Current projects (selection)

AzuRe – Why companies (can't) find apprentices. Using digital tools to analyze and improve processes in apprentice recruiting

Prof. Sabine Fromm (SW Faculty), Prof. Raphael Verstege (BW Faculty)
Loredana Föttinger, MBA (SW Faculty), Alisa Wiesel, M.Sc. (BW Faculty)

The pilot study is funded by the Bavarian Ministry of Science within the framework of preliminary research at Nuremberg Tech.

Project duration: 1 January 2022 - 31 December 2022

The apprenticeship market in Germany is characterised by growing problems of fit that have only been further emphasised by the coronavirus pandemic: Businesses struggle increasingly to fill apprenticeships with suitable applicants, while at the same time a large number of young people remain without an apprenticeship placement. This presents an economic problem as regards future staffing potential and a social problem, if young people are not integrated into the labour market. This interdisciplinary project is testing an innovative approach to analysing what happens during trainee recruitment; central to the research are explicit and implicit assumptions, decision-making logic, and selection mechanisms in applicant interviews. An expected outcome is a contribution to the professionalisation of the selection process and as a consequence an improvement in training opportunities for young people whose potential would typically otherwise remain unnoticed.

With a mixed-methods approach, surveys and interviews of business and young people are being combined with the use of diagnostic tools. The tools include proven eye-tracking analysis and AI-based tools for emotional recognition that have not yet been used in this research context. In experimental applicant interviews between recruiters and young people, the project will investigate which implicit criteria are actually relevant to the evaluation of a candidate.

Scalable behaviourally informed interventions to help students succeed [Skalierbare verhaltensökonomisch motivierte Maßnahmen zur Sicherung des Studienerfolgs - ] (SvStud)

Robert Jäckle, Nuremberg Tech in collaboration with Oliver Himmler, University of Erfurt.
Project contributors: Raphael Brade, University of Erfurt and Lars Behlen, University of Erfurt.

Sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Funding code: 01PX21003A, 01PX21003B
Project duration: 1 Feb 2021 – 31 Jan 2024

https://projekte.uni-erfurt.de/svstud/

 

Drop out rates and low student success are not always based on fully informed and rational decisions; they also result from deviations from a rational decision making model - for example, due to low self-control or limited attention. Such behavioural biases and their effects on individual behaviour are the center of behavioural economics educational research. The SvStud project develops, implements, and evaluates behaviourally informed interventions that aim to improve student performance and academic success. Central questions are: (i) how can the negative effects of procrastination in student populations be reduced, and (ii) how can (social) information deficits or low salience of information in student populations be mitigated? A focus of the project is on scalability, that is, the measures that are developed can be implemented at low cost and are transferable to other subject areas and types of higher education institutions.

Applied research and practical semester counseling

Contributors: Hans-Dieter Gerner, Robert Jäckle

External partner: Frank Wießner, Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt

https://www.ku.de/fsa/mitarbeitende/hauptamtliche/prof-dr-frank-wiessner

Project duration: continuous

At universities of applied sciences, the practical semester is a central component of bachelor degree programmes. Large degree programmes and high student numbers - for example as in the Business Administration bachelor’s degree programme - impede curricular management and optimal supervision of the students and enterprises.

Therefore, for the Business Administration bachelor’s degree programme, a digital practical report has been introduced using the moodle educational software. Besides an open report component, this digital practical report includes many closed questions that make a structured and comprehensive analysis of the operating market in practice possible. The base data from these reports grows each semester with each additional cohort.

Transitioning to a digital format opens the following counseling and research opportunities:

  •  Evidence-based counseling of students and enterprises
  •  Production of informational materials about the practical semester (see pdf below)
  •   Conducting empirical educational research about the practical semester 
      (seminar-style instruction and bachelor’s and master’s theses)
  •  Creation of a base data set for labour and educational policy research on
     the practical semester
  •  Research on the influence of the pandemic on the practical semester (introduction of a Covid
      module in the practical semester)

Pdf: Praxissemester in Zahlen BW TH Nürnberg [The practical semester in numbers - Nuremberg Tech BW Faculty]

