BBS Buxtehude: Inclusive, Effective Education

About BBS Buxtehude

BBS Buxtehude is one of four vocational schools in the Stade district in Germany. It has around a hundred teachers who train 1,650 students at three locations.

The school promotes an internationally oriented community and equal opportunities so the students can develop their personality, skills, and qualifications.

BBS Buxtehude has invested in upgrading its infrastructure and digitalizing its education to allow students and teachers to work in a networked manner. Presently, digital e-learning is essential to the school’s programmes.

Challenges

Technological changes in workshops 

Like many vocational schools in Germany, BBS Buxtehude faces the challenge of adapting to the fast-paced changes in automotive technology while serving a rural student population.

The school lacked a workshop and useful tools to prepare students for everyday workshop life. They also considered the traditional teaching methods were no longer apt to prepare technical learners for modern workshops, which nowadays work digitally. 

Heterogeneity of students

BBS Buxtehude struggled to train students from diverse backgrounds, with different abilities and learning paces.

It was difficult to track learners’ performance and to offer special attention to groups that needed targeted support, such as students with learning disabilities and refugees.

Solutions

BBS Buxtehude introduced Electude’s solutions to the curriculum in 2012 to provide students with more targeted, flexible, and hands-on learning experiences, ensuring they were adequately supported and well-equipped for real-world automotive tasks.

Didactical digital tools

With Electude, the school offers students both specialist knowledge and everyday workshop life. The teachers use animations, simulations, and other digital didactical tools inside and outside the classroom.

Independent learning and assessments

Electude allows students to work through a package of modules independently in order to learn and prepare for exams at their own pace.

In addition, teachers can access the learners’ reports to have a better overview of their progress, skills, and difficulties.

Results

Engaged and prepared students

The integration of Electude has made automotive learning more engaging and accessible for the students at BBS Buxtehude. With interactive content and digital tools, learners can better visualise and understand automotive systems, get familiar with the way modern workshops function, and carry out hands-on tasks that require different skills. Students are now more prepared for the current automotive market.

All new modern workshops work digitally. Many companies have a computer at each workstation. The work orders run on it. For this job, you must be digitally equipped and constantly educate yourself because the technology is very short-lived. With Electude, we’re a lot further along than most.

Johann Tuchscherer

More inclusive and effective learning

With Electude, students can now control their learning speed, which is particularly useful for those with learning disabilities and other groups needing additional support. Educators have a clearer picture of student progress through Electude’s automated evaluation systems and offer targeted support.

Learners who are more advanced than the rest of the class also benefit, developing further with Electude’s modules.

If you see that the student has problems with electronics, you can assign him to another trainer and thus provide more targeted support. The teachers notice when certain topics must be worked through because mistakes are often made. You can see all of this at a glance.

Johann Tuchscherer