Welcome to STACK 2024

We are happy to announce the International Meeting of the STACK Community 2024, which will take place on 11. - 13. March 2024 at OTH Amberg-Weiden, Amberg, Germany.

OTH Amberg-Weiden is a young University of Applied Sciences in the heart of eastern Bavaria. Founded in 1994, we are a growing and innovative technical university, offering our students a highly qualified and future oriented education. We have been using STACK for about 7 years now and contributed to most of the previous conferences. In the course of the years, STACK became an important part of our university’s strategy to develop teaching and learning and to address the needs of a variety of students in different STEM subjects. Having benefited a lot from the STACK community in the past, we would like to take the occasion of our 30th anniversary to host the STACK Conference in 2024 and celebrate this event together with the international STACK community.

You are welcome to join the international meeting in person or virtually. The working language of the conference is English. Let's continue the development of STACK and the associated improvement of teaching together!

What's new in Amberg

Hybrid conference participation has clear advantages: Costs and time required are comparatively low, as travel to and from the event as well as overnight stays are not required, for example. However, a key component of the experience is also eliminated: personal contact with the other participants. The use of virtual reality (VR) can remedy this situation, as it makes it possible to experience realistic images of a situation. This experience, known as immersion, makes us feel the virtual environment as "real" and motivates us to act and influence the environment.

“The experience of being transported to an elaborately simulated place is pleasurable in itself, regardless of the fantasy content. Immersion is a metaphorical term derived from the physical experience of being submerged in water. We seek the same feeling from a psychologically immersive experience that we do from a plunge in the ocean or swimming pool: the sensation of being surrounded by a completely other reality, as different as water is from air, that takes over all of our attention, our whole perceptual apparatus.”
– Janet H. Murray: Hamlet on the Holodeck

To enhance the international meeting of the STACK community 2024, especially for the digital participants, we will move part of the event into virtual reality. An example of such an environment is the virtual tour of the Master's program Educational Technology of OTH Amberg-Weiden. To enjoy the full experience of the designed environment, the use of VR glasses is recommended. However, the tour is designed in such a way that the environment can also be entered without VR equipment. Follow the link and try it!

Many STACK users are left to their own devices at their place of work and have to solve problems mostly on their own. Therefore, at the last meetings it could be observed that groups of people got together to discuss similar problems and their solutions. However, until now, there was no official place for these discussions and so they had to be held during breaks or at the expense of missed lectures.
With the STACK Assessment's Zulipchat, a digital space has already been created to support this type of topic-based communication and group work. With explicit sessions that are kept free just for such conversations, it is also possible to ponder, discuss, exchange, optimize or simply chat face-to-face at the next meeting.

Do you have an interesting question and are looking for advice? Your topic deserves more attention? You are already a group and need a place for your meeting? Suggest your topic for a Special Interest Group!

Contact us at STACK2024@oth-aw.de

A Special Interest Group (SIG) deals with a clearly defined area or problem. The common interest of the members is to work out solutions in their special area. Within the almost globally dispersed STACK community, communication and physical meetings are not always easy. For the first time, the International Meeting of the STACK Community offers interested SIGs the opportunity to exchange ideas and discuss problems with experts face-to-face in dedicated sessions during the conference. If you have a need for a SIG session, please contact us at STACK2024@oth-aw.de.

The Special Interest Group Mathe DIGITAL is occupied with the provision of mathematical content in STEM subjects. It is focused on ILIAS but open to Moodle, as well. Current topics of the group include:

  • Using STACK/ Maxima in ILIAS
  • Exchange of questions and learning materials
  • Exchange of didactic approaches in mathematics and e-learning
  • Support  Latex in ILIAS

Registration

Registration for the International Meeting of the STACK Community 2024 will be open from 02.10.2023 to 09.02.2024.

To register, please first register as a user on our ConfTool page as soon as it is available. You can then log in and register for the International Meeting of the STACK Community 2024 under "Register as a participant". Please note: Registration on the ConfTool page alone does not constitute registration for the event.

Please note: Contributors to the International Meeting of the STACK Community 2024 must also register to attend the event.

Participation fee

The amount of the participation fee has not yet been determined. As soon as the influencing factors are clarified, the fees for on-site and digital participation will be published here.

Submissions

You are invited to submit your abstracts (up to 300 words) for the International Meeting of the STACK Community 2024 starting from 02.10.2023 via ConfTool. The link for this will be published in due course at the same place. Proposals are welcome in English on topics related to STACK. It is possible to hand in contributions for presentations, lightning talks, workshops and posters. When submitting*, please indicate your desired presentation format. Afterwards a review process will take place.

Possible suggestions for topics:

  • STACK in teaching or exams
  • Feedback
  • New users and authoring of questions
  • Testing and maintaining
  • Contributing to the documentation, and the code base
  • Implementation and usage of GeoGebra, JSXGraph, or other Programs
  • Automation of question and feedback generation

The deadline for the submission of abstracts is 3rd of December, 2023**. After a review by the program committee, you will receive a notification of acceptance/rejection by January 21, 2024. After your acceptance, you are recommended to hand in your contribution via ConfTool. Accepted contributors will also have the opportunity to publish a paper based on their contribution to the Open Access platform Zenodo. The paper is optional.

