The development of the Guidelines on innovative teaching

The basic idea: Create freedom and scope for sharing ideas, and encourage co-creativity as a means of working together to develop ideas

The Guidelines on innovative teaching approved by the Commission for Teaching and Studying (Uni-LuSt) and adopted by the Executive Board in 2022 are the result of a process involving people from all across the University. Working with a mixture of a structured working group, co-creative workshops with participants chosen at random (an equal mix of teaching staff and students) and dialogs held across the University, FAU has developed its understanding of what excellence in teaching actually means and gathered inspiring examples of how it can be implemented in practice. The project was launched during an FAU Dialog in early 2022.

The main idea while developing the guidelines was to encourage the principle of communication on an equal footing and offer everyone the freedom to exchange thoughts and share their knowledge and ideas irrespective of hierarchy, discipline and status group.

After an iterative feedback process, the Guidelines on innovative teaching were discussed in the meeting of the Deans of Study before they were approved by the Commission for Teaching and Studying (Uni-LuSt).

Guidelines on innovative teaching

 

Our objective: The Guidelines on innovative teaching are to shape the future of teaching and studying at FAU

The impetus to implement the guidelines across FAU will be given in an FAU Dialog at the end of 2022. Our aim is to exchange ideas with members of FAU on how these guidelines can be brought to life at FAU. The guidelines and the teaching and studying strategy based on them should become the guiding light for teaching and studying across the whole of FAU.

Active participants: Teaching staff and students from all faculties as well as teaching and studying experts from FAU

All members of FAU were invited to participate in the kick-off dialog and in the various forums on offer. We deliberately made sure to include teaching staff from all faculties, as well as students and teaching and studying experts from our central and independent institutions. By selecting participants for our co-creation workshops at random, we aimed to involve people from across the whole of the University.

A working group on Innovative Teaching drew up the guidelines based on input from the FAU community and guided the whole process. The members of the working group on Innovative Teaching were:

Students

  • Michael Ruppert
  • Lara Ebbinghaus

Research staff

  • Dr. Christine Ganslmayer
  • Dr. Kristina Maul
  • Dr. Wigand Rathmann

Teaching/studying experts

  • Dr. Henni Appell, quality development in studying and teaching
  • Dr. Michael Cursio, Center for Continuing Education in University-Level Teaching
  • Sónia Hetzner, Innovation in Learning Institute
  • Esther Paulmann, Education coordinator
  • Sebastian-Manuel Schmidt, Training

Professors

  • Prof. Dr. Bärbel Kopp, Vice President Education
  • Prof. Dr. Karl Wilbers
  • Prof. Dr. Svenja Bedenlier

Developing the guidelines one step at a time

I Fields of action: Identify topics, gather ideas, write a draft

  • October 2021: Uni-LuSt establishes Innovative Teaching working group
  • January 2022: In the FAU Dialog Education #2025 involving teaching staff and students alike, topics were gathered and suggestions pooled for encouraging excellent and innovative teaching after the pandemic.
  • January through April: Evaluation of FAU Dialog by working group, determining clusters of categories for the guidelines, wording the commitment to deliver excellent teaching and gathering inspiring examples of excellent teaching.

II Co-creativity: Developing innovative concepts together with participants selected at random

  • May 2022: Co-creation workshops “From Nowland to Nextland” with teaching staff chosen at random from all faculties and students nominated by the student associations. Based on the categories from the first draft of the guidelines, visions for teaching and studying at FAU were gathered and placed in order of priority. This was then taken as the basis to develop concepts for inspirational teaching and define possible steps for implementation.

III Commitment: Feedback and adoption of guidelines

  • June and July 2022: Feedback on the Guidelines on innovative teaching in the university committees on teaching and studying (Q-meetings, meetings of the Deans of Studies, Uni-LuSt) and revision of guidelines
  • July 2022: Guidelines approved by Uni-LuSt
  • September 2022: Executive Board passes resolution on the guidelines

IV Implementation: Communicate inspiring examples, continue to develop measures

  • October 2022: Guidelines and examples gathered during the co-creation workshops and by the working group on Innovative Teaching presented to the university committees on teaching and studying (Q-meetings, meetings of the Deans of Studies, Uni-LuSt)
  • November and December 2022: Faculty Councils communicate the guidelines to the faculties
  • December 19, 2022: FAU Dialog Education “Excellence in teaching as a driver of innovation” presenting inspiring examples of implementation from teaching staff and students and providing a forum to gather further ideas for continuing to shape and develop measures. Objective: To discuss ideas for how to breathe life into the guidelines at FAU with members of FAU.
  • As of January 2023: University-wide campaign on the guidelines
  • As of January 2023: Continuing to develop implementation measures within the context of a strategy for teaching and studying