in geography (for school students a.o.…”