FAU Education Newsletter May 2025

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9. May 2025

Spotlight 

FAU Competence Center Education: We’re up and running! 

Since March 1st, FAU has a new hub for excellent and innovative teaching: The FAU Competence Center Education brings together the Institute for Learning Innovation (ILI) and the Center for Higher Education Continuing Professional Development (FBZHL) under one roof. Whether traditional, digital, or hybrid – everything here revolves around teaching and learning! 

Together with lecturers, students, and all teaching-related units at FAU, we aim to shape teaching that is innovative, diversity-conscious, and future-oriented. 

We offer consulting, professional development, certification services, media production, and are continuously developing StudOn and StudOn-Exam. We also support the quality enhancement of teaching and learning at FAU. As FAU’s vhb office, we provide guidance on Classic vhb, Open vhb, and Smart vhb projects – and are actively involved in their development. 

We tackle key societal developments that impact teaching – including Artificial Intelligence in education, diversity and inclusion, Education for Sustainable Development, XR in higher education, Open Educational Resources (OER), and internationalization – through a wide range of projects in collaboration and with the participation of FAU teachers and students. 

We are locally, nationally, and internationally networked – and strive to be drivers, co-creators, and enablers of engaging, forward-looking teaching at FAU. 

More information – even if the website is still under construction – is available at: www.lehre.fau.de 

We look forward to exchanging ideas and working together with you! 

Professional Development in Higher Education 

Professional Development Program – Summer Semester 2025 

From assessment to mid-term evaluation, from AI to exam regulations, from vhb to StudOn – our professional development program for instructors at FAU offers a wide range of seminars to enhance your didactic skills in the classroom. Participation in our workshops counts towards the Certificate for Teaching in Higher Education of the Bavarian Universities. Why not take a look at our course catalogue: www.profilehreplus.de  

Online teaching: Inspiration for AI in teaching and innovative formats  

The event series “AI as a co-creator in university teaching” offers you a wide range of topics relating to the use of AI in university teaching in five seminars:   

Each event can also be attended individually.

Over the next few weeks, you will of course also find seminars on established topics, such as   

Browse through the seminar program for further topics.   

Online teaching certificate 

You can have recognized all [DiL] seminars attended for the “Themenzertifikat Digitale Lehre”. The certificate is aimed at all FAU lecturers who wish to strengthen and further develop their digital and media didactic skills and thus their teaching profile. 

Curricular Courses 

In our structured curricular courses, you will learn the foundations in Higher Education Teaching and Learning within a fixed group of instructors. Topics include course design, exam planning, presentation techniques, and student advising. The next Compact Course in Teaching & Learning in Higher Education (in German) takes place from September 15-19. Upon completion, you will receive the Certificate for Teaching in Higher Education of the Bavarian Universities at the Basis Level.  

Already completed the Basic Level Certificate and looking for the next step? The Advanced Level Course (in German) runs from September 22-26, covering topics such as the pedagogy of science teaching, interactive teaching methods, and body language and voice in the classroom.  

Teaching Analysis Poll 

End-of-semester evaluations don’t provide enough useful insights? Want to engage your students in a meaningful dialogue about effective teaching and learning conditions? We invite you to participate in a Teaching Analysis Poll (TAP) – a structured mid-term evaluation format, with our support. TAPs will be conducted during the first half of the summer semester.   

FLUENT: Flexible Universal Educational Model for a New Hybrid Teaching 

The online training course FLUENT is now available, and we look forward to your registration and participation! This is a free, English-language course based on a new, innovative course planning model. Flexibility is a top priority here! Course units completed in this context can be recognized for the Certificate in University Teaching. Completing the Graduation Track also leads to acquiring the Certificate for University Teaching at Bavarian Universities (Basic Level). You can find information on how to sign up here. 

vhb (Virtuelle Hochschule Bayern) 

Two vhb special fundings “all about AI”  

As a course provider, the vhb is giving you the opportunity to test and evaluate the use of AI in your courses and to support the basic development of skills in the use of AI for students as part of two funding rounds.  

KI meets vhb 

The special funding program “AI meets vhb: Enabling experimental approaches in online teaching” is entering its third round. 

As part of the funding program, funding can be applied for to test AI application scenarios in existing vhb courses (CLASSIC vhb & OPEN vhb) in an open-ended manner. The focus is on practical approaches to integrating existing AI systems and expanding the database for AI systems or training AI systems in the field of university teaching. In this way, new teaching/learning content, new ways of learning and/or new teaching approaches are to be developed. The experiences will also be shared across universities and the “lessons learned” published.  

