Teaching Skills Certificate | Advanced

This module serves as the starting point for the Teaching Skills Certificate Advanced. It provides participants with an opportunity to get to know one another and introduces them to the program’s goals and structure. The focus is then on the selection and planning of an individual teaching development project that participants will work on throughout the program. Based on their individual development interests, participants explore the available project formats, select a format that best fits their goals, and develop concrete first steps for the implementation, collegial support, documentation, and reflection of their project.

Learning Outcomes

Participants…

• are familiar with the structure, goals, and requirements of the Teaching Skills Certificate Advanced

• are familiar with the available project formats and can select a format that aligns with their individual development interests

• can outline an individual project of an appropriate scope and with a clear focus

• can plan initial steps for the implementation, collegial feedback, documentation, reflection, and visualization of their project

Course Content

1. Overview of the Teaching Skills Certificate Advanced: goals, structure, and the role of the development project

2. Overview of project formats: Teaching observation, Scholarly teaching, Teaching statement and Teaching portfolio, Innovative teaching project

3. Reflecting on individual teaching practice and development interests: observations, goals, and starting points for a development project

4. Planning an individual project: project focus and next steps

5. Working in tandems: the role of the Critical Friend and collegial feedback

 

Instructor: Dr. Johanna Warm, Lead Teaching and Learning Development

How can assessment become a meaningful part of learning while providing credible evidence of what students can actually do? This workshop invites participants to rethink assessment as an integral part of course design. We explore how learning outcomes, assessment tasks and evaluation criteria can be aligned to create meaningful, fair and transparent assessment practices, and how formative and summative approaches can complement each other. Participants develop criteria and rubrics that support consistent judgements as well as constructive feedback, and consider how these principles apply across different assessment settings, including the supervision and assessment of final theses. Particular attention is given to the opportunities and challenges of generative AI and to designing assessments that provide authentic evidence of students’ own achievement. Through collegial exchange, participants critically review and further develop an existing assessment design and build a clear didactic rationale for their choices.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• design, implement and critically review competence-oriented assessments that are aligned with intended learning outcomes and meet principles of validity, fairness and transparency;

• distinguish between formative and summative assessment and select appropriate assessment and feedback approaches for different purposes;

• develop and use clear assessment criteria and rubrics to support consistent and defensible judgement and provide constructive feedback that helps students improve their work;

• formulate clear expectations regarding independent work and the use of generative AI, and design assessment tasks and conditions accordingly;

• revise and justify assessment designs for their own teaching practice, including assessments related to final theses, based on principles of competence-oriented assessment.

Course Content

1. Quality of assessment designs: validity, fairness, transparency and alignment among learning outcomes, tasks and evaluation

2. Formative and summative assessment: purposes, functions and appropriate use

3. Competence-oriented assessment formats and task design

4. Using rubrics for transparent assessment and supervision of final theses and constructive, learning-oriented feedback

5. Assessment in the context of generative AI: independent achievement, permitted support and implications for task and assessment design

6. Collegial review and revision of an existing assessment design

 

Instructor: Anja Pawelleck, Dipl. Psych.,Head of University Didactic Training, University of Zurich

Participants further develop their competencies to reflectively and purposefully design digital teaching and assessment scenarios. They explore how asynchronous self-study phases, for example in an inverted classroom format, can be designed to actively engage learners. In addition, the module collectively examines how the digital learning environment can be used to effectively implement formative assessment, learning-oriented feedback, and collaborative learning approaches. Participants also discuss the meaningful use of AI tools in teaching and assessment processes,as well as tool-assisted approaches to designing AI-resilient assessments

Learning Outcomes

Participants will be able to:

• determine which learning content is suitable for asynchronous phases (e.g., as part of an inverted classroom approach or preparatory activities)

• design engaging self-study materials in accordance with didactic design principles and select and use appropriate digital tools for this purpose

• use features of the digital learning environment to support continuous assessment of student learning

• apply AI tools to support teaching and assessment processes

• develop competency-oriented exam questions and effectively use AI to support assessment design

Course Content

1. Designing and aligning asynchronous and synchronous learning phases

2. Selected digital tools for creating engaging self-study materials

3. Features of the digital learning environment for formative assessment, including graded quizzes and discussions, group work, and peer review

4. AI-supported task and assessment design, quality review, and the development of AI-resilient assessments with digital tools

5. Developing and peer-reviewing an asynchronous learning phase or a formative assessment design for participants’ own digital course environment

 

Instructors:

Dr. Julia Dohr, Digital Teaching Services (WU)

Fabian Mosböck, MSc, Digital Teaching Services (WU)

How can challenging teaching settings be turned into effective learning opportunities? This course supports participants in developing well-aligned, student-centred and evidence-informed teaching settings.

