Teaching Day 2021

Working towards the common goal or working together towards the goal - cooperation and collaboration are two types of teamwork. The 6th Teaching Day was held at FH Aachen under the theme "Teaching and learning - in a team".

"In today's working world, well-developed cooperation and collaboration skills are becoming increasingly important. We have the task of preparing our students for this," emphasised Prof. Dr. Josef Rosenkranz, Prorector for Studies and Teaching, and Prof. Dr. Miriam Barnat, Head of the Centre for Higher Education Didactics and Quality Development, or ZHQ, in their joint opening speech. In this context, Prof. Barnat drew attention to the importance of collaboration in teaching. The ZHQ at FH Aachen has established various offers for collaborative work, such as the "Tafel-Runde". There, teachers from different faculties can exchange ideas about their university teaching.

Around 200 participants took part in this year's Teaching Day. The programme consisted of a keynote lecture by Dr. Markus Deimann entitled "The promises of digital education - quo vadis, university teaching?", several workshops as well as topic tables and an open discussion. The thematic focus on "team" is always in the foreground.

In the discussion it becomes clear: collaboration in higher education must be tackled on many levels, from the technical infrastructure to the attitude of the team members. "Working something out together requires courage. Collaboration and cooperation are based on mutual trust and the certainty of being allowed to make mistakes. Teachers should act as role models for students and convey that teamwork is a prerequisite and does not always work perfectly," emphasises Prof. Rosenkranz. One possibility for teachers to work collaboratively is Open Educational Resources, or OER for short. This refers to licence-free teaching and learning materials that teachers make available to colleagues. This offers opportunities to expand teaching concepts or make them more varied. Prof. Barnat is convinced of this concept: "My experience shows that teachers want to collaborate across disciplines. Implementation is not always easy at the moment, but we have to promote this structural change."

As part of this year's Teaching Day, teachers were again awarded the Teaching Prize for their special commitment and innovative concepts in the area of study and teaching. It is the FH's highest award in the area of teaching. Since 2018, there have been two teaching awards, a person-related award and an award with the dedication "practical group event".

This year, Prof. Dr. Martin Pieper from the Faculty of Energy Technology is awarded the person-related teaching prize. Prof. Pieper is very proud of the award: "The prize really means a lot to me, but I would also like to thank my team for it, without them I would not have been able to implement my crazy ideas. A big thank you also goes to my students, through the regular feedback my teaching got better and better." The second award goes to the teaching team Prof. Dr. Wilfried Moorkamp, Prof. Dr. Leif Arne Peterson and Prof. Dr. Thomas Uibel from the Faculty of Civil Engineering for their practical project module "EDV im Holzbau / Holztechnologie CAM" in the degree programme Wood Engineering. In her subsequent vote of thanks, it became clear that, in keeping with this year's teaching day theme, this award was all about collaborative teamwork.

To conclude the degree, five students from the UAS competed against each other in a science slam. Within five minutes each, Anna-Lena Keith (Communication Design), Lisa Tepaße (Civil Engineering), Lukas Schnittcher (Computer Science) and Tina Fandel (Architecture) presented their semester and final theses. Afterwards, all participants of the Teaching Day were allowed to vote online for their favourite. Lisa Tepaße was able to convince the audience with the topic "Flying Buildings". In her presentation, she explained the challenges and approaches to solutions in the construction of such structures using the example of floating concert loudspeakers, which are often used at music festivals. "I am very happy about winning," she says, beaming. The idea for her final thesis came during practical training at an engineering firm specialising in event technology.

This year, the Teaching Day also took place digitally, with only contributors present in a studio set up for the purpose at the UAS. The day was moderated by Roxana Steckling from the Department of Public Relations and Marketing. The decision to have the Teaching Day take place online was not an easy one for the Prorector for Studies and Teaching. At the end of the day, however, Prof. Rosenkranz said goodbye to all participants with the prospect of a real reunion next year.