How can teaching education and learning be developed in a participatory and innovative way? Students and lecturers at The Hochschule Niederrhein (HSNR) have now explored this question. In an ideas competition, three teams were able to convince the six-member jury and win prize money.
In the "Parti Contest - New Ideas for Your University", five faculties took the opportunity to submit their proposals. The jury, which was made up of three students and three lecturers, was enthusiastic: the ideas could be easily applied to other courses and faculties and help to improve participation, decision-making and design processes.
These are the winning teams
In "RevolOC", Daria Giesbert, Rafael Ribeiro and Prof.in Dr.in Andrea Wanninger from the Faculty of Chemistry in Krefeld looked at the restructuring of internships for organic chemistry, through which students are significantly involved in the design. The aim is to increase enthusiasm for compulsory practicals by allowing them to contribute feedback and their own topics and by using a variety of methods. The implementation of this idea could lead to a sustainable, participatory improvement of the course.
The idea "Student participation through needs-based teaching modularity" by Pascal Morawietz, Robin Walter and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Holger Dander was developed as a cooperation project between the Faculties of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Mechanical and Process Engineering in Krefeld. The trio developed an evidence-based teaching/learning concept that can be implemented in all faculties and degree programs. Using a Big Picture, students can determine individual subject requirements and name their own inputs. With this concept, courses are to be designed on a semester-specific and demand-driven basis and offer students the opportunity for self-realization.
The third winning team, Elena Thißen and Prof. Dr. Frank Jebe, comes from the Faculty of Applied Social Sciences in Mönchengladbach. To implement their idea, entitled "ART LAB LUNCH", a lecture in the Bachelor of Cultural Education is to be redesigned in cooperation with the Museum Abteiberg. The aim is to create practical experience spaces for the first semester students. Here, communicative skills that are particularly important for the everyday work of cultural educators are to be tested independently.
Each winning team receives 2,000 euros: the students can take home 1,000 euros and 1,000 euros go to the lecturers for implementing the idea.
The "Parti Contest" took place for the second time this year and is offered by the Department of Studies and Teaching Education. Its Vice President Prof. Dr. Berthold Stegemerten and future Vice President Prof.in Dr.in Gudrun Stockmanns were enthusiastic about the committed teams and their contribution to improving teaching education and learning at The Hochschule Niederrhein. "With the Parti Contest, we are pursuing the goal of breaking down the usual separation of lecturers and learners and working together on a more participatory future for our university."
