University Teaching Award 2018: Digital Teaching

PD Dr. rer. nat. Amir Madany Mamlouk receives the University Teaching Award 2018 for his teaching concept "From Zero to Hero: Digital Teaching - Student-centered Learning Islands in Bioinformatics".

Dr. Madany's research focuses on the application of machine learning to problems in medicine and the life sciences. The award-winning teaching innovation "From Zero to Hero" is not just about the digitalization of a course, but rather about the question of how to create learning spaces for students in which they feel inspired rather than stressed. With a room climate in which enthusiasm for science can develop and, if possible, no frustration: instead of a written exam, the final grade is based on experience points (XPs), which - like in a computer game - can be earned in the online system during the semester. In addition, there are individual challenge and support lines that give all students the opportunity to set their own priorities - online, around the clock.

Dr. Madany Mamlouk has been working on this concept for five years. In the 2017 winter semester, a lecture on bioinformatics was assessed exclusively using this simple and transparent points system for the first time. It has been shown that the XP system not only has the potential to reduce study stress and sustainably increase student motivation, it has also been shown that more than 80 percent of participants would have passed an old exam even without preparation.
Dr. Amir Madany Mamlouk studied mathematics and computer science in Berlin and Luebeck. After spending time at the California Institute of Technology (USA) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Marine Biotechnology (EMB), he accepted an appointment as Junior Professor for Machine Learning in Medicine and Life Science at the University of Luebeck's Graduate School in 2009. He is now a private lecturer at the Institute of Neuro- and Bioinformatics. In addition to his scientific teaching activities, his teaching portfolio for more than ten years has also included his own courses on science communication for students, doctoral candidates and lecturers, which he has been offering for a long time now, and not only at the University of Lübeck. Both his specialist articles and his courses have already won several awards.

The University Teaching Award has been presented since 2016. It is awarded annually under changing mottos, this year it is "Digital Teaching". The award is interdisciplinary in nature and comes with a prize money of 3.000 Euros.