Faculty Development

Our team has expertise in teaching in higher education with many years of international experience, which we use in the wide range of programmes and services that we develop and deliver for teachers on all levels of experience. This enables us to support teachers at the University of Vienna in their further development and professionalisation in a targeted and individual manner.

·         Our offers are aimed at all teachers at the University of Vienna: to help them teach their very first course, to pursue their individual interests and questions, or to further professionalise and certify their teaching competence. In addition, we develop on demand offers for groups of teachers or departments tailored to their demands and questions.

·         We work with teachers in a variety of settings: from consultations and coaching in confidential one-to-one discussions and in small groups, to workshops and intensive certificate programmes. In addition, we encourage and support peer observations of teaching.

·         As editors and contributing authors, we are responsible for the online resource Infopool better teaching, in which we offer numerous aspects related to teaching in easily accessible text and video form.

·         We work on competences required when teaching in Higher Education and all aspects of their development. In particular, we focus on the following topics: diversity and inclusion in teaching and learning, course design, feedback that promotes learning, further development and documentation of teaching, and international developments in Higher Education.

Team Lead

Dr. Sonja Buchberger

Sonja Buchberger has been team lead of faculty development at the University of Vienna since 2021. In May 2024, she was appointed academic chair of the Teaching Innovation Lab in the European University Alliance Circle U.  National and international teaching assignments (UK, Switzerland, Germany). In 2013, she was awarded her doctoral degree in Social Anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Prior to that, she studied Arabic Studies, Islamic Studies and Development Studies at the University of Vienna.

Areas of responsibility at the CTL: Team lead, development of programmes supporting faculty to develop and professionalise their teaching, editorial board member and author in the Infopool better teaching, responsibility for the UNIVIE Teaching Awards, workshops and consultations in different areas (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, teaching and career development, teaching portfolio & teaching statement, teaching with discussions, teaching academic reading, diversity and inclusion, feedback, teaching in the science lab).

Prior to that, from 2014 onwards, she was director of various programs (Basic qualification for staff new to teaching, coaching, workshop series, on demand, tailor-made offers (in German), certificate program Teaching Competence Plus) and developped a MOOC (massive open online course) on inclusive teaching in higher education (in German).

E-mail: sonja.buchberger@univie.ac.at
T: +43-1-4277-12064

Eva Erber

Eva Erber has been part of faculty development at the CTL since March 2022. She studied Graphic Design, Comparative Literature and Theatre, Film and Media Studies in Austria and the Netherlands. She gained her international teaching experience (USA, Slovakia) in German as a foreign language, literature, cultural studies, and academic writing. In addition, she was a coordinator of the Teaching Assistant Project at Rutgers University for several years, a training and professional development programme for university teaching assistants (predocs).  

Areas of responsibility at the CTL: Coordination and design of the Talk about Teaching event series, director of the on demand, tailor-made offers (in German), editor of the CTL newsletter

E-mail: eva.erber@univie.ac.at 
T: +43-1-4277-12087

Barbara Louis, PhD

Barbara Louis (formerly Reiterer) has been a staff member at the CTL since 2015. She currently serves as the director of programs for new teachers, including the basic qualification workshop series and coaching offers. As a second main responsibility, she is the project manager, main editor, and frequent contributor of the Infopool better teaching, the CTL’s online repository of teaching guides. In 2015, she received her PhD in History of Science, Technology and Medicine from the University of Minnesota, USA, and in 2023 she trained as a coach (graduated with a coaching diploma).

Responsibilities at the CTL:

Director of programs for new university teachers (including developing programs and course content); workshop facilitator (in the Basic Qualification programs, as well as on course planning, course sequencing, and others); coachings and consultations for new and experienced teachers. Project management, (video) editor, and contributing writer for the Infopool better teaching.

E-mail: barbara.louis@univie.ac.at
T: +43-1-4277-12063

Dr. Renate Wöhrer

Renate Wöhrer joined faculty development team at the CTL in 2021 and is responsible for planning and implementing the Teaching Competence workshop series. Prior to that, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Research Training Group “The Knowledge of the Arts” at the Berlin University of the Arts, responsible for supervising doctoral students and organising the study programme of the group. She completed her studies in Art History at the University of Vienna, followed by a doctorate at the Free University of Berlin. She has held teaching positions at various German and Austrian universities.

Areas of responsibility at the CTL: Teaching Competence workshop series, workshops on seminar design and equity, diversity and inclusion.

E-mail: renate.woehrer@univie.ac.at
T: +43-1-4277-12082

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