Developing a platform for the integration of informal learning into the formal curriculum of higher education

At the University of Augsburg a co-curricular study programme has been introduced which makes it possible to integrate informal project activities into the formal curriculum of the bachelor/master programme "Media and Communication". This paper gives an overview of the didactic concept of this co-curricular study programme and shows how a social software system was designed, which integrates different tools like e-portfolios, social networking and e-assessment, to support this didactic concept. For this purpose the philosophy of design-based research, the modelling approach of usage-centered design and methods of agile software development have been employed.