Department of Informatics and Digital Education

The Department of Informatics and Digital Education investigates the innovative use of technology in educational contexts. The Professorship of Informatics Education, headed by Professor Bernhard Standl, focuses on the modeling and empirical studies of teaching concepts as didactic design patterns. The Professorship of Digital Education, led by Professor Alexander Skulmowski, conducts empirical and theoretical research regarding the cognitive design of digital learning as well as ethical issues of digital education.

Professorship of

Informatics Education

The Professorship of Informatics Education focuses, in particular, on identifying effective teaching and learning scenarios for computing lessons, while examining the topic from various perspectives.
Thanks to integration of the Teaching and Learning Lab (TLL) for Informatics Education into the programme in Teacher Education, Informatics, students’ and pupils’ IT skills are promoted in a research-based manner. In addition, methodological approaches are further developed within the context of the mixed-methods paradigm.

Research Working Groups

The Professorship of Informatics Education comprises three research working groups: Education Information Systems (EIS), Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL), and Teaching and Learning Lab for Informatics Education (TLL).

Education Information Systems

Promoting the use of information systems in teacher education.

Focus areas

The EIS group investigates how digital media can be used to enhance teaching and learning processes. The aim is to sensitise and qualify future teachers for the use and integration of digital tools in their future working environment. The focus is on providing them with the necessary means, methods, and skills to efficiently digitalise their teaching, provide high-quality education, and improve pupils' learning processes.

Lead: Dr. Nico Hillah

Technology Enhanced Learning

Identifying and validating the fundamentals of technology-enhanced teaching and learning environments.

Focus areas

The TEL research working group investigates the effectiveness of technology-supported teaching and learning environments, analyses, by means of video-based reflection, how prospective teachers are supported in learning, and validates tools for recording and promoting computational thinking.

  • Empirical educational research, learning, and instruction,
  • Basic research in computational thinking,
  • Educational pattern mining,
  • Video-based reflection.

Lead: Dr. Nadine Schlomske-Bodenstein

Teaching and Learning Lab for Informatics Education

Research-based and innovative teaching methodology in the field of Informatics and explorative testing of digital artefacts.

Focus areas

  • Pupils' areas of interest and teaching: Determining areas and levels of interest, designing methods to address main areas of interest
  • Misconceptions of basic programming concepts such as loops/variables: Investigating common misconceptions in block-based coding
  • Mathematical and theoretical foundations of Informatics
  • Fundamentals of theoretical and applied Informatics at the intersection of Informatics, Mathematics, and Art
  • Creative coding as a field of application for computing lessons
  • Extension of existing didactic concepts and development of sustainable mental models and corresponding translation processes
  • Algorithmic thinking and computational behaviour, semantic waves, notional machines, block-based programming languages (and text-based programming languages) also in the context of physical computing (robots, microcontrollers, robot arms).

Lead: Dr. Frauke Ritter

 

Professorship of

Digital Education

The Professorship of Digital Education investigates digital learning and instruction from a cognitive science perspective. We primarily utilize methods from the field of cognitive psychology while also developing theoretical frameworks and drawing ethical conclusions.

Research Areas

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools have evolved into important parts of everyday life, causing challenges for education. Generative AI tools can be used to effortlessly create texts, visualizations, and videos using simple commands (prompts). This relative ease results in several implications, such as placebo effects, leading AI users to overestimate their abilities. At the same time, cognitive externalization can lead to other issues (such as deskilling). In this research area, theoretical analyses and empirical investigations are conducted.

Current publications:
Skulmowski, A., & Engel-Hermann, P. (2025). The ethics of erroneous AI-generated scientific figures. Ethics and Information Technology, 27, 31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-025-09835-4
Engel-Hermann, P., & Skulmowski, A. (2025). Appealing, but misleading: a warning against a naive AI realism. AI and Ethics, 5, 3407–3413. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-024-00587-3
Skulmowski, A. (2024). Placebo or assistant? Generative AI between externalization and anthropomorphization. Educational Psychology Review, 36, 58. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-024-09894-x
Skulmowski, A. (2023). The cognitive architecture of digital externalization. Educational Psychology Review, 35, 101. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09818-1

Virtually all forms of digital education result in at least some form of cognitive load. For instance, interactive simulations and serious games require learners to familiarize themselves with the controls and other aspects not directly related to the learning content. Influential theories of learning suggest that such demands would lead to diminished learning, while several studies suggest that cognitive load does not necessarily lead to negative effects. The approach of cognitive load alignment holds that introducing cognitive load in digital learning can be justified if the digital learning components are in alignment with the learning objective. For example, in order to learn a complex procedure digitally, it is likely to be worthwhile to risk the cognitive load resulting from learning the controls of the digital environment.

Current publications:
Dechamps, T., & Skulmowski, A. (2025). Learning with erroneous visualizations modulates retention depending on perceptual richness and test type. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 40, 100256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tine.2025.100256
Dechamps, T., & Skulmowski, A. (2025). The effective design of tasks involving learning by drawing: Current trends and methodological progress in research on drawing to learn. Educational Psychology Review, 37, 50. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-025-10026-2
Skulmowski, A. (2024). Learning by doing or doing without learning? The potentials and challenges of activity-based learning. Educational Psychology Review, 36, 28. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-024-09869-y
Skulmowski, A., & Xu, K. M. (2022). Understanding cognitive load in digital and online learning: A new perspective on extraneous cognitive load. Educational Psychology Review, 34, 171–196. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09624-7

Computer-generated visualizations, virtual reality, and augmented reality are becoming increasingly important components in education. A high level of visual detail does not necessarily help learners (and may even overwhelm them), but simplified styles do not provide the optimal level of realism for all types of learning objectives. In this research area, we investigate empirically how learners cognitively process realistic visualizations which implications for design we should draw from these results.

Current publications:
Skulmowski, A. (2024). No evidence for a negative effect of realism when learning about a process despite an increase in cognitive load. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 38, e70000. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.70000
Skulmowski, A. (2024). Are realistic details important for learning with visualizations or can depth cues provide sufficient guidance?. Cognitive Processing,  25, 351–361. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-024-01183-3
Skulmowski, A. (2023). Shape distinctness and segmentation benefit learning from realistic visualizations, while dimensionality and perspective play a minor role. Computers & Education: X Reality, 2, 100015. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cexr.2023.100015
Skulmowski, A., Nebel, S., Remmele, M., & Rey, G. D. (2022). Is a preference for realism really naive after all? A cognitive model of learning with realistic visualizations. Educational Psychology Review, 34, 649–675. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09638-1

Team

Department Directors

Sprechstunde am Mittwoch von 13:30 bis 14:30 Uhr via WebEx online oder vor Ort 2.B141
Terminvereinbarung erforderlich: https://calendly.com/bernhard-standl/meeting

Administrative Assistant

Informatics Education (Prof. Standl)

Montag 13:30Uhr - 14:00Uhr und nach Verinbarung.
Sprechzeiten nur nach Voranmeldung via Email.

Digital Education (Prof. Skulmowski)

Last updated: 21.08.2025
Content responsibility: webredaktion@ph-karlsruhe.de