FAQ
1. What is the German UDS Academy?
The German UDS Academy is the online learning platform of the German University of Digital Science (German UDS) in Potsdam. The German UDS Academy builds on the experience that its team has gained while creating, operating, offering courses, and conducting research on the Hasso Plattner Institute’s openHPI learning platform. The German UDS Academy is not the successor of the openHPI platform but picks up certain ideas that have been started there.
The English language courses on IT topics, digitalization, and innovation and Design Thinking are created by professors, lecturers, and researchers at the German UDS.
2. How does a course on the German UDS Academy work?
Most courses at the German UDS Academy have a fixed start and end date and follow a weekly rhythm. All course material for a week, i.e. learning videos, self-tests, homework, and reading material, is unlocked at the beginning of a course week (usually Tuesdays or Wednesdays). The course materials and self-tests can then be worked on flexibly during the course week according to your time budget and repeated as often as you like. You can access the individual courses from the course list or your dashboard.
However, there are deadlines for evaluated weekly homework as well as for the final examination which must be met. Usually, the deadline for the homework and the final exam is one week. For homework and the final exam, you have only one attempt each. Programming tasks can be worked on and evaluated until the end of the course. The deadlines cannot be extended individually, as the results of the homework and final exam will be published shortly after the deadline and the assignments can be discussed in the forum afterward.
At the end of the course, the course content is available for self-study without evaluated tasks (homework and final exam). Potential programming tasks in courses can be done and evaluated, but the results cannot be transferred back to the German UDS Academy to earn credits.
3. Who can register at the German UDS Academy?
There are no formal admission restrictions. All you need for registration is a valid e-mail address.
4. Does participating in the German UDS Academy courses cost any money?
Most courses at the German UDS Academy are free of charge. Exceptions are courses offering micro-credentials and micro-degrees.
5. What is the minimum age to attend a course?
To participate in an German UDS Academy course, you must be at least 16 years old. If you are younger than 16, you need the written consent of your parents.
6. Which technical requirements do I need to use the German UDS Academy?
Participation in a course on the German UDS Academy is completely web-based. We recommend that you update your browser and operating system to the latest version. The installation of additional software on your system is usually not necessary. Should a particular course require it, the course will explicitly point this out. To play the course videos, you should have a fast internet access.
My German UDS Academy account
7. How do I create an account at the German UDS Academy?
To register at the German UDS Academy, please go to the following Link. Enter your e-mail address and a password of your choice. Confirm the link in the confirmation email to complete the registration. If you do not receive a confirmation email, please check first that it has not ended up in your spam folder. If your account is already confirmed but you cannot log in, please make sure that you have JavaScript enabled and accept cookies from our site. If it still does not work, please use the "Forgot Password" function.
8. Why am I not receiving my confirmation email?
It may occasionally take some time for the confirmation email to arrive. Please also check your spam folder. If you have not received a confirmation email after three hours, please contact the Helpdesk.
9. How do I reset my password?
You can reset your password using the "Forgot Password" function. Please enter the email address you used for registration. After submitting the form, you will receive an e-mail at this address. This e-mail contains a link that will take you to the actual password reset function. After a click in the mail, you only have to enter and confirm your new password and you can log in again.
10. How do I change my password?
You can change your password in your Account.
11. How do I change my email address?
You can change your e-mail address in your Account.
12. What happens to my data?
The German UDS is subject to the Federal Data Protection Act, as the servers on which user data is stored are located in Germany. No personal data will be passed on to third parties. Only pseudonymized data is used to improve the platform and for evaluation for scientific purposes. Further information on data protection at the German UDS can be found here.
Courses
13. Course structure and content
The most important element of the learning platform are the courses. Courses are divided into sections. Sections contain subsection, which contain several learning units. Such learning units include not only knowledge-transferring videos and texts but also interactive elements and tests such as quizzes and hands-on tasks.
14. Where can I find an overview of the courses?
The List of Courses offers the user an overview of the courses offered. You’ll find your courses on the learner dashboard.
15. In which languages are the courses at the German UDS Academy offered?
At the current moment, the courses are offered only in English language.
16. How long does a course at the German UDS Academy take?
We have several different self-paced and instructor-paced course formats at the German UDS Academy. For the self-paced courses, there’s no particular time limit. You can work through the videos, texts and quizzes at your own pace, whenever you want. The instructor-paced courses, generally, are either 2, 4 or 6 weeks long. Often there is an extra week added to complete the final exam. Some courses can contain peer assessments, which often require some extra time after the actual course has ended. The time frame that is displayed on the course details page, generally, is the actual course period without the additional time offered for exams, or peer assessments. In the instructor paced courses, you can also watch the learning material whenever you want. However, there will be deadlines for exams and assignments, which have to be met to receive a certificate. Furthermore, the discussion forum within these courses is only attended by the teaching team and open for posting, during the active course period.
17. How much work is required for a course?
Depending on your previous knowledge, you should plan about 5-6 hours per week for your studies. The estimated time includes the study materials and self-tests. Also, each week a graded homework assignment with a 60-minute time limit is scheduled. The processing time of the final exam is 120 minutes. The workload of a regular 6-week course corresponds to 2 ECTS points.
