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CATALPA new member of Leibniz Education Research Network
[03.04.2025]The CATALPA research center of the FernUniversität in Hagen was today accepted as a new member of the Leibniz Education Research Network (LERN). The network now comprises 28 institutions. LERN has set itself the task of increasing the visibility of the Leibniz Association in educational issues.
Photo: CATALPA
"CATALPA is already well known in our network and has been cooperating with various Leibniz institutes for several years. Membership of our network is therefore the next logical step. In the CATALPA living lab, the combination of technical expertise – artificial intelligence, immersive technology and learning analytics – with the learning sciences is an ideal basis for meeting the challenges of transforming the education system, and thus also a benefit for the Leibniz Association as a whole," emphasized Prof. Dr. Marcus Hasselhorn, Chairman of the LERN speaker group. At the 26th LERN General Assembly on April 2 at the RWI in Essen, the 27 LERN institutions unanimously decided to accept CATALPA as a new member.
Transfer targets for education
Prof. Dr. Marcus Specht, Head of the Learning Sciences in Higher Education research professorship at CATALPA, introduced the research center: "With a total of around 60 colleagues, we at CATALPA conduct research based on the living lab concept to improve higher education. With the help of prototypes, we quickly put scientific findings into practice and analyze and optimize them with further research," said Specht. "However, research in the living lab also makes a key contribution to theory development in social science fields. We look forward to intensify the exchange of ideas with other LERN members in the future. In a strong network, we can achieve greater visibility and more transfer targets for education."
The LERN network sees education as the cornerstone of professional success and social participation and wants to make better use of the potential of education and for education. Together, the researchers want to find starting points for reliable concepts and promising reforms at an individual, institutional and societal level. CATALPA with its living lab approach is a suitable addition to the network: with scalable results, the scientists want to use educational technologies in such a way that they offer students and teachers added value. The FernUniversität with its more than 70,000 digital students provides an excellent basis for analysis and application for the research center and its cooperation partners.
