The university has honoured five lecturers with the "Teaching Award" for their outstanding achievements in university teaching. The Vice President for Studies, Teaching and Equal Opportunities, Prof. Dr Sabine Kyora, honoured industrial engineer Dr Jörn Hoppmann, historian Prof. Dr Gunilla Budde and tutor Björn Jeddeloh as well as sustainability economists Julia Tschersich and Nina Gmeiner at a ceremony on 29 November 2018. The winners will each receive 1,000 euros in prize money for teaching.

^{UGO Board Member Oliver Thomsen (left) and Vice President Prof Dr Sabine Kyora (2nd from left) congratulate this year's prize winners (from left): Julia Tschersich, Nina Gmeiner, Björn Jeddeloh, Prof Dr Gunilla Budde and Dr Jörn Hoppmann. Photo: University of Oldenburg}

The University has been honouring outstanding university teaching with the Teaching Prize since 1998 and encourages students to engage with teaching and learning processes at the university. In the 2017/18 academic year, students were once again invited to nominate particularly successful courses. "The award-winning courses impressively demonstrate how it is possible to support and encourage students as active learners and create a motivating learning environment," explained Kyora at the award ceremony.

This year's prize in the "Best Event" category went to Dr Jörn Hoppmann from the Department of Business, Economics and Law. His students nominated him for the lecture "Introduction to Business Administration". The jury of lecturers and students was particularly impressed by the innovative and activating design: Hoppmann conveys the subject content clearly through practical examples, uses media and methods in a varied and targeted manner and supports self-learning activities, particularly with digital tools.

In the courses "Letters from the First World War" and "Two Brothers at War", Prof Dr Gunilla Budde and tutor Björn Jeddeloh from the Institute of History explored new source material together with students - and were awarded the prize in the "Research-based Learning" category. The jury recognised that the students were able to directly experience practical research work and actively shape the research process. The jury was also impressed by the fact that the students presented the research results to the public.

The students' vote counted in a different way for the "Special Course Evaluation Award": Lecturers were able to apply themselves with the results of their course evaluation. Julia Tschersich and Nina Gmeiner from the Department of Business, Economics and Law came out on top with their course "Diving Deep - Conceptual and Empirical perspectives on Social-ecological Transformations". In the seminar, students learnt about the scientific discourse on socio-ecological transformation.

The Teaching Prize is sponsored by the Universitätsgesellschaft Oldenburg e. V. (UGO). This year, the award ceremony marked the festive conclusion of the second "Day of Teaching and Learning" at the university. The focus was on current issues in university teaching: together, the Schools and the Department for Study Affairs presented a varied programme of activities for students, teaching staff and the interested public to watch and take part in.