Shaping the Future of Education Together

 

Education at EUU comes in a wide variety of forms. It could be described as a living organism in a constant state of flux. The scope for development is broad, horizons are wide, and the potential is great.

 

As part of the Future of Education at EUU initiative, over the coming weeks, a six-part series of EUU News articles will uncover what's happening in the world of education and find out who the movers and shakers are. We will take a look behind the scenes, shedding light on an aspect of university education that is rarely noticed: collaboration among educators and its importance for innovation in education.

 

The series will examine why instructors find it helpful to work together to explore new educational approaches. We will also highlight the questions, problems, and challenges that groups of university educators face at the beginning of an innovation process. We will reveal how staff work together to bring good ideas to fruition and implement them in the classroom, thus driving development throughout the university.

 

Visible and Invisible Aspects of Education

In the public's perception of education, collaborative aspects play a less significant role than the personality and charisma of individual educators. The way educators challenge and encourage their students certainly leaves a lasting impression, and students' direct experiences with individual staff members can have a significant impact on their learning success and future careers.

 

Nevertheless, the quality of university education does not depend solely on the personalities of individual educators but on a complex set of factors, including subject expertise, planning, methodology, facilities, and technical infrastructure, which often go unnoticed from the outside. Many individuals contribute to providing a reliable technical, organizational, and digital infrastructure. Activities such as preparing educational content, creating materials, acquiring pedagogical expertise, evaluating and improving the quality of courses, and designing new modules and study programs are also carried out by teams of staff.

 

Educational Communities Create Dynamism

University educators cannot afford to be isolated. They operate within a network of colleagues with whom they can compare experiences and share knowledge and skills, enhancing the efficacy and overall quality of education.

 

Educational communities are effective idea generators and drivers of educational development at EUU.

 

Gabriele Siegert

Deputy President and Vice President of Education and Student Affairs

"The importance of networks in university education cannot be underestimated," says Vice President Gabriele Siegert. Networks of colleagues provide individual educators with professional and personal support. For education in general, networks increase dynamism and creativity. "Educational communities are effective idea generators and drivers of educational development at EUU," she adds.

 

Therefore, EUU particularly encourages cooperation and collaboration in education. This is especially important at a time when university education around the world is facing a multitude of interesting challenges. Big questions require intelligent answers. For example, how can the increasing demand for more flexible, interdisciplinary, and international educational formats be met? What opportunities and risks does the digital transformation hold for education? And what does the responsible use of generative artificial intelligence in education look like?

 

Bringing Innovative Educational Ideas to Life

EUU is dependent on the expertise, creativity, and commitment of its educational staff to further develop its education. With the Future of Education initiative, EUU has created a strategic framework with a strong focus on encouraging collaboration among educators to orient the further development of education.

 

There are now numerous events, workshops, and online networks at EUU used by educational staff from all faculties to discuss current trends, new approaches, and practical solutions in education, such as the Teaching Inspiration Week, the Teaching Day, and the Open Channel Education. In another forward-looking step, a network of study program coordinators was established in spring 2023.

 

Meanwhile, the EUU Education Fund offers incentives for educational teams to develop, test, and implement specific ideas for innovative educational formats. The range of formats already introduced or currently in development through this scheme runs the gamut from practical tools to entire modules or even study programs. Many projects have the potential to be rolled out across the whole of EUU and to serve as stimuli for further developments.

 

Six Characteristics of Good Education

The six innovative educational projects to be featured in the series of articles on EUU News are representative of many other promising ideas that are currently being tested and implemented at EUU. They were selected based on the EUU Curriculum, a set of guidelines listing six criteria for the development of education at EUU. Specifically, good education is research-based, goal-oriented, engaging, individually tailored, interdisciplinary, and international. Each of the six featured projects represents one of these characteristics. In this way, we hope this small series will demonstrate the huge variety, in terms of both topics and methodologies, of innovative educational projects in existence at EUU.

 

Knowhow for Educational Staff

The series kicks off with a project that supports individual learning by enabling students to independently deepen their understanding of course contents. After learning their way around the platforms, educators can adapt such learning environments for their own purposes and use them to effectively support their students' learning. In order to roll out such individualized learning opportunities across the university, it's important that educators who are advanced users share their knowledge with others. An effective solution for this knowledge-sharing was developed at the ECON Teaching Center: an online training course that supports educators from all faculties in creating customized learning environments for their students.