WU’s teachers regularly receive awards for their teaching. That doesn’t mean we have time to rest on our laurels, however: We are constantly striving for improvement, so all of our classes are subject to regular evaluations and we are in a constant dialog with teachers about their experiences in the classroom. We also keep in touch with employers, accreditation agencies, and alumni, which provides us with important new impulses for improving WU’s academic quality.
Teaching Teachers
At WU, it’s not just the students who learn: Teachers also need to learn how to develop new teaching and learning methods, how to encourage active participation in their classes, and how to provide the best possible support to their students. A new event series, “Treffpunkt Lehre,” was established to give our teachers a forum for sharing their ideas and experiences.
In 2017, WU teachers and external experts met at two events. The first event focused on interactive teaching, how to encourage classroom participation even in large-scale lectures, and how to support students in their independent study by providing and optimizing online materials.
The second “Treffpunkt Lehre” event looked at how students learn: Based on neurological research, WU teachers looked at how learning processes happen in the brain and how to design courses that facilitate these processes. The second lecture focused mainly on emotions and how to use them to the best effect in the classroom.
Making Classes More Flexible
Our teachers are innovative and enjoy creating new course formats. In 2017, we made some changes to the existing administrative and legal frameworks to allow our teachers more room for creativity in designing their courses. In cooperation with the most important stakeholders like academic directors, senior lecturers, representatives of the Austrian Students’ Union, and the Academic Programs Committee, we developed four new course formats and examination types:
- Lectures with interactive elements
- Small-group Research seminars
- Workshop-type courses
- Module examinations on the material covered by at least two preparatory courses
EUA Learning & Teaching Initiative
WU has close ties to the European University Association (EUA), an organization representing universities and national rectors’ conferences in Europe. The 2017 EUA Teaching & Learning Initiative brought together representatives of universities from all over Europe. In four thematic peer groups, the following areas were discussed:
- Building a link between research and teaching missions of the university
- Empowering students for their future professional life and civic engagement
- Addressing larger and more diverse student bodies while ensuring student success
- Fostering engagement in developing learning and teaching
WU coordinated a thematic peer group on fostering engagement in developing learning and teaching.