News
Learning from crises: Future impulses for higher education
[23.02.2026]The Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) and the CATALPA research center invite you to the conclusion of the OrA and ORC research projects to discuss crisis-proof and sustainable universities. Under the title “Learning from crises: Future impulses for universities,” CATALPA and HIIG researchers will provide insights into the practical significance of their research.
Photo: Hardy Welsch/Privat
Today, universities operate in an environment of rapid change and growing complexity. Global challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic or local events such as cyberattacks show that universities are increasingly confronted with crisis situations.
How can universities remain capable of acting in times of crisis and develop creative solutions to new challenges? What can universities learn from past crises and how can they prepare specifically for future crises? And what role do educational technologies play in this?
Over the past six years (2020–2026), the projects “Organizational Adaptivity in the German Higher Education Context (OrA)” and "Organizational Resilience and Creativity: The Future of Educational Technologies in Higher Education (ORC)" have accompanied universities through a period of profound upheaval, marked in particular by the COVID-19 pandemic. The focus was on the interplay of resilience and creativity with the use of educational technologies in universities.
During this event, the two project leaders, Dr. Len Ole Schäfer (CATALPA) and Bronwen Deacon (HIIG), will present key findings from their joint research, including theoretical concepts, empirical examples from international case studies, and options for action to reflect on the resilience of one's own university. These research findings will be supplemented by practical insights from Barbara Wagner (Hochschulforum Digitalisierung).
In the subsequent discussion, we would like to talk about how the findings presented can be translated into everyday university life and provide an opportunity for networking.
Agenda
9:00 a.m. Doors open with coffee and finger food
Welcome
9:30 a.m. Moderator: Dr. Ann-Kathrin Watolla (HIIG)
Impulse from practice
9:40 a.m. Barbara Wagner (University Forum on Digitalization)
Impulse from research
9:55 a.m. Dr. Len Ole Schäfer (CATALPA) and Bronwen Deacon (HIIG)
10:15 a.m. Discussion
10:50 a.m. Wrap-up
11:00 a.m. Exchange and conclusion
11:30 a.m. End of event
Participation
Participation is by invitation only. The event is aimed specifically at managers, teachers, university staff in the fields of e-learning, IT, and didactics, as well as individuals from university-related institutions. If you are interested in the event and see relevant connections in terms of content, please register by March 12, 2026, by emailing Anna Aust (anna.aust@hiig.de).
About the project
OrA and ORC are collaborative projects between the research program “Knowledge & Society” at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society and CATALPA – Center of Advanced Technology for Assisted Learning and Predictive Analytics at the FernUniversität in Hagen.
