The project Bridge is co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Servicio Espanol para la Internacionalizacion de la Educacion (SEPIE). Neither the European Union nor the National Agency SEPIE can be held responsible for them. -- Number: 2025-1-ES01-KA220-HED-000359236 --
The BRIDGE Digital Museum brings together good practices, educational proposals and images that inspire reflection and action
Social Challenges
Analyse social challenges to intercultural dialogue, social inclusion and democratic cohesion
Good Practices
Discover experiences that generate social impact
Educational Space
Access teaching guides, activities and materials for the classroom
Documentary Photography
Explore the social challenges in a visual, reflective and educational way
BRIDGE Main Challenge: A.3. Educational gaps throughout educational trajectories, including higher education
Many university lecturers lack the advanced digital competences needed to design teaching formats that go beyond the classroom and engage with real community needs. This digital literacy gap, combined with institutional resistance and the 'projectisation' of inclusion, prevents higher education from acting systematically against the educational gaps linked to social and migrant background in Germany.
Digital Social Impact (DSI), an Erasmus+ project led by FH Münster, built an open infrastructure for digital service-learning: a transnational Best Practice Audit, an interactive Course Configurator that guides lecturers step by step in designing socially engaged courses, pilots in four countries with NGOs and local authorities as partners, and 20 ready-to-use course templates with tutorials.
Digital Social Impact (DSI) was a transnational Erasmus+ project (2021–2023) coordinated by FH Münster with partners in Croatia, Slovenia and Ireland. Starting from an audit of 54 expert surveys and 50 lecturer interviews in 11 countries, it developed the Course Configurator, an interactive platform that helps lecturers build digital service-learning courses with real social partners. The tool was piloted in four countries and complemented by 20 open course templates, guides and videos, all freely available.
Educational success in Germany is strongly tied to social and migrant background, and universities rarely act as agents that compensate for these pre-existing gaps. DSI identifies a concrete obstacle. Most lecturers self-assess their digital competence as 'expert', but few reach the leadership or pioneer levels needed to create teaching formats that connect the curriculum with real community challenges.
Without lecturers able to design socially engaged digital courses, inclusion remains dependent on temporary projects and unstable resources. Standardised, open tools can make learning pathways more flexible and help students whose trajectories are shaped by inequality gain agency and practical skills.
The practice contributes to Challenge A3 (educational gaps throughout educational pathways) by lowering the barrier for lecturers to adopt e-service-learning, so that socially engaged, skills-building formats can be repeated every semester with standing tools and partners and do not depend on a single temporary project.
Four phases: (1) a transnational Best Practice Audit of drivers and barriers; (2) development of the Course Configurator, which lets lecturers select activities and resources for each course stage; (3) pilots in Germany, Croatia, Slovenia and Ireland, where students worked with NGOs and local authorities on real challenges; (4) transfer via 20 course templates, 'How to' guides and tutorial videos, all published as OER.
Course Configurator (Digital Social Impact)
Interactive digital resource
The Course Configurator is an interactive online platform that guides university lecturers step by step through the design of a digital service-learning course. For each stage of a course the user selects suitable activities, tools and resources, which reduces planning time and technical complexity. The underlying toolkit covers the design phase (Empathy Map Canvas, Stakeholder Expectation Matrix), delivery (Design Thinking, rapid prototyping, collaborative whiteboards) and reflection (Theory of Change, Outcomes Harvesting, 5R framework). The tool was refined iteratively on the basis of feedback from pilots in four countries and is published as an Open Educational Resource under a Creative Commons licence. At the time of reporting, 1,498 users had registered on the platform.
Teaching staff, Professionals
Best Practice Audit: Creating social impact through customised digital teaching formats (2022)
Digital publication
The Best Practice Audit is the research report produced in the first phase of the project. It combines a review of the scientific literature, a quantitative survey of 54 experts and 50 in-depth interviews with lecturers from 11 European countries. The report systematises success factors, drivers and barriers to integrating social impact into university teaching, including the finding that lecturers' digital competence drops sharply above the 'expert' level and that a large share of change initiatives fail because of institutional resistance. It serves as the evidence base for the Course Configurator and is useful for researchers and lecturers who want to understand the conditions under which digital service-learning works. The report had been downloaded 593 times at the time of reporting.
Teaching staff, Researchers, Policy Makers
20 pre-configured course templates, 'How to' guides and tutorial videos
Teaching guide
The transfer package consists of twenty pre-configured course templates for a range of academic disciplines, accompanied by short 'How to' guides and tutorial videos. The templates show how a complete e-service-learning course can be structured from the first contact with a social partner through to assessment and reflection, and are intended to allow immediate replication in any faculty. They also serve as ready inspiration for lecturers in different areas of knowledge. All materials are hosted on the project website as Open Educational Resources under a Creative Commons licence and are free to use. Lecturers new to service-learning can start from a template and adapt it; experienced lecturers can use the set to compare approaches across disciplines.
Teaching staff, Students