"Learning with Objects” was a subproject within Lernraum Bauhaus at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar that built on the university’s long-standing tradition of learning through material engagement. Positioned within the faculties of Architecture and Urbanism, Civil Engineering, Art and Design, and Media, the project explored how object-based learning could be rethought within hybrid educational environments shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. It asked what an “object” meant in higher education, how students could learn with objects rather than merely about them, and how interactions between physical and digital actors reshaped teaching and learning processes.

 

The project developed experimental, interdisciplinary approaches based on constructivist learning principles, combining hands-on practice with digital tools. In doing so, it revealed both the potential and the tensions of hybrid learning which ranged from technological and logistical constraints to conceptual ambiguity and differing disciplinary expectations. Despite these challenges, valuable insights emerged through a constant dialogue with students and educators, highlighting new possibilities for object-based pedagogy.

 

The outcomes were presented through five exemplary models across the university’s faculties, addressing object presentation, group dynamics, autonomous learning, digital twin simulations, and motion capture. Together, these models offered tangible entry points into more complex theoretical questions and provided a transferable insight for hybrid teaching in diverse educational contexts.

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Project by Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, funded by the Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre from 2021 to 2024.