In-Person and Digital Teaching and Learning Certificate Programs

The "Teaching for University's Best” introductory course and the "Promoting Quality in Teaching” (Förderung der Qualität der Lehre) curriculum are accredited by the Accreditation Committee (akko) of the German Association for Educational and Academic Staff Development in Higher Education (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hochschuldidaktik e.V. - dghd) in 2006, 2012, and 2018. The accreditation procedure meets European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ESG), which are equivalent to the requirements of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA).

Certification
You will receive a certificate of participation if you attend actively in at least 80% of the course and actively participate. Upon request we can also provide a cumulative certificate of participation for courses completed across all program areas. Please provide copies of your individual participation certificates.

The cumulative certificate of participation includes

• Seminar titles
• Duration and scope
• Learning objective of each seminar

We offer two certificates to acquire university didactic qualifications:

1. Summary certificate (completion of at least 5 modules)
2. Qualified certificate (introductory course, at least 5 modules plus documentation and reflection)

Digital teaching is not simply the online equivalent of familiar teaching formats used in a lecture hall or lab.

It is its own field. While it shares the same basic principles from teaching and learning research as traditional teaching, digital teaching has its own possibilities and rules. Many tools and thus possible teaching settings have only arisen in recent years. As a result, teachers' practical knowledge from their own learning experiences is often only useful to a limited extent. Digital teaching is frequently initially associated with technology and its pitfalls. How do you record a good teaching video without professional equipment? How do you make an exciting podcast? How do you conduct an online exam with 1,000 students?

Such technical aspects are important but can be easily learned. Developing a cohesive concept for your course, on the other hand, is more challenging. Perhaps you can provide recordings of experiments to help students prepare for lab? Provide solved exercises for tutorials? Or write a blog together with your students? How do you communicate with students online? How can you promote collaborative working and thinking?

There is no manual for good digital teaching. However, our certificate program is a useful tool. Through courses, advising, and networking meetings, our Online Teaching Team guides you beginning with your initial idea through to implementing your teaching concept.

ZEWK has recently introduced its certificate program “TiE BAC: Teaching in English – Basic and Advanced Courses” for international visiting scholars and non-native English academic teachers.

You already teach in English or wish to prepare for future? Would you like to offer the best possible seminar or lecture to your students? Would you like to create a learning environment so your students can actively participate in exercises and ask questions?
In our basic and advanced courses, we provide an introduction to the theoretical and practical didactic aspects of university teaching and learning, with a focus on learning processes, methods and media to activate learners and promote innovation.

Our methods: interactive courses, short lectures, demonstrations, exercises, individual tasks, groupwork, presentations, discussion, sharing experiences, application and transfer to daily teaching practice. Active learning processes and individual teaching practice help you to improve your teaching competences.

You can obtain a certificate of participation for each course you complete and a cumulative certificate for all courses you attended. This certificate program is tailored to the needs of visiting scholars, international researchers and lecturers, non-native English- as well as German-speaking academic teachers.