University Network BASA-online successful for 20 Years

With BASA-online, it is possible to study social work part-time at one of eight universities in Germany. What makes it special: Digitalisation has been part of the concept since the programme was founded. Around three quarters of the Bachelor's degree programme can be completed online, with students coming to their university for around a quarter of the time.

"Our concept is truly unique and is based on student-centred teaching and the didactic style of learning coaching," says Professor Dr. Hedwig Griesehop, Managing Spokesperson of the BASA-online university network at ASH Berlin. This means, among other things: "Students have great flexibility; decide for themselves when and where they learn. And to promote dialogue, they usually come to the university once a month for a block course. This is the best way to combine work, private life and studies."

What makes the programme special

The degree programme is delivered via a digital learning platform. Students use it to communicate with each other and with their lecturers, receive study materials and exchange ideas in chats, forums and online meetings. In addition to traditional documents such as readers, multimedia content such as videos and podcasts are also offered as teaching material. It is also possible for students to be creative themselves: Students can try out new things in the BASA-online programme. For example, students at the University of Applied Sciences Munich created a film as the result of a seminar to didactically present social work topics.

"It's a real pleasure to see how committed our students are. Especially as many of them have exciting backgrounds: Most of them have been working in social work for years – but without a university degree. They now want to catch up. The students' many years of practical professional and life experience make the seminars and the dialogue particularly exciting and valuable. As a distance learning programme, we have over 20 years of specialist expertise, including designing online-based teaching-learning environments and teaching-learning settings and developing corresponding teaching concepts that have proven their worth," says Griesehop.

The success of the concept is also demonstrated by the steady increase in the number of universities offering the BASA-online (Social Work) programme of the same name. The programme was first launched in 2003 with the three founding universities, the University of Applied Sciences Fulda, the University of Applied Sciences Koblenz and the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam. Since then, further university locations have been added: University of Applied Sciences Münster (since 2004), University of Applied Sciences Munich (since 2007), University of Applied Sciences RheinMain (Wiesbaden location since 2008), Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences Berlin (ASH Berlin since 2010) and the University of Applied Sciences Kiel (2019).

Within this university network, the aforementioned universities jointly develop the online and face-to-face modules contained in all degree programmes, evaluate them and create updates. In this way, synergies from the merger of the various universities in the BASA online university network can be utilised. The universities are supported by the Centre for Distance Learning in the University Network (zfh) based in Koblenz.

H³ research project: More academic success through innovation

The further development of the study programme of the BASA-online university network also includes the successful acquisition of third-party funding for the HYFLEX, HIGHTECH & HIGHTOUCH (H³) project. The H³ project aims to rethink teaching/learning scenarios in the direction of hybrid-flexible variants, develop personalised, digitally supported learning paths, focus on the development of students' skills, use technical innovations and contribute to greater academic success. The project is funded by the Foundation for Innovation in Higher Education.

A joint ceremony will be held in 2024 to mark the 20th anniversary of the BASA-online university network and the final Project H³ conference.

Further information on the network and the content of the programme can be found at www.basa-online.de.