“Mind Blowing”: Identifying Key Moments in Higher Education Teaching through a Learning Experience Design Framework

David Lohner

doi:10.20343/teachlearninqu.14.36

Authors

David Lohner Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.14.36

Keywords:

higher education teaching, learning experience design, critical incident, problem-centered interview

Abstract

The characteristics of “good” higher education teaching, especially in digital environments, are increasingly discussed through the lens of sustainable learning. This study investigates key moments that students identify as central to their higher education learning experiences and categorizes them into pedagogical, technical, and social dimensions using the Learning Experience Design (LXD) Framework. Utilizing problem-centered interviews analyzed both deductively and inductively, the findings highlight that the social dimension—including fostering a trusting, low-hierarchy learning environment and engaging in dialectical discussions—is crucial for sustainable learning experiences. In addition, students reported enhanced motivation based on perceived flexibility in choosing learning materials and assessment methods. These results emphasize the pivotal role of social interactions and the learning atmosphere in digital higher education, offering practical insights for promoting deep and lasting learning in higher education didactics.

Author Biography

David Lohner, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

David Lohner (Germany) is didactician and learning experience designer at the National Institute for Science Communication (NaWik) as well as manager of the German Association for Academic Development (dghd). He pursues a PhD at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

References

Autor:innengruppe AEDiL. 2021. Corona-Semester reflektiert - Einblicke einer kollaborativen Autoethnographie. Innovative Hochschule: digital - international - transformativ. wbv. https://www.wbv.de/artikel/6004820.

Ben-Eliyahu, Adar. 2021. “Sustainable Learning in Education.” Sustainability 13 (8): 4250. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084250.

Biggs, John. 1996. “Enhancing Teaching through Constructive Alignment.” Higher Education 32: 347–64. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00138871.

Biggs, John B., and Catherine So-kum Tang. 2011. Teaching for Quality Learning at University: What the Student Does. 4th ed. McGraw-Hill.

Chaves, Christopher. 2007. “Adult Learners and the Dialectical Process: A Validating Constructivist Approach to Learning Tranfer and Application.” Online Journal for Workforce Education and Development. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Adult-Learners-and-the-Dialectical-Process%3A-A-to-Chaves/8057eef1768b4829e23f5dec6083731d9f7a4ffc.

Clark, Richard E., and Brenda M. Sugrue. 1991. “Research on Instructional Media, 1978-1988.” In Educational Media and Technology Yearbook 1988, 327–43. Libraries Unlimited.

Deale, Cynthia S. 2019. “Learning Preferences Instead of Learning Styles: A Case Study of Hospitality Management Students’ Perceptions of How They Learn Best and Implications for Teaching and Learning.” International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 13 (2). https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2019.130211.

Douglas, Jacqueline, Robert McClelland, and John Davies. 2008. “The Development of a Conceptual Model of Student Satisfaction with Their Experience in Higher Education.” Quality Assurance in Education 16 (1): 19–35. https://doi.org/10.1108/09684880810848396.

Felten, Peter, Rachel Forsyth, and Kathryn A. Sutherland. 2023. “Building Trust in the Classroom: A Conceptual Model for Teachers, Scholars, and Academic Developers in Higher Education.” Teaching & Learning Inquiry 11 (July). https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.11.20.

Flanagan, John C. 1954. “The Critical Incident Technique.” Psychological Bulletin 51 (4): 327–58. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0061470.

Hiller, Gundula Gwenn. 2009. “Identifying Intercultural Problems between German and Polish Students Using the Extended Critical Incident Analysis.” Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research 10 (1). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-10.1.1249.

Hunger, Ina, and Johannes Müller. 2016. “Barney G. Glaser/Anselm L. Strauss: The Discovery of Grounded Theory. Strategies for Qualitative Research, Aldine Publishing Company: Chicago 1967, 271 S. (dt. Grounded Theory. Strategien qualitativer Forschung, Bern: Huber 1998, 270 S.).” In Klassiker der Sozialwissenschaften, edited by Samuel Salzborn. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-13213-2_59.

Jahnke, Isa. 2016. Digital Didactical Designs: Teaching and Learning in CrossActionSpaces. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Kordts-Freudinger, Robert, Niclas Schaper, Antonia Scholkmann, Birgit Szczyrba, René Krempkow, Peter Salden, Immanuel Ulrich, Ivo van den Berk, and Matthias Wiemer, editors. 2021. Handbuch Hochschuldidaktik. wbv.

Lave, Jean. 1996. “Teaching, as Learning, in Practice.” Mind, Culture, and Activity 3 (3): 149–64. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327884mca0303_2.

Lohner, David, Torben Mau, Christian Albrecht, and Sarah Stumpf. 2020. “Kollaborativ lehren und lernen: digital, vernetzt, interuniversitär. Das Lehrexperiment L2D2.” Hochschulforum Digitalisierung (blog). July 15. https://hochschulforumdigitalisierung.de/kollaborativ-lehren-und-lernen-digital-vernetzt-interuniversitaer-das-lehrexperiment-l2d2/.

Lohner, David. 2021. “EPICURtalk ‘L2D2: Teaching and Learning under the Conditions of Digitalization and Digitality.” https://youtube.com/watch?v=9xf5FqwqcoE.

Lohner, David. Forthcoming. In Deeper Learning in der Hochschuldidaktik edited by Britta Klopsch, Anne Sliwka, and David Lohner. Beltz Juventa. https://beltz.de/fachmedien/erziehungswissenschaft/deeper-learning-in-der-hochschuldidaktik/BEL447240.

Lohner, David, Pia Mozer, and Sabrina Schmid-Walz. 2021. “Studium als sozialer Raum. Ein Schreibgespräch zwischen Studierenden und Lehrenden.” Online-Magazin Ludwigsburger Beiträge zur Medienpädagogik 21 (14).

