Development and Integration of a Digital Reflection Assistant as a Complement to Building Physics Education

Tailored to the students of architecture and interior architecture at the OWL University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Detmold, the project focuses on developing and integrating a digital reflection assistant called “As U know” to complement building physics education. The reflection assistant is introduced in an application-oriented module and brings together a diverse range of learning resources including sample exercises, glossaries, videos, tests, quizzes and more. Special focus is placed on interactive videos that are intended to support the development of problem-specific solutions for the complex requirements arising from the students' own designs. Many architecture and interior architecture students struggle with the challenge of harmonizing the learned principles of building physics with their individual creative design processes. As a result, face-to-face correction discussions offered are often used ineffectively or even avoided by students due to insecurity. To counteract this, "As U know" provides students individual support independent of time and location, helping them prepare effectively for correction discussions. In a survey conducted as part of the project, all users stated that the test version had supported or had rather supported them in applying the required building physics content. Forty six percent reported feeling less or tendentially less inhibited in taking advantage of the face-to-face corrections.