The vhb-Office at FAU will be happy to support you in finding ideas and in conceptual media didactic questions. 

We look forward to hearing from you and your vhb project. Please contact us at mailto:vhb-office@fau.de.   

The deadline for submitting project proposals to the vhb is June 30, 2025.  

Further information, the call for proposals and the contact details of the vhb project management can be found on the vhb website.  

New: AI skills in studies  

With “Information and application forms for the special funding round ‘AI skills in studies’, the vhb has launched a special funding program with the aim of making an important contribution to overcoming the challenges surrounding the topic of artificial intelligence with basic courses on the topic of ‘AI skills’. 

As part of this special funding round, basic and introductory courses are to be created as CLASSIC of the OPEN vhb courses, in which participants develop a general understanding of how AI works and the underlying mechanisms of action. Accordingly, the courses are intended to impart knowledge that goes beyond the mere use of AI-based applications.  

The vhb office at FAU will be happy to support you in finding ideas and didactic concepts. We look forward to hearing from you and your vhb project. Please contact us at mailto:vhb-office@fau.de. 

The deadline for submitting project applications is June 30, 2025.  

Please find further information and the call for proposals on the vhb website. 

“Info event: Designing digital teaching projects with the vhb” on May 16 from 10 to 11 a.m.  

The Virtuelle Hochschule Bayern (vhb) supports teachers in developing digital teaching formats and integrating them optimally into their teaching. Whether interactive online materials, blended learning concepts or complete online courses – the vhb offers a wide range of didactic possibilities.  

As an interested FAU lecturer, you can currently also benefit from media didactic support from employees in the Instructional Designer@vhb project at the FAU vhb Office. They will accompany you from the initial idea through the didactic concept to the implementation and further development of your digital teaching project.  

In this event we will show you the specific opportunities the vhb offers for your teaching, present tried-and-tested good practice examples from existing offers and explain how you can use the didactic support of the vhb – especially the Instructional Designers. You will also receive a compact overview of the four types of services offered by the Bavarian Virtual University – CLASSIC vhb, OPEN vhb, SMART vhb and OER@vhb.  

Afterwards, we will be available to answer individual questions about the didactic implementation and technical design of your digital teaching projects.  

This information event will be held for all vhb member universities in Bavaria across all locations by employees in the “Instructional Designer@vhb” project and will take place exclusively online.  

Registration  

Online registration is required for participation until 14/05/2025 under the following link: https://www.vhb.org/veranstaltungen/details/artikel/infoveranstaltung-digitale-le/?no_cache=1&cHash=0d837f43078a140d49407f9816fe77f1  

Target group  

Teachers interested in improving their digital teaching formats or with the intention of developing them in cooperation with the vhb  

Lecturers  

A team of Instructional Designers @ vhb will host the event. 

Research and Projects 

FAU4Europe – Call for Blended Learning Activities 
Unlock New Opportunities with FAU4Europe 

You are interested in exploring blended learning offers with an international perspective? But you don’t have the time and resources to design something from scratch? EELISA at FAU is offering initial funding/seed funding to establish international blended learning offers together with one of our EELISA partner universities. With this EELISA seed funding a first pilot blended learning activity should be conceptualized, planned and conducted once. 

In the long run, this call aims to facilitate the creation of learning opportunities at FAU that can be transferred into Blended Intensive Programs (BIPs) in the following years. This would open the opportunity to apply for yearly Erasmus+ BIP funds, potentially allowing the program to be repeated. 
Find further information and the application form here: https://www.eelisa.fau.de/fau4europecall-blended-learning-activities/ 

StudOn 

StudOn has launched into the summer semester with the latest version of ILIAS. This not only introduces new features but also a revamped appearance and an optimized user interface. To support this transition, we will be creating supplementary video tutorials on the various tools available. These tutorials will be accessible in the Digital Toolbox of StudOn and will demonstrate how you can enrich your teaching with digital resources. 

Events 

Teachning Nuggets: Talk “Rethinking University Teaching as a Broken Game” (in German, original title “Hochschullehre neu denken – als kaputtes Spiel”) 

Teachning Nuggets is the theme of our Lecture Series on Learning & Teaching in Higher Education. This summer semester, we are excited to welcome Prof. Dr. Thomas Voit (TH Nürnberg), who researches gamification in education. In his thought-provoking, system-critical talk, he challenges the idea that our university system follows the “logic of the assembly line” rather than that of a game. He invites us to discuss how we can create motivating teaching and learning environments, and how game design principles can help foster greater enthusiasm for both teaching and learning. Don’t miss this exciting talk on May 20!  

Upcoming events