Mayer, Richard E., and Roxana Moreno. 2003. “Nine Ways to Reduce Cognitive Load in Multimedia Learning.” Educational Psychologist 38 (1): 43–52. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15326985EP3801_6.

Moore, Jessie L., Sophie Miller, Buffie Longmire-Avital, Eric Hall, Ellery Ewell, and Christina Wyatt. 2025. “The Significance of Trust in Fostering Meaningful Learning.” Teaching & Learning Inquiry 13 (January). https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.13.5.

Nielsen, Jakob. 1994. “Enhancing the Explanatory Power of Usability Heuristics.” In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Celebrating Interdependence - CHI ’94. ACM Press. https://doi.org/10.1145/191666.191729.

Nokelainen, Petri. 2006. “An Empirical Assessment of Pedagogical Usability Criteria for Digital Learning Material with Elementary School Students.” Journal of Educational Technology and Society 9 (2): 178–97.

Panadero, Ernesto, and Carles Monereo. 2017. “El Uso de Informes Compartidos para Explorar la Naturaleza y la Resolución de Incidentes Críticos entre Profesores y Alumnos de Enseñanza Superior.” Revista Electrónica de Investigación Psicoeducativa12 (32): 241–62. https://doi.org/10.14204/ejrep.32.13121.

Reinmann, Gabi, and Tobias Schmohl. 2016. “Autoethnografie in Der Hochschuldidaktischen Forschung.” Impact Free - Journal Für Freie Bildungswissenschaftler 3.

Salomon, Gavriel, and David N. Perkins. 1998. “Individual and Social Aspects of Learning.” Review of Research in Education 23 (1). https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X023001001.

Schmidt, Matthew, Andrew Tawfik, Isa Jahnke, and Yvonne Earnshaw. 2020. “Sociotechnical-Pedagogical Usability for Designing and Evaluating Learner Experience in Technology-Enhanced Environments.” In Learner and User Experience Research: An Introduction for the Field of Learning Design & Technology. https://edtechbooks.org/ux.

Siegel, Stefan T., and David Lohner. 2023. “Handbuch Hochschuldidaktik: By Robert Kordts-Freudinger, Niclas Schaper, Antonia Scholkmann, Birgit Szczyrba Bielefeld, Deutschland, Wbv Publikation 2021 644 Seiten, 59,00 €, ISBN 9783825254087.” International Journal for Academic Development 28 (1): 115–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2022.2122475.

Skulmowski, Alexander, and Günter Daniel Rey. 2020. “COVID-19 as an Accelerator for Digitalization at a German University: Establishing Hybrid Campuses in Times of Crisis.” Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies 2 (3): 212–16. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.201.

Sliwka, Anne, and Britta Klopsch. 2022. Deeper Learning in der Schule: Pädagogik des digitalen Zeitalters. Beltz.

Stalder, Felix. 2016. Kultur Der Digitalität. Erste Auflage, Originalausgabe. Edition Suhrkamp 2679. Berlin: Suhrkamp.

Sweller, John. 2005. “Implications of Cognitive Load Theory for Multimedia Learning.” In The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning, edited by Richard Mayer. 1st ed.. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511816819.003.

Ternes, Doris, Nadine Bernhard, Irina Gewinner, Antje Goller, David Lohner, Karsten König, Ronny Röwert, Isabel Steinhardt, and Angelika Thielsch. 2022. “Dem eigenen Anspruch auf der Spur: Autoethnographische Einblicke zu studierendenzentrierter Lehre.” In Bildungsforschung, edited by Holger Angenent, Jörg Petri, and Tatiana Zimenkova. 1st ed.. transcript Verlag.

Ulrich, Immanuel, and Carmen Heckmann. 2013. “Wirksamkeitsmessung von Hochschuldidaktik. Messmöglichkeiten Und Anwendungsbeispiele Hochschuldidaktischer Wirksamkeitsmessung.” In Neues Handbuch Hochschullehre, edited by Brigitte Berendt, Andreas Fleischmann, Niclas Schaper, Birgit Szczyrba, and Johannes Wildt. Raabe.

Ulrich, Immanuel. 2016. Gute Lehre in Der Hochschule: Praxistipps Zur Planung Und Gestaltung von Lehrveranstaltungen. Springer.

Weinert, Franz E. 2002. “Vergleichende Leistungsmessung in Schulen - Eine Umstrittene Selbstverständlichkeit.” In Leistungsmessungen in Schulen, edited by Franz E. Weinert, Dr. nach Typoskript, 2., unveränd. Aufl., 17–31. Weinheim [u.a.]: Beltz.

Wheele, Theresa, Carmel Lindkvist, Clara Weber, Tore Haugen, and Lukas Windlinger. 2024. “Beyond the Screen: Student Experiences of Social Connection in a Hybrid University Learning Environment.” Learning, Media and Technology 51 (1): 117–132. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2024.2406963.

Williamson, Ben, Felicitas Macgilchrist, and John Potter. 2024. “Against Contextlessness in Learning, Media and Technology.” Learning, Media and Technology 49 (3): 335–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2024.2374266.

Witzel, Andreas. 1982. Verfahren Der Qualitativen Sozialforschung: Überblick Und Alternativen. Campus Forschung. Campus Verlag.

Witzel, Andreas. 2000. “Das Problemzentrierte Interview.” Forum: Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research 1 (1). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-1.1.1132.

Woolsey, Lorette K. 1986. “The Critical Incident Technique: An Innovative Qualitative Method of Research.” Canadian Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy 20.

Zawacki-Richter, Olaf. 2021. “The Current State and Impact of Covid-19 on Digital Higher Education in Germany.” Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies 3 (1): 218–26. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.238.