eLearnGrapher
language

Self-paced learning with a built-in tutor

eLearnGrapher

The digital course format of
Schmalkalden University of Applied Sciences

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The digital course format of Schmalkalden University of Applied Sciences supports self-paced learning: students learn whenever and wherever it suits them. It is designed like an interactive e-book with a built-in tutor agent that accompanies students along their learning path.

Each course is divided into short learning units that students can work through on their laptop, tablet or phone. Built-in questions show them instantly what they have understood, and the course helps them plan their study time so they arrive at the exam well prepared.

What the format offers students

Short learning units.

The material is divided into compact sections of short pages. Each text page covers a single idea, so students can make progress even in a short session.

View of a course section with its short pages
Learning checks with feedback.

At the end of each section there are free-text, single-choice and multiple-choice questions. Students see their result immediately and get an explanation of why an answer was wrong or only partly right.

Answer to a learning-check question with its assessment
Explanation of why an answer was not fully correct
Training mode.

Questions the student answered a long time ago or has not yet mastered are collected in a training set so they can practise them again.

Set of questions in training mode
Questions about the course material.

A chat answers students' questions, focusing on the course's own content.

Chat answering questions about the course content
Progress at a glance.

The course shows how much time the student has already put in, how much is left and how they are doing in each chapter.

Overview of progress by chapter
A study plan that fits your schedule.

Students decide how much time they want to spend studying each week and whether they want to study at weekends. The system shows them how much time they have already spent studying and how much study time remains. The tutor helps them stick to their learning plan.

Study time spent and time remaining

How the courses are made

The courses are generated with the eLearnGrapher system, developed at Schmalkalden University of Applied Sciences. Its engine turns existing lecture notes and training documents into an interactive digital course with little manual work.

Lecturers stay in full control: they can review every page in every language and correct texts, questions and the placement of figures before the course is published.

A lecturer reviews a digital course together with a student

  1. Reading the source material

    The engine analyses documents in PDF, Word or, preferably, OpenDocument format. It recognises headings, paragraphs, tables, figures and footnotes, and separates the text in diagrams from the drawing itself.

  2. Creating the learning nuggets

    The content is divided into sections of short pages, the so-called learning nuggets. The questions for each section are generated automatically and lecturers can review them.

  3. Translating all content

    The entire course is translated, including the text in figures, while the figures themselves stay exactly as they were designed.

A steady pace instead of last-minute cramming

Self-paced learning gives students freedom, but it also makes it easy to put off studying. Our own data show how risky that is: in the 2024/25 academic year, almost a quarter of the students in our digital courses did not start studying until the last two weeks before the exam, and around 95% of them failed.

That is why the format does more than present content. Its tutor agent reminds students to spend enough time on each page, compares their weekly study time with their own plan and shows their progress chapter by chapter. We are currently extending the tutor agent so that it supports students even more closely in building a steady study routine.

Illustration about data protection
Illustration about a steady study pace

Learning data stays at the university

The course platform runs on servers of Schmalkalden University of Applied Sciences. Learning data is used solely to support students' learning and to improve the courses, and it never leaves the university. The platform complies with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Courses currently available

Students enrolled in one of these courses receive their login details from their lecturer.

Try the Project Management course

With our demo account you can open the course straight away, without registering. The demo access uses a shared standard account.

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For universities, training providers and companies

Would you like to turn your own teaching or training material into a multilingual digital course? The engine works with the documents you already have, and the course platform can be installed at your institution with little effort. We also offer the digital course format to companies, including SMEs, for in-house training.

Contact

Prof. Dr. Kurt Englmeier
Email: k.englmeier@hs-sm.de

Campus of Schmalkalden University of Applied Sciences