Scholarship of Teaching and Learning - A way to identify inclusion opportunities and exclusion risks in digital learning scenarios

Technical aspects are brought into focus thinking of inclusion opportunities and exclusion risks in digital learning scenarios. However, focussing on technical limitations is not sufficient. This contribution describes another important field of inclusion, namely psychological personality traits. In a longitudinal study at the Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg (H-BRS), University of Applied Sciences, we accompanied a civil law lecture of a bachelor's degree programme, which had been digitalized because of COVID-19, with empirical Scholarship of Teaching and Learning methods for two semesters.
$N=55$
students from the first measured semester and
$N=35$
from the second one rated different digital teaching methods used in the developed digital learning scenario. Their personality traits according to the five-factor model were measured by using a validated psychometric short-scale (BFI-10). Moderate to large empirical effects of the students' personality traits on the assessments of different digital teaching methods, used in the digital learning scenario, could be observed. Neuroticism values influences the perceptions of the course difficulty and the preference for using an instant messenger as a central communication platform, where students can interact with fellows and lecturers in a way the students are used to in their daily life. High conscientiousness predicts a more regular execution of the weekly tasks given throughout the semester, while higher values in extraversion are associated with a preference for synchronous video conference sessions and active webcams. Higher agreeableness is associated with rating the learning atmosphere as more constructive while low values are associated with perceiving more negative consequences due to the reduced contact to fellows based on COVID-19 restrictions. Correlations between the dimension openness and any ratings of digital teaching methods could not be observed. With this insight into our students' personality traits, we were able to match the digital teaching methods used in our digital learning scenario to the psychological needs of our students, which resulted in a higher inclusion level and a reduction of exclusion risks.