Excellent university didactics

Under the motto "Making teaching innovation visible in Saxony - networking of active teachers across university borders - exchange on potential developments in university teaching", the "Forum AKTive Lehre" of the Hochschuldidaktisches Zentrum Sachsen (HDS) took place in Leipzig on 15.11.2019.

As part of the event, Prof. Dr. Thomas Hofsäss (Vice-Rector for Education and International Affairs at Leipzig University and Chairman of the HDS) and Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Ralph Sonntag (Vice-Rector for Teaching and Studies at HTW Dresden) honored the recipients of the HDS certificate. This continuing education program comprises various modules in the main field of university didactics and is completed with the Saxon University Didactics Certificate. The aim is to increase the level of professionalization of Saxon lecturers by expanding individual teaching skills in the areas of knowledge, values and the ability to act, while at the same time implementing a change of perspective in teaching.

Once again, lecturers at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences were also recognized for their commitment. This year's certificate recipients include Dr. rer. medic. Katrin Mehnert (Faculty of Management and Cultural Sciences), who worked on the "Didactic redesign of the Public Health lecture and seminar" in the "Management in Healthcare" course as part of the module program.

Ronny Freudenreich M.A., recipient of the HDS-Zertifikat-plus AKTive Lehre in 2018 and employee in the projects Lehrpraxis im Transfer plus (LiT plus) and Digitale Hochschulbildung, accompanies lecturers at the HSZG in the field of university/media didactics and can highly recommend such formats:

"There are many new and exciting challenges in university didactics and the digitalization of higher education. The program helps participants to gain valuable insights and thus contribute to ensuring the quality of teaching. Especially for newcomers in teaching, programs such as the Engineering Pedagogical Continuing Education (IPWB) of the HSZG Career Service, the HDS certificate modules and the continuing education / support offers of the HSZG are highly recommended. Personally, the various support services offered by the HDS and the HSZG helped me to systematically reflect on my actions again and again and to evaluate them according to scientific methods. Transfer events gave me the opportunity to discuss my results with an expert audience, to benefit from their perspectives and to continuously improve my own actions. I benefited enormously from the exchange with colleagues and the coaches and can now support my colleagues with my experience."

The AKTive Lehre forum also offered a variety of opportunities for exchange and transfer. Under the heading: "LET'S PLAY WITH STATISTICS", the team from the MUVE-STAT project presented an innovative teaching and learning concept. This LiT.funding project, which is being carried out from April 2019 to March 2020 in cooperation between the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences (Prof. Dr. Maja Dshemuchadse, Faculty of Social Sciences) and the Technical University of Dresden (Prof. Dr. Stefan Scherbaum, Faculty of Psychology), focuses on innovative approaches to learning statistical methods. The e-learning format developed aims to support basic statistical methods teaching for students of communication psychology and psychology. With interactive web apps and instructional videos, it invites playful experimentation and thus enables experience-based learning.