Teaching Award 2025 – and why good teaching needs time

I won an award. More specifically: the Teaching Award of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Cologne for 2025. The award is based on teaching evaluations from the past year, and I received particularly high ratings for my two courses “3D modelling and reconstruction in Archaeology” and “3D recording and documentation of material culture”. I’m genuinely pleased – not just because of the recognition itself, but also because it made me reflect on what good teaching actually means.

Making complexity understandable

When I try to describe what matters to me in teaching, I keep coming back to the same point: communicating complex subjects in an understandable way. That might sound trivial, but it isn’t. Especially in Digital Archaeology, where technical methods meet humanistic inquiry, there’s a constant temptation to either drown in technical details or simplify things so much that nothing substantial remains.

The key, for me, lies in finding the right balance. Students need to understand why a particular method works – not just how to press the right buttons. At the same time, theory shouldn’t become an end in itself. It needs to connect to what students will actually do later in their careers.

Theory needs practice

This brings me to an aspect that’s particularly close to my heart: the practical component in academic teaching. My 3D modelling course isn’t just about understanding the principles of digital reconstruction. It’s about modelling yourself, making mistakes, solving problems, and ultimately holding a result in your hands – or at least seeing it on screen.

I consider practical exercises indispensable, especially in a field like archaeology that has always been a craft as much as a science. Theory is important, no question. But it remains abstract if it’s not grounded in personal experience. Anyone who has tried to digitally reconstruct a fragmentary object themselves understands the methodological challenges on a completely different level than someone who has only read about them.

Unfortunately, this practical aspect is often neglected in academic teaching. That’s not due to a lack of willingness on the part of instructors, but to structural constraints: practical courses are demanding, require small groups, individual supervision, and often expensive software or equipment. Nevertheless, I’m convinced that this effort pays off – for the students and ultimately for the discipline itself.

Good teaching needs time

Which brings me to perhaps the most important realisation: good teaching needs time. Time for preparation, time for delivery, time for feedback and follow-up. That’s a truism that often gets lost in academic everyday life. When you’re juggling research projects, grant applications, administrative tasks, and publication pressure, teaching quickly becomes the area where corners get cut.

I was fortunate enough last year to be able to invest sufficient time in preparing my courses. That paid off – not just in the evaluation results, but also in the quality of interaction with students. When you go into a seminar well prepared, you have the mental space for what really counts: responding to questions, moderating discussions, solving individual problems.

Why teaching awards matter

I think it’s good that teaching awards like this exist. In academia, recognition is primarily distributed through research output: publications, third-party funding, conference talks. That’s understandable, because research is measurable, comparable, citable. Teaching, on the other hand, happens behind closed doors. If you deliver a good course, you get feedback from your students – but beyond that, the achievement often remains invisible.

Teaching awards change that, at least a little. They signal that good teaching is seen and valued. They give instructors an incentive to invest time and energy in their courses. And they make visible that university isn’t just about research, but also about passing knowledge on to the next generation.

With that in mind: thank you to the Faculty of Arts and Humanities for the recognition, thank you to the students for their feedback – and thank you to everyone who takes teaching seriously.

What are your experiences with balancing theory and practice in academic teaching? I’d be curious to hear your perspectives.