Teaching load – a barrier to digitalisation in higher education? A position paper on the framework surrounding higher education medical teaching in the digital age using Bavaria, Germany as an example

This position paper describes the legal framework requirements when crediting digital teaching formats towards the teaching load in higher education medical teaching, as exemplified by the Federal State of Bavaria in Germany. It reveals the need for precise rules adapted to the advances in technology, if the process of digitalisation in higher education (HE) is not to come to a halt. If HE institutions are to act as centres of innovation with respect to the implementation of digital teaching and learning formats, then structural and strategic positioning with regard to e- and blended learning above all is called for in addition to financial resources, as well as the distribution and sustainable incorporation of digital offerings in faculties and HE institutions. There is a great deal of insecurity however with respect to the legal framework requirements and how best to count digital teaching towards one’s own teaching load. This results to some extent from the complexity of current laws and regulations partially overtaken by didactic and methodological changes in education, with decentralised educational federalism only adding to the complexity. Bearing in mind teaching and learning formats that are undergoing change or have already been transformed, ways of adapting the (legal) framework to the digital shift need to be found, last but not least in order to offer enthusiastic teaching staff incentives to develop and expand digital formats.