Teaching Award
"One Mission" is a catchphrase that represents a programme focus within the HSRW's University Development Plan 2030. The aim of the "One Mission" concept is to dovetail teaching, research and transfer in everyday academic life.
As an important key factor for a university of the future, the ‘One Mission’ guiding principle provides the framework for the teaching award topics of the next three years.
In 2025, the teaching award will focus on the aspect of teaching. Here, "Teaching in and for large Groups in Higher Education" is the key motto. In 2026, the focus of the teaching award will shift to the research aspect of the ‘One Mission’ concept and the motto will deal with the topic of "research-based teaching". Finally, in 2027, the transfer aspect of the ‘One Mission’ idea will take centre stage and the teaching award will focus on the motto "Teaching as a real-world laboratory - with and in practice".
With the awarding of the Teaching Prize, Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences underscores the high value placed on the quality of teaching and acknowledges the commitment of its teaching staff.
The Teaching Prize is awarded under an annually changing theme and is endowed with a total of €10,000.
In 2025, the Teaching Prize will be awarded under the theme:
"Teaching in and for large Groups in Higher Education"
- Individualisation of teaching: In large groups, it is often difficult to respond to the individual needs and learning styles of students. The challenge is to find a balance between conveying content and taking into account the different learning requirements.
- Interactive teaching methods: Implementing interactive teaching methods, such as group work or discussions, can be logistically complicated in large groups. Teachers need to develop creative approaches to actively involve students.
- Feedback and evaluation: The ability to provide individualised feedback and evaluate student performance is limited in large groups. Teachers need to find ways to give constructive feedback and measure learning outcomes.
- Technological support: The use of technology to support teaching can be both an opportunity and a challenge. Teachers need to familiarise themselves with different tools and platforms and ensure that all students have access to these resources.
- Motivation and engagement: In large groups, it can be difficult to maintain student motivation and engagement. Teachers need to develop strategies to motivate students and create a positive learning environment.
Criteria for the awarding of the Teaching Prize include:
- Didactic diversity: The course should integrate a variety of didactic methods that include both frontal and interactive elements. A high degree of didactic diversity promotes different learning styles and increases the effectiveness of learning.
- Individualisation of learning opportunities: Course offerings should be designed to cater to the different needs of students. This can be achieved through differentiated tasks, alternative learning formats or individual counselling.
- Feedback culture: A constructive feedback culture is crucial for the learning process. The quality and frequency of feedback given to students should be high in order to support their learning progress.
- Technological integration: the use of digital media and technologies to support teaching should be meaningful and effective. The integration of technology should promote learning and facilitate student access to learning resources.
- Student engagement: Active participation and engagement of students in class are important indicators of teaching quality. Methods to promote engagement should be recognisable in the course.
Who can be nominated?
Nominations can be made by any member of the professorial staff, as well as all academic staff and teaching staff for special responsibilities, who taught at Rhine-Waal University in the summer semester 2024 and/or the winter semester 2024/2025.
Who can nominate?
- Deans (one nomination each)
- FSRs (one nomination per FSR)
- Groups of at least five students (every student can nominate one lecturer)
- Self-nomination (one nomination per person)
Steps
The nominations can be submitted via the nomination tool in the following link:
https://moodle.hochschule-rhein-waal.de/mod/feedback/view.php?id=500994
All nominations received by March 11, 2025, will be considered. Subsequently, the nominated lectuers will be contacted and informed about all details of the procedure. They will be asked to submit the following documents:
- Teaching concept for the nominated course (max. 3 pages DIN-A4)
- Response to questions of higher education didactics regarding their own teaching/learning understanding and the nominated course (max. 3 pages DIN-A4)
- Consent form to make the evaluation results of the nominated course accessible to the Teaching Prize jury
Jury
The jury will consider all nominations submitted before the deadline using a standardised selection process and announce the winner after deliberations have concluded. The jury consists of:
- Professor Dr Tobina Brinker, Managing Director of the “Hochschuldidaktische Weiterbildung” network (hdw nrw), Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences
- Professor Dr. Steffi Wiedemann, recipient Teaching Award 2024, Faculty of Life Sciences
- Jonas Lamik, Spokesperson for the HEP 2030 group ‘One Mission’
- Kristina Kähler, General Didactics in Higher Education, Ruhr-West University of Applied Sciences
- N.N., Student
- N.N., Student