* If you encounter any problems during the submission process or do not receive any confirmation by email please contact the organizers via STACK2024@oth-aw.de

** By midnight - 23:59 Middle European Time (UTC +1)

Presentations

For the sessions with this format, the presentations will be clustered thematically. The presentations should shed light on their topic in depth. Depending on the type of presentation, you will have 30 or 15 minutes, discussion included. Please note that attention will be paid to the observance of the times.

The recommended file types to be used for presentations are PowerPoint (*.ppt / *.pptx) or Portable Document Format (PDF). If you want to use other file types, or include interactive elements from other sources, feel free to contact us.

Talk

Each Talk is 30 minutes in duration. It is recommended to use 20-25 minutes to present and 5-10 minutes for discussion.

Lightning talk

Each lightning talk is 15 minutes in duration. It is recommended to use 10-12 minutes to present and 3-5 minutes for discussion.

Poster presentation

You can present your topic or concept free in terms of design on an A0 poster, also with accompanying materials, models, etc... The posters will also be bundled thematically and presented in an openly accessible room. In the course of this, there will be room for detailed discussions on individual posters. The presentation session itself will take place in VR***. Each presentation is 15 minutes in duration. It is recommended to use 8-10 minutes to present and 5-7 minutes for discussion.

Please note: We recommend providing handouts or QR codes to download the poster.

The recommended file types to be used for posters are *.ai, *.svg, *.jpg or *.png. The recommended size is A0.

*** We recommend the use of a VR-headset, but participation via a pc-screen is possible as well.

Workshop

In workshops, you present your topic with the active involvement of the participants. Workshops will last 90 minutes each, and the format is free. The participants can be involved in a variety of ways.

Please indicate what equipment you need for your workshop and how you would like to involve the participants. Please also indicate any prior knowledge needed for the workshop.

The recommended file types depend on the format of the workshop.

Proceedings

This year again, participants will have the opportunity to publish a paper based on their contribution to the OpenAccess platform Zenodo. Please follow the template for the submission of your paper. It will be available here soon.

Planned date of publishment is 10.06.2024.

Accommodation

There are several hotels and bed & breakfasts in Amberg. Conference guests are welcome to use our hotel contingents for overnight stays from 10 to 14.03.24. By using the code 'STACK2024' as a promo code, you will receive special Conference offers. The conference venue (at OTH Amberg-Weiden) is easily accessible by foot within about 15 minutes or by public transport. Rooms are available at the following hotels:

 

Allee Hotel Maximilian

The Allee Parkhotel Maximilian is located just a five minutes walk from the train station as well as the old town (Google Maps). It’s about 15 minutes walk to the conference site.

Price: From 85 EUR per single room or 105 EUR per double room (breakfast included).

Callable until 09.02.2024

Promocode: STACK2024

Altstadt-Hotel Amberg

The Altstadt-Hotel Amberg is located just a two minutes walk from the train station as well as the old town (Google Maps). It’s about 15 minutes walk to the conference site.

Price: From 89 EUR per single room or  130 EUR per double room (breakfast included).

Callable until 09.02.2024

Promocode: STACK2024

Hotel Brunner

The Hotel Brunner is located just a two minutes walk from the train station as well as the old town (Google Maps). It’s about 15 minutes walk to the confeeence site.

Price: From 95 EUR per single room (breakfast included).

Callable until 09.02.2024

Promocode: STACK2024

Hotel Fronfeste

The Hotel Fronfeste is located just a five minutes walk from the train station as well as the old town (Google Maps). It’s about 15 minutes walk to the conference site.

Price: From 78 EUR per single room or from 96 EUR per double room (breakfast included).

Callable until 09.02.2024

Promocode: STACK2024

Vienna House Easy Amberg

The Vienna House Easy Amberg is located just a 15 minutes walk from the train station and about 10 minutes to the old town (Google Maps). It’s about 15 minutes walk to the conference site.

Price: From 118 EUR per single room or 148 EUR per double room (breakfast included).

Callable until 28.01.2024

Booking requests are accepted by the hotel only with completed form via email.

Conference Dinner

This year, the Conference Dinner will take place at HeimatGenuss im Bruckmüller. The historic rooms in the brewery inn with their cozy atmosphere invite you to linger and enjoy a freshly tapped Bruckmüller beer from the in-house brewery. Freshly prepared specialties from the region await you.
Enjoy yourself in a convivial atmosphere, make new and renew old acquaintances, enjoy food and drinks, lean back, relax and end the evening on a cozy note.
The location is within walking distance from the venue as well as the hotels in Vilsstraße 2 in the middle of the old town of Amberg. When you register, you can already choose your meal. If you have any special requests or questions, please contact us at STACK2024@oth-aw.de.