Participants will explore how to align learning outcomes and activities, select and structure subject matter, foster active participation, and respond to diverse learning needs. They will do so by working with their own course or lesson design. Through practical exercises and collegial exchange, they analyze their teaching choices and develop concrete improvements they can directly apply to their own practice.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• apply Constructive Alignment to design competence-oriented and student-centred lessons that align learning outcomes, learning activities and subject matter

• select, prioritize and reduce course content in relation to the competences students are expected to develop

• select active and collaborative learning approaches suited to different group sizes, prior knowledge and learning needs

• identify signs of learning and comprehension difficulties, analyse possible causes and consider appropriate didactic adaptations

• analyze complex teaching settings and develop evidence-informed improvements to their own teaching practice

Course Content

1. Constructive Alignment: aligning intended learning outcomes, learning activities and subject matter in course planning

2. Planning student-centred, active and collaborative learning settings

3. Responding to diverse prior knowledge, participation and learning needs

4. Balancing content coverage and deeper learning

5. Analyzing one’s own teaching practice: didactic decisions, routines and scope for development

6. Fostering active and collaborative learning in large groups

7. Collegial reflection and the development of an existing course or lesson design

 

Instructor: Anja Pawelleck, Dipl. Psych., Head of University Didactic Training, University of Zurich

Participants explore how they can effectively guide and support fellow educators in teaching and learning contexts—across different teaching cultures, levels of experience, and even hierarchical boundaries. They become familiar with both the formal and informal roles within WU’s teaching governance and develop leadership approaches tailored to their own context. Throughout the course, participants reflect on their values, scope of influence, and understanding of leadership, and identify a concrete opportunity to strengthen their own educational leadership practice.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• understand key concepts and approaches to educational leadership and relate them to their own role in higher education teaching;

• identify leadership and change-making responsibilities in teaching, particularly in teaching teams, mentoring and coaching contexts, the development and management of programmes and modules, and the implementation of teaching innovations;

• reflect on and clarify roles, expectations, and coordination processes within teaching teams;

• critically examine their own values, leadership approach, and sphere of influence in relation to future academic leadership responsibilities, and adapt these where appropriate.

Course Content

1. Self-Leadership: values, leadership identity, and identifying the next step in personal development

2. Educational Leadership in Higher Education: key leadership approaches, with a particular focus on shared leadership and cross-hierarchical leadership

3. Teaching in Teams: role clarification, collaboration, and shared responsibility

4. Curriculum Development and Teaching Innovation: designing and implementing systematic educational innovation within one's own sphere of influence

5. Governance and Organisational Context: teaching governance, institutional support structures, and organisational frameworks

6. Self-Leadership: reflecting on values, leadership identity, and planning the next developmental step

 

Instructors:

Dr. Pio Fenton, Vice President People & Culture (Munster Technological University)

Dr. Oliver Vettori, Director, Program Management & Teaching and Learning Affairs / Dean, Accreditations & Quality Management / Director, Academic Affairs ENGAGE.EU University Alliance

Module description follows soon

Participants present the results and experiences from their individual project in a visualized format, for example as a poster, and discuss them with colleagues. The module focuses on critical reflection of their own development process, professional exchange within a trusted peer group, and discussions of different approaches to enhancing teaching. Participants also reflect on their experiences of working in tandems and identify next steps for their further development as teachers.

Learning Outcomes

Participants can...

• present key results, insights, and open questions from their project in a structured way.

• critically reflect on their own development process and justify key decisions.

• assess the transferability of ideas and approaches from other participants’ projects to their own teaching practice.

• provide constructive collegial feedback on other participants’ projects and use feedback for their own professional development.

• relate insights gained from their project and the program to their understanding of themselves as teachers and formulate next steps for the further development of their teaching.

Course Content

1. Presentation of project results and insights in a visualized format, for example as a poster

2. Collegial exchange and peer feedback on the projects

3. Reflection on tandem work: collegial support, feedback, and shared learning processes

4. Bringing together key insights from the project and the program

5. Transfer to participants’ own teaching practice and identification of next steps for further development

 

Instructor: Dr. Johanna Warm, Lead Teaching and Learning Development (WU)