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Press Release

FHWien der WKW Awarded Prizes for Innovative Teaching

November 15, 2023

The Viennese university of applied sciences for management and communication awarded prizes for recipes for success for integrated courses and the successful integration of the SDGs into teaching.

Vienna, November 15, 2023 – By awarding the Prize for Innovative Teaching every year, FHWien der WKW recognizes outstanding didactic projects and thus underlines the high value of teaching at the university of applied sciences for management and communication. On Thursday, November 9, 2023, this year’s award winners were honored.

This time, 14 high-quality teaching projects were submitted. The Didactics Working Group, headed by FH-Prof. Dr. Sebastian Eschenbach from FHWien der WKW and Dr. Olivia Vrabl, university didactics expert and lecturer at various universities in Austria, reviewed all entries and came to the following decision:

Recipes for success for integrated courses

The teaching award in the category “Recipes for success for integrated courses” is shared by two submissions:

Mag.a Sabine Melnicki, MA supervises the course “German Language and Austrian Culture” at FHWien der WKW. Instead of a dry German course at B1 level, the students develop fictional dialogs between interesting Austrian women under her guidance. In addition to the research, the creative literary realization and the constant further development of the texts, learning German becomes almost a minor matter. Finally, the dialogs are published on Zwei Frauen. The jury was impressed by the high standard and the committed implementation!

In the course “Application Design & Development”, Stefan Nafra, MSc, combines the basics of software development with concepts of agile project development in the Bachelor’s program in Digital Business. Students can follow individual learning paths and use digitalization to individualize learning and make it more flexible.

Integrating sustainable development into teaching

The prize in the category “Sustainable Development Goals in Teaching” went equally to the following projects:

FH-Prof. Dr. Stefan Wrbka, LL.M. presented a well-thought-out course concept with many opportunities for students to take action. It includes 40 video lectures, numerous quizzes for self-assessment and case studies. The jury sees this as a future-oriented concept that is also a role model for inclusion.

Dominik E. Fröhlich, PhD worked with students to create an asynchronous podcasting platform that teaches students how to deal with statistical evaluations on sustainability topics. They receive peer feedback and feedback from teachers from the perspective of sustainability and statistics. According to the jury, an important topic has been presented very efficiently in this way, with the results being available in the long term.

Recognition awards for four teaching projects

The large number of submissions prompted the jury to award recognition prizes for outstanding projects:

Julia Domanovich, MA MSc (WU) uses students’ experiences writing their Bachelor’s thesis as a learning field for their Master’s thesis – with humor!

The students of Mag.a (FH) Nicola Löwenstein, BSc form the editorial team of an online medium and learn how to conduct interviews. They receive practical feedback from renowned colleagues and publish the results on DASINTERVIEW.

Paul Stuefer, M.A. teaches the students the possibilities of digital communication in a very practical and interactive way. Continuous feedback and critical discourse are of great importance.

Dr.in Gloria-Sophia Warmuth and Dr. Stefan Teufl use SCRUM as a method to carry out a research project with students on the topic of “Learning of the future”. In doing so, they not only teach technical skills, but also self-organization skills and agile behavior.

FHWien der WKW congratulates all award winners and thanks all participating lecturers!

Photos:

FHWien der WKW has awarded lecturers for outstanding didactic projects with the Prize for Innovative Teaching 2023. The award ceremony took place on November 9.
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Copyright: Markus Hechenberger

Three winners of the FHWien der WKW Teaching Award 2023: Sabine Melnicki, Dominik E. Fröhlich and Stefan Nafra, flanked by Chair of the Academic Board Beate Huber and Senior Advisor
Academic Teaching Michael Mair from FHWien der WKW.
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Copyright: Markus Hechenberger

These FHWien der WKW lecturers were delighted to receive recognition awards: Paul Stuefer, Nicola Löwenstein, Stefan Teufl and Julia Domanovich.
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Copyright: Markus Hechenberger

FHWien der WKW – University of Applied Sciences for Management & Communication

FHWien der WKW is Austria’s leading university of applied sciences for management & communication. Its Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programs offer more than 2,800 students a practice-oriented academic education. Around 900 people are completing a continuing education program at FHWien. Two thirds of the lecturers come directly from the business world. The close cooperation with local companies in teaching and research optimally prepares students for their careers. Since its foundation in 1994, FHWien der WKW has already produced around 14,400 graduates. 

Contact: 

Bernhard Witzeling
Head of Corporate Communication, Marketing and Alumni & Career Services, Press Officer
Tel.: +43 (1) 476 77-5733
presse@fh-wien.ac.at
www.fh-wien.ac.at