18. What does the time in UTC mean?
The times at the German UDS Academy are given year-round in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). You can here find your time zone relative to UTC here.
19. What happens if I was not able to submit my homework on time?
The deadlines for evaluated assignments cannot be extended individually, as the results of the assignments will be published for the other participants shortly after the deadline and the assignments may be discussed in the forum afterward. If you did not participate in the task, you will not be able to access the questions (for example for practice purposes). The design of our courses, however, often allows you to complete a course with a confirmation of participation even if you missed some of the exams. You always can complete a course without a confirmation of participation.
20. Can I still register if the course is already running?
You can register for a course at the German UDS Academy at any time. If you join during the first week of the course, you can still complete all the graded assignments. If you join later, it will become more and more difficult to achieve the required number of points for the confirmation of participation.
21. Can I drop out or re-enter the course?
You can withdraw from a course at the German UDS Academy at any time. You can unsubscribe from a course by clicking on the button "Unenroll" in the course tile on the learner dashboard. You can also remain enrolled in the course and continue the course at a later date in self-study. It is also possible to re-enroll in the course. Your progress in the course will then be restored.
22. Do I have to do the homework?
You can participate in the course according to your interests and possibilities. There is no obligation to do the homework and strive for a confirmation of participation or micro-credential. We are happy about every active participation in forum discussions.
23. How does self-study work?
After the end of a course, the course content remains available in archive mode. New participants can register for self-study at any time. However, evaluated tasks with deadlines can no longer be processed, and therefore a record of achievement or a certificate can no longer be obtained. You can only receive a confirmation of participation for successful course participation. The forum will be closed after the end of the course and is only available in read-only mode.
24. How do I use the discussion forum?
The forum is an important part of the learning experience at the German UDS Academy. Active participation is crucial to your learning success, as it allows you to reflect on course topics, ask (and answer) open questions or discuss with other participants and the instructor. Information about the specific functioning of the forum and the forum rules can be found here.
25. How does a peer assessment work?
A peer assessment is a form of a task in which participants evaluate each other. A peer assessment is used when an automatic evaluation for a specific question would be difficult or when it actively supports the learning process to reflect on and evaluate the solutions proposed by other course participants. The task can either be completed alone or in teamwork (Team Peer Assessment). More information is available here.
Evaluations and performance records
26. What are self-tests and homework and how do they differ?
Self-tests are short, quizzes for formative assessment that directly follow a video or text. The purpose of the self-tests is to self-assess your understanding of the knowledge you have just acquired. These do not count for the confirmation of participation and you can repeat them as often as you want to. Homework and the final exam, on the other hand, are summative assessments that have to be completed by a specific (usually weekly) deadline and are required in order to earn a record of confirmation of participation.
27. How do I get my score on multiple choice and multiple answer tasks?
In multiple-choice tasks, there is exactly one correct answer. If this is selected correctly, the participant receives the specified number of points for the task. If the wrong answer is clicked, the participant receives 0 points for this task. In the case of multiple-answer tasks, the points achieved for partially correct solutions are calculated in the following way: The maximum number of points is divided by the number of correct alternatives. This value is used as a base. For each correct alternative that was correctly selected, the base value is awarded. If you select a wrong answer, you will not receive any points.
28. What is my final score?
The maximum number of points that can be achieved in the course is made up of the points from the homework and the points from the final exam. Everyone who achieves at least 60% of the total score will receive a confirmation of participation at the end of the course.
29. How are my achieved scores rounded?
The sum of all points achieved by a participant is shown on the certificate and expressed as a percentage of all possible points (maximum number of points). If the result has decimal places, it is rounded down. For example, if a participant has achieved 49.9% of the total points, this is unfortunately not enough to receive a record of achievement.
30. What is the difference between the Certificate, the Record of Achievement, and the Confirmation of Participation?
The certificates differ mainly in their value. A Certificate shows the user's result and, due to the online supervision and the printed photo, offers the certainty that the certificate was also acquired by the corresponding user. The Record of Achievement also shows the result of the user and certifies the successful completion of the course. A Confirmation of participation only says that at least 50% of the course material has been viewed, but says nothing about the duration and intensity of the work.
31. When will the certificates be released?
The certificates (Confirmation of Participation, Micro-Credentials, and Micro-Degrees) are usually released one or two weeks after the end of the course.
32. When will I receive a Confirmation of Participation?
The Confirmation of Participation is awarded to those who have achieved at least 50% of the maximum number of points in the sum of all graded assignments. It is irrelevant how the point distribution is of homework, possible programming tasks, and the final examination.
33. When will I receive a Certificate?
This can be booked by the participants. Automatic facial recognition is used to ensure that the participant has taken the exam in person. HPI credits its students with ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) points for this and recommends this to other universities as well.
34. How much does a Certificate cost?
A Certificate costs 60 euros including the statutory value added tax.
35. By when do I have to book a Certificate at the latest?
The booking of the Certificate must take place at the latest after the submission of the first assessed task of the course. As a rule, this is within the second week of the course. If the submission deadline for the second homework assignment has passed, registration for the examination with automatic face check via webcam is no longer possible.
36. Which violations are relevant for the online supervision of the Certificate?
Above all, make sure that the online supervisor always has access to your webcam and that no other person is in front of it. You can find a detailed list of violations here.