Collaborative Conservation E-Course across Borders: Interpretation and Presentation of an Uncomfortable Heritage Site in Berlin

In November 2020, Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg in Germany partnered with Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia on a Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) funded project to strengthen international mobility by developing a strategy for collaborative online teaching across institutional and national boundaries. The project was designed as a “flipped” classroom course that was taught in the northern hemisphere summer semester of 2021. Students applied the concepts and research methods taught in asynchronous self-study sessions and online discussions with lecturers and outside experts to a case study in Berlin: the Günter Litfin Memorial, which is part of the Berlin Wall Foundation. Students explored ways in which cultural heritage can be interpreted and presented in a digital format (e.g., virtual tours and videos) and then designed their own digital tools for the case study. Developed through a collaborative process involving discipline specialists and learning designers across both institutions, the online course combined heritage conservation and heritage interpretation, resulting in a new interface between the two disciplines. This chapter examines the development, delivery, and evaluation of the course.