With the increasing use of digital media in higher education, the “space” in which teaching and learning take place at universities is also changing. The targeted linking of physical and digital learning environments is creating hybrid learning spaces in which teaching and learning scenarios can be implemented at different times and locations in a wide variety of group constellations. Such hybrid learning spaces and their design were the focus of the HybridLR research project, in which staff from TH Köln – Cologne University of Applied Sciences and the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) jointly researched approaches and influencing factors in the design of hybrid learning spaces in the context of higher education.

The project team pursued the goal of identifying and generalizing key success factors for the design of educational processes in hybrid learning spaces. To this end, open, adaptable, and diverse hybrid learning spaces were created, further developed, and empirically examined in an iterative process. In addition, examples of good practice in the design of hybrid learning spaces were documented and analyzed at universities throughout Germany. The practical and design knowledge gained through this approach was processed in such a way that it can be effectively reused in other contexts. To this end, design patterns (also known as templates) were developed in the project.

During the course of the project, numerous project results were published in the form of open access publications on e-teaching.org, the IWM's information portal on digital media in higher education. One focus was the “Hybrid Learning Spaces” repository, which provides more than 50 structured solutions for designing hybrid learning spaces in the form of design patterns.

The project team discussed the potential of hybrid learning spaces in higher education and their role in the future design of universities with the e-teaching.org community in the winter semester 2022/23 in the special topic “Hybrid Learning Spaces.”