A Socratic chatbot, an online escape room or a look at the local bird life: for the eighth time, Osnabrück University has awarded prizes to project teams for the development of innovative teaching ideas in its internal "LehrZeit" competition - and for the first time as part of a "Teaching Day".
Since 2018, the university has been using "LehrZeit" to promote projects that offer students and lecturers freedom for conceptual development and at the same time strengthen the quality and qualification goals ("Q goals") in studies and teaching, namely academicism, interdisciplinarity, profile building and personal development.
The presentation of the award winners for the years 2022/23 to 2024/25 on Teaching Day on December 3, 2025 in Osnabrück Castle showed just how diverse these approaches are.
For the 2025/2026 funding round, the thematic focus was on projects that focus on "individual profile development and professional skills development". "Once again this year, we were impressed by the diversity and creativity of the applications submitted," emphasizes the Vice President for Studies and Teaching, Prof. Dr. Jochen Oltmer. The jury did not make the decision easy. In the end, four winning teams were chosen.
Under the direction of Prof. Dr. Katrin Golsch from the Institute of Social Sciences, an online escape room ("Escape Statistics") was developed in which students of social sciences can learn statistical methods using practical examples and their own questions and apply them in teamwork.
The second prize winner comes from the School of Biology/Chemistry: "Diversity goes to school - a participative co-teaching model for biodiversity education at Osnabrück schools" is the title of the project by Dr. Florian Fiebelkorn and Dr. Felix Przesdzink. Student teachers are trained as co-teachers who carry out practical projects to research the local bird world in schools.
Meanwhile, Prof. Dr. Ursula Walkenhorst's project from the Institute of Health Research and Education enables Master's students from the health professions to develop their own digital learning modules on cross-cutting topics in the vocational education sector. The results of "StuGeM - Studentische Gestaltung von Mikrolearning im Bereich Gesundheitsberufe" are then to be used and evaluated in Bachelor's training.
The last project to receive an award in this round comes from the field of philosophy: "PhilOSoKI - A Socratic Chatbot for Philosophical Writing" was developed under the direction of Dr. Charles Lowe. The AI chatbot is designed to support students in formulating philosophical questions and structuring written work. An accompanying seminar and a best-practice guide promote the reflective, responsible use of AI in studies.
All winning projects will receive funding of up to €25,000 for one semester. "In this way, we as a university are setting an example for the importance of innovative and student-centered teaching and at the same time strengthening the quality of our courses," says Vice President Prof. Dr. Jochen Oltmer.
Further information for editorial offices:
Dr. Britta Scheideler, Osnabrück University
Administrative Service for Academic Planning and Development
E-mail: britta.scheideler@uos.de
