Didactics in higher education: Teaching Award 2025 of the Citizens’ Commune Bern

On 3 July 2025, the three finalists presented their work orally to the jury. “All three approaches presented a notably high level of quality,” explained jury chairman Dominique Herren. The jury ultimately ranked the projects remaining in the final round as follows:

1. Nicole Bosshard (School of Health Professions): module ‘Klinische Einschätzung und Beurteilung für Nurse Practitioner’ (‘Clinical Assessment and Evaluation for Nurse Practitioners’)
2. Jörg Berkel and Markus Tiede (Business School): Module ‘WSEG – Software Engineering’
3. Adrian Stettler (School of Engineering and Computer Science): Module ‘Excel in your Career’

Nicole Bosshard: learning from experience

Nicole Bosshard convinced the jury with her course ‘Klinische Einschätzung und Beurteilung für Nurse Practitioner’ (‘Clinical Assessment and Evaluation for Nurse Practitioners’), which is a compulsory module in the MSc Nursing (specialisation: Nurse Practitioner).

What stood out in the submission was the constructivist approach, i.e. the principle of building on the knowledge and existing experience of the participants. “We work in adult education. All our students have at least two years of experience behind them. We build on this,” explained the first-place winner of the Teaching Award 2025 of the Citizens’ Commune Bern.

The jury was particularly impressed by the didactic and methodological variety used in Nicole Bosshard’s module. Practical exercises, clinical mentoring, work placements, case discussions, but also digital learning tools such as video-based peer feedback, learning videos and ‘slide of the week’ are used.

The purposeful intervention of peers (i.e. experts with more experience than the students) and the analytical review and evidence-based adaptation of the didactic tools used were very convincing for the jury.

Jörg Berkel and Markus Tiede: learning from work

The ‘Software Engineering’ module presented by Jörg Berkel and Markus Tiede was completely different in terms of content and no less impressive in terms of didactics. The two lecturers teach the module in hybrid lessons, i.e. both on site and as an online event.

Throughout the module, students learn how to proceed on the basis of an agile process (Scrum) in the same way as they will later in their career. Each of them develops a web platform of their choice (e.g. plant exchange, referee planning tool). The individual objectives increase the intrinsic motivation of the students.

The jury particularly emphasised the fact that their students learn about and practice agile processes and collaboration in the module. This learning-by-doing approach prepares them ideally for the professional world. The jury was impressed by the open source and open educational resources approach consistently pursued by Jörg Berkel and Markus Tiede and by the development process of the retro-based module.

Adrian Stettler: learning as a game

Adrian Stettler has certainly not taken on an easy topic with his BFH diagonal optional module ‘Excel in your Career’. And yet, with his captivating performance and didactic enthusiasm for experimentation, he manages to turn dry tables into motivating quests that students can use to approach formulas, validations and VBA (Visual Basics for Applications) at their own pace.

The jury was particularly impressed by the fact that Adrian Stettler supervises well over 100 participants in his module and still manages to respond to the individual needs of each student. The fact that Adrian Stettler sees his role as a lecturer more as a coach and quest giver is also demonstrated by his didactically highly reflective and, in times of artificial intelligence, cutting-edge approach to modern teaching. Adrian Stettler’s ‘Excel in your Career’ module is an “exemplary testimony of what an online module can be”, praised one jury member.