SEPS Excellence in Teaching Award

In Autumn 2020 and Spring 2021, SEPS students chose the theme "Online learning: Creating motivation & innovation in the digital classroom."  They were asked: "In difficult times, how does one make the necessary adjustments to remain impactful? How does one motivate a digital classroom of students? It is a question that does not always follow with an easy answer. By the Autumn semester of 2020, we were all used to the online teaching model. So this year we ask: who continued to motivate and innovate in the digital classroom?"

The clear winner was Prof. Frank Pisch

"He made little surveys on class to check on our mental health, which I personally really liked so he knew how the students felt. Also he always stayed in the break in the "classroom" to answer questions."

"Prof. Pisch was the most encouraging and motivated professor I had-- he gave his best with online classes and made it as interactive as possible!"

"He introduced the ThinkPairShare concept in his lectures, where students first reflect individually on a concept, then are moved to breakout rooms to discuss with a couple other students, and finally the main takeaways are discussed in plenum."

"Prof Pisch encouraged to use the chat to talk and he always made surveys and breakout sessions but most importantly; he was just very happy and patient and liked what he was doing"

"He held Interactive online classes, built a very supportive environment and brought a positive attitude."

"He was one of the best lectures I had at HSG, he deserves this award!"

"My first time at this University back in 2015, I went to a presentation about the International Affairs programme. That evening when riding home, I decided that I wanted to attend this University. Not because it is cleaner than any other University in Switzerland or the fact that there were two presentations up at the same time at the Audimax. It was because I felt this thirst for knowledge, this deep-rooted interest in what was being taught and the willingness to share it. I felt this in particular at this one presentation about International Affairs held by Prof. Christoph Frei."

This opinion is obviously shared by many students. This year’s teaching award had a particular focus on the conversion to online teaching. We asked our students to leave comments and examples that illustrate why that faculty member deserves the award.

“He is super motivating and passionate about his subject. No matter what subject, he always catches his students.”

"Christoph Frei is an excellent motivator. His character, way of speaking and his „groove“ is unique!"

"Professor Frei brings the HSG campus feeling to the students’ home office."

"Professor Frei embraces the new technology and immediately provides answers to all questions in the chat."

Prof. Ulrich Matter brings extraordinary engagement to every lecture. Despite the strong incentives for junior faculty members to put research first, Prof. Matter is dedicated to his courses and provides excellent learning materials beyond the textbook and the lecture slides. Students value Prof. Matter’s motivation to teach for a deeper understanding and expertise. Coupled with his timely choice of topics, he equips students with relevant knowledge and state of the art tools to tackle today’s challenges in research and practice.

To say it in the words of a former student of his:

“I have had the pleasure to be a student in Prof. Matter’s Data Handling Course in fall 2018. In class, we appreciated Prof. Matter for providing a perfect balance between, on the one hand, applied knowledge relevant to a 21-century Economist or business leader, and on the other hand a deeper understanding of the subject matter. Thereby he is helping students to grasp, not only how, but why something is done in a certain way. Students moreover appreciate the first-class teaching materials, Prof. Matter provides, which exceed the student's expectations and greatly enhance the learning process. As a lecturer, we the students, value Prof. Matter for his extraordinary commitment to every sin-gle lecture. Something which can be felt from the bench of a lecture hall. Finally, we would like to congratulate Prof. Matter on the revolutionary achievement of providing Markdown slides, which actually look good.”

Prof. Königer combines innovative, digital and classical forms of teaching and shows outstanding commitment to student-focused teaching. In his course "Macroeconomics II" he implemented innovative ways of examination to ensure students' learning success.

Prof. Königer is extraordinarily interested in the dialogue with his students and their individual feedback to ensure the quality of teaching as well as the learning progress of each student. Moreover, he is approachable and very transparent in his grading. He is therefore a worthy winner of the School of Economics and Political Science Excellence in Teaching Award.

Prof. Binswanger's  programming courses for Economics are varied, engaging and demanding. Prof. Binswanger’s engagement and enthusiasm are unique and spur his students on to achieve their very best. His interest in students' opinions and the rapid way he implements feedback are also very distinctive.

Prof. Binswanger has succeeded in presenting the fundamentals of Machine Learning in a way that all could understand, while also equipping students with useful programming skills, which are essential for implementing this knowledge and conducting individual experiments.

Prof. Gärtner brings the course material to life, teaching in a charismatic, articulate manner and enabling students to move away from reliance on textbook material. He simplifies topics during lectures and adds value to the materials provided, such that attendance is enjoyable and feels truly worthwhile. Furthermore, he is approachable and very transparent in his attitude to exam preparation and other communications, enabling students to fulfil their potential. For these and other reasons he is a worthy winner of the Teaching Award 2016.

Prof. Evenett´s inclusive teaching style incorporates students´ ideas, proposals and comments in developing the taught content, often times by using case examples. Furthermore his passionate teaching style and his use of current research and personal experience made the subjects come to live and increased the students´ intrinsic motivation. His grading design made use of decentral examinations and innovative examination formats such as voice-over-powerpoint presentations. The decentral examinations required students to reflect on the learned knowledge and allowed students to focus on topics of interest.

His teaching demonstrated what many SEPS students are looking for in excellent teaching. He is therefore a worthy winner of the first School of Economics and Political Science Excellence in Teaching Award.