Research-based learning (RBL) is related to the traditional idea of a teaching-research nexus at the university. The concept draws parallels between research and learning as the generation of either socially or personally useful knowledge (Brew, 1999) and highlights specific characteristics. The paper first presents some of these characteristics and then discusses the preconditions of their application within the exemplary SCoRe project. By participating in all steps of the research process, students can learn how to deal with the requirements of research as well as with failures. They gain experience in discipline-specific challenges and tasks as data collection, lab experiments, or the presentation of results in front of a critical audience. These students’ activities are based and focussed on professional researchers’ methods and tasks. This research mode of learning leads to a new role of the (researching) lecturer. The lecturer does not provide a canon of knowledge but assures the quality of scientific discourses between students and guides students into the discipline (Northedge & McArthur, 2010). The similarities of lecturers and students as researchers, distinct only by their level of expertise, mark the students’ initiation into the scientific community. Which of these characteristics can be found in the idea of video-based student research implemented with many students on a digital platform? The concept of video-based student research does not exactly appear to cultivate these characteristics. As video is not a usual research tool in many disciplines, students might be lacking orientation in research practices and artefacts. Moreover, it might be difficult to enable students to run through the whole research cycle since there are so many participants. Further challenges are posed by questions of quality assurance as supervision of a crowd is possible only to a limited extent. And there is another question related to the lack of personal support in the digital space: How can students undergo enculturation within their field of study without a professional researcher guiding them in a face-to-face communication? The paper opens up a critical perspective on the concept of video-based student crowd-research in order to discuss some suggestions for further research and development.

Brew, A. (1999). Research and teaching: Changing relationships in a changing context. Studies in Higher Education, 24(3), 291–301. Northedge, A., & McArthur, J. (2010). Guiding Students into a Discipline. The Significance of the Teacher. In C. Kreber (Ed.), The University and Its Disciplines: Teaching and Learning Within and Beyond Disciplinary Boundaries. London: Routledge.