Successful premiere: First Day of Teaching at the University of Koblenz

On 17 February, 24 participants from teaching and further education at the University of Koblenz met under the motto "weiter:denken - gemeinsam Lehre gestalten an der uk" for the first Day of Teaching at the University of Koblenz.

The event was organised and run by the Interdisciplinary Centre for Teaching (IZL) with the support of its patron, the Vice President for Academics and Teaching, Prof. Dr Constanze Juchem-Grundmann. A lively exchange took place in which the participants discussed and reflected together on current topics and concerns of teachers at the university.

PD Dr Malte Persike and"Graphic Recorder" Tom Fiedler as external guests

The discussions and work on common perspectives were enriched and motivated by two external guests: firstly, PD Dr Malte Persike, academic director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning Services (CLS) at RWTH Aachen University, as an external source of inspiration. The second was Tom Fiedler, who, as a "graphic recorder", graphically documented both the work processes and the results of the Teaching Day live and in dialogue with the participants. (Fiedler's graphic presentation of the Teaching Day is available on theWebsite of the IZL to find).

The event began with the participants getting to know each other and networking, then focussed on common topics, concerns and challenges, motivated and inspired the participants to determine their current situation and perspectives and finally identified concrete plans and projects for joint work after the Day of Teaching. The teachers were supported by the IZL team, who used appropriate interactive and agile methods in the various phases. The feedback from the participants and the organisers' summary were extremely positive.

To get started, the participants first reflected on their expectations of the Day of Teaching and wrote an email to themselves, got to know each other in a speed dating session and explored common topics and concerns in a square of similarities before discussing the most relevant current concerns for all participants in a fish bowl. "We are really impressed by the openness and motivation with which the teachers engaged with our interactive formats and actively participated," said Silke Schranz, who moderated the first part of the event together with her colleague Melina Riegel. Both work at the IZL in the field of university didactics.

PD Dr Malte Persike was a guest at the Day of Teaching as an external keynote speaker. With his keynote speech, he not only inspired the participants with interesting and up-to-date information on the design of future-oriented teaching, but also motivated further exchange by referring to the topics and concerns already mentioned by the participants.

Concrete proposals for the further development of ideas

The second part of the event focused on concretising ideas and plans for further work after the Day of Teaching. The participants first positioned themselves in the room on the topics of interest to them before working in groups, moderated by Dr Peter Ferdinand, the manager of the IZL, to identify specific projects for further work on these topics. The projects were then presented in the plenary session and interested parties came forward to continue working on these topics. At the degree of the event, the participants gave the IZL feedback on the event as part of an agile retrospective.

"As IZL, it was very important to us not only to organise a good time for exchange and reflection on teaching at our university, but also to obtain concrete information on the needs-oriented design of our own offers and to identify concrete projects and interested parties for further work after the Day of Teaching. Both were successful and we are already looking forward to continuing our work after the Day of Teaching," says Dr Peter Ferdinand, summing up the premiere of the Day of Teaching.