Academic Staff Development is the university's directorate of educational development. As such, it provides didactic expertise to academics as well as university institutions, departments and working groups involved in designing teaching processes. Personalised teaching competency development activities are available to all members of the university’s teaching staff. We assist faculties, departments and research teams with improving university structures for students.
We believe that in order to effectively improve study structures and the overall quality of teaching we must work university-wide with individual members of our staff to provide services that meet their training needs. At the same time, we are coordinating the university's work to effect structural change by producing standards that can be endorsed by and put into organisational practice across all university departments.
The Academic Staff Development team offers advanced training on principles of learning and teaching in higher education, including e-learning, to all members of the teaching staff.
We also provide structural support and advice on institutional processes to university staff responsible for study programmes, the university and its various institutions.
University didactics
University didactics offer personalised services in teaching competency development to all members of the teaching staff.
All members of the teaching staff employed by the university are welcome to attend workshops and lectures on the topic of teaching. The “Hochschuldidaktik über Mittag” (didactics at midday) series features keynote lectures by selected experts on current developments, research findings and subject-specific teaching methods.
Each month we offer public peer consultations to members of the teaching staff looking to develop their teaching competency further. You are very welcome to discuss any specific questions and concerns that you’ve come across in class.
We provide in-house consultation as well as coaching services in German and English on any topic related to individual teaching development, teaching competency development and the corresponding documentation. This also includes support for junior researchers seeking advice on teaching-related issues for their job applications and professorial appointment processes.
Modular training is available in the form of the “Baden-Württemberg-Zertifikat für Hochschuldidaktik” (Baden-Württemberg certificate of learning and teaching in higher education), a government-approved certificate we offer in cooperation with the Hochschuldidaktik-Zentrum Baden-Württemberg (HDZ). Around 14 members of staff at the University of Konstanz earn the certificate every year – which is above average in comparison to other participating universities.
Are you a newly appointed professor? Then you may consider attending the “Lehrkompetenz kompakt” (teaching competency compact) workshop that forms part of our “Professur am See” (professorship by the lake) programme. Please feel free to take full advantage of our teaching advice and coaching services.
Tutors and seminar leaders are very welcome to register for our interdisciplinary training programme. You might also be interested to learn more about the university-wide “TutorInnentraining” (training for tutors) programme, which we coordinate.
Educational development
We support faculties, departments and working groups looking to improve their structures for students. We deliver research-based and field-tested in-house expertise on processes of structural change and can moderate these. Customised and flexible support for course conveners is provided by our on-site advisors. You are very welcome to consult with them on any questions that may arise on matters such as exam preparation, designing study programmes and modules or quality assurance.
We also contribute to continual university-wide processes of teaching and learning development. These include the “Qualifikationsziele formulieren” (setting training objectives) guide, a dedicated kit and questionnaires for evaluating teaching competency in appointment procedures, all of which were designed as part of the system accreditation process.
E-learning
Increasing digitisation in teaching and learning offers a variety of opportunities for adopting new educational formats. We aid the university and its teaching staff in developing viable structures and media-didactic concepts, seeking to improve overall media literacy.
We partner with the university's Communication, Information, Media Centre (KIM) to lead the “Neue Medien” (new media) working group. “Neue Medien” coordinates supply and demand across the university, leads the development of new services and supports the university with devising its e-learning strategy.
We offer expertise on media-assisted learning to all members of teaching staff and coordinate all media-didactic training programmes. Our teaching and learning training programme also features workshops and lectures on e-learning designed to promote media literacy in university teachers. Key topics include virtual learning environments, the use of audience response “clicker” systems in teaching and the online learning platform ILIAS.