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Online grocery business models in Germany have not been economically successful so far. While the market share of online fast moving consumer goods in Germany is on a low level (<2%), it is considerably higher in other countries like the UK (8%) or South Korea (20%). With this research in progress, we reveal factors that influence German consumers when shopping groceries online and seek to identify their behavioural patterns. Three qualitative studies with consumers using an online grocery shopping application are currently conducted. Results of the first study show that reliability and trust in the process are core factors for the actual usage of online grocery shopping. We also observed that stress levels of the participants rise in reaction to the technological usability of the application. The analysis in progress highlights unexplored consumer perceptions of online grocery business models and can serve as a bridge to design them customer centric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With this research, a conceptual research framework describing consumer acceptance factors to use online grocery shopping in Germany is developed. Despite a successful existing digital platform infrastructure for online shopping, the German grocery industry scarcely exploits the digital platform model. It is stated that insufficient understanding of the consumer's online grocery shopping acceptance could be one explaining factor for its limited success and that the operation of such platforms should be based on their understanding. Therefore, literature analysis and three qualitative workshops using Bewextra as well as Quality Function Deployment methodologies are conducted. Based thereon, a framework constituting consumer intention to use online grocery shopping is constructed. It extends the Technology Acceptance Model by Davis with the factors, Trust, Product Involvement, Product Quality, Product Freshness, Enjoyment and E-Shopping Quality. Finally, ongoing evaluation studies are discussed and an outlook on further studies in this context is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern digital technologies like Augmented Reality (AR) are assumed to foster the learning process due to their hands-on nature. AR has the advantage of visualising processes, objects or data and information that would under regular circumstances not be visible or perceptible for the user, since it integrates virtual objects into the real world by an overlay display of these objects. Moreover, collaboration via AR can be realised by using smartphones and tablets. This comprises the advantage of using devices which the students do not need to learn the operation of since they are in everyday use. However, there is still a lack of research on the impact the use of AR has especially on team communication, learning processes, and the general outcomes of collaborative teamwork. Against this background, a prototype of a collaborative AR app was developed as well as a study design was set up for investigating the effects of AR on the teamwork in collaborative learning processes. The study comprises a pre-post-test design in combination with an experimental setting. While the pre- and post-tests are realised by standardised questionnaires and qualitative, semi-standardised focus group interviews, the experimental setting is recorded by video camera in order to qualitatively analyse the video data of the communicative and work-based processes and interactions of the collaboration. When comparing the test and control group (AR team vs. paper-based, non-AR team) the verbal communication of the AR team was lower in terms of number and frequency of statements. However, the product presented as result of the collaboration phase was of comparable quality and detail as the non-AR team's product. With respect to communicative structures during the collaboration and the outcomes of the respective team products, the study also investigates the effect of AR on these aspects. The focus of this paper, however, is the examination of the effect(s) of the collaborative AR app developed on the process of the teamwork in terms of communication and interaction. It aims at understanding to which extent AR changes the way people communicate in collaborative settings, i.e. when they pursue a common goal. Moreover, the results of the study aim at identifying recommendations for action (e.g. for university teachers) in terms of the design of collaborative (learning) processes that will be enriched by AR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past years, the increasing networking of the global economy as well as the internationalization at school and work make the need for intercultural competences obvious. While studying or going abroad is often linked with prospects of personal or career growth, many people struggle when it comes to risk associated with operating in unfamiliar markets and cultures, problems that go beyond the conversational level. Especially engineering practice is characterized by an increasing internationalization of work, both through the expansion of multinational organizations and increasing mobility of engineers. Hence intercultural competence is becoming a skill of growing importance of future engineers. The Project - "Excellent Teaching and Learning in Engineering Science" at RWTH Aachen University developed an intercultural training to address this challenge. "Excellent Teaching and Learning in Engineering Science" (ELLI 2) is a collaborative project by the RWTH Aachen University, the Ruhr-Universität Bochum as well as the University Dortmund to continuously improve teaching quality and studying condition. The goal of this two-day extra-module intercultural training which is was introduced in 2013 to train German students for their foreign exchange as well as for foreign guest students. Thereby the training takes a multidimensional look at the cross-cultural issues faced by practitioners working across the greatest cultural distances with the aid of different methods and strategies. It focuses on the key step of translating cultural awareness into systematic problem diagnosis in cross-cultural teamwork and interactions. Hence, the focus lies on teaching learners how to transform culture knowledge into logic to generate alternative causal explanations for unexpected events and behaviour in cross-cultural work interactions. This paper describes the design of the intercultural training as well as the effectiveness of it, which is assessed in an experimental pre-post design, before and after the workshop. Based on the results, it can be concluded that intercultural training can improve students' perception of intercultural competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The twenty-first century is highly influenced by globalization, climate change and an increasing dependence on technologies. Education in general needs to foster these trends, but especially engineering education needs to impart knowledge about the necessity and the possibilities of sustainable development to students. The Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Challenge offers an innovative opportunity to integrate sustainability into engineering curricula. Although the EWB Challenge is well established in other countries, RWTH Aachen University is the only university in Germany that has implemented the EWB Challenge into the engineering curricula so far. This paper aims at presenting the process of implementing the EWB Challenge in Germany. In the course of this implementation, the concept was evaluated with the help of a standardized questionnaire; an overview of the results gained from this evaluation is provided in this paper as well. The evaluation served to gain diverse information e.g. about the perception of the challenge in general, its impact on the amount of knowledge gained by the students, and also about the challenge's potentials for improvement. First analyses show, that the overall quality of the EWB Challenge at RWTH Aachen University was marked as "good". Asides from that, the analyses also indicate that the students most benefit from a great amount of gained knowledge and their improved ability to adapt technologies depending on the situational context and the underlying social and cultural structures. Yet, the results show that there are also aspects of the challenge-concept that need some improvement. One of these aspects is to enhance the students' awareness of the social responsibilities of engineers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]