Supply of vocational training places over the economic cycle

Empirical analyses with the IAB Establishment Panel (Hans-Dieter Gerner in collaboration with the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training and the Institute for Employment Research)

Empirical studies based on the IAB Establishment Panel and the Linked-Employer-Employee dataset of the Research Data Center of the Federal Employment Agency (Hans-Dieter Gerner in collaboration with the Institute for Employment Research, the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, the University of Basel, the Koblenz University of Applied Sciences, and the University of Siegen)

Completed projects (selection)

Effects of the coronavirus pandemic on labour market dynamics

Project lead: Prof. Hans-Dieter Gerner

Project duration: January 2021 to December 2021

Background: Initial research project of the Nuremberg Institute of Technology

Behaviourally motivated measures to ensure academic success (VStud)

Robert Jäckle, Nuremberg Tech in collaboration with Oliver Himmler, University of Erfurt.

Project contributors: Raphael Brade, University of Erfurt and Lars Behlen, University of Erfurt.

Sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Funding code: 01PX16003A, 01PX16003B
Project duration: 1 Nov 2016 – 31 May 2020

Link VStud

 

Publications

Policy (in German)

Behlen, L., Brade, R., Himmler, O., & Jäckle, R. (in publication) Verhaltensökonomisch motivierte Maßnahmen zur Sicherung des Studienerfolgs (VStud). In Daniel, H.-D., Neugebauer, M., & Wolter, Ä. (Hrsg.): Studienerfolg und Studienabbruch. Wiesbaden, Springer VS., 2021 (zusammen mit Behlen, L., Brade, R., Himmler, O.). DOI: 10.1007/978-3-658-32892-4_17

Brade, R., Himmler, O., & Jäckle, R. (2019). Können Ansätze aus der Verhaltensökonomik den Studienerfolg erhöhen? Das Forschungsprojekt VStud. Qualität in der Wissenschaft, 13(3/4), 108–115. Link

Reminders and soft commitments

Brade, R., Himmler, O., & Jäckle, R. (2019). Soft Commitments and Reminders: Long-Term Effects on Academic Attainment. Working paper.

Himmler, O., Jäckle, R., & Weinschenk, P. (2019). Soft Commitments, Reminders, and Academic Performance. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 11(2), 114–142. DOI: 10.1257/app.20170288

Relative performance feedback

Brade, R., Himmler, O., & Jäckle, R. (2022). Relative Performance Feedback and the Effects of Being Above Average – Field Experiment and Replication. Economics of Education Review, forthcoming. Link

Defaults in exam sign-up

Behlen, L., Himmler, O., & Jäckle, R. (2022) Can Defaults Change Behavior when Post-Intervention Effort is Required? Evidence from Education, MPRA Paper No. 112962. Link

Informal and institutionalized support in the neighbourhood and social cohesion

Informal and institutionalized support in the neighbourhood and social cohesion, sponsored by the City of Nuremberg, Office for Senior Citizens and Generational Issues, duration: 2016-2018 (Sabine Fromm & Doris Rosenkranz): https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-658-22323-6

Educational economic measures for the improvement of academic performance, sponsored by the Staedtler Foundation, duration: 2015-2016 (Robert Jäckle).

Empirical analyses based on the IAB Establishment Panel (Hans-Dieter Gerner in cooperation with the Institute for Employment Research).

CASOTEX: Computer-aided analysis of social science texts

The aim of the project is to investigate the possible applications of current machine learning methods for the automated analysis of social science texts. Digital conversation histories from e-counseling supported by Nuremberg Tech’s E-counseling Institute serve as a data basis. On the basis of concrete socio-scientific questions on cause-and-effect relationships in online counseling, the extent to which current machine learning processes and computer-linguistic methods can support or supplement qualitative analyses is examined (Jens Albrecht).

The pilot study examines what kind of digitally supported neighbourhood assistance has existed so far on a regional, national and international level, what its structure and portfolio is, and what contribution it can make to social cohesion (Sabine Fromm and Doris Rosenkranz).

Nuremberg Tech Student Panel (Sabine Fromm), sponsored by the Bavarian Ministry of Science as part of Nuremberg Tech's course progress monitoring
More information