New paths in psychological teaching

Professor Dr. Anna-Sophia Schwind from RWU Ravensburg-Weingarten University of Applied Sciences has been accepted into the Akademie Ausgezeichnete Hochschullehre e.V. (Academy of Excellent University Teaching).

The nationwide academy brings together lecturers from different disciplines and types of university who stand out for their exceptional teaching personality and innovative approaches, among other things.

Virtual reality in psychological counseling

In her teaching, the Professor of Applied Psychology at the Faculty of Social Work, Health and Nursing stands for theory-based, innovative and technology-supported teaching practice. This is particularly evident in the teaching project "AI-based conversation management in virtual reality".

The project addresses the challenge that interviewing skills in psychology are mainly taught theoretically, while realistic, structured and risk-free practice opportunities are only available to a limited extent.

Active knowledge retrieval

The combination of virtual reality with AI-supported avatars that simulate standardizable and variable conversation situations is innovative. This enables repeatable training under controlled conditions.

Students at RWU benefit from greater learning activation and participation through action-oriented learning and active knowledge retrieval. There is also evidence of improved competence growth through situational application and repeated practice.

Further development of teaching

"The acceptance of Anna-Sophia Schwind is a special honor and a gain for our university. She provides important impetus for the further development of teaching at RWU, especially with regard to the interdisciplinary and challenging topic of teaching AI skills," says a delighted Professor Dr. Sebastian Mauser, Vice-Rector for Studies, Teaching and Quality Management.

The teaching method, which has now been in use for four years, is due not least to the conditions on the RWU campus in Weingarten. "RWU had and still has the necessary laboratory infrastructure and the relevant expertise - especially from university didactics, which makes this interdisciplinary approach possible," says Anna-Sophia Schwind. Markus Rossa, Jochen Weißenrieder, Magnus Pfleghar, other student assistants and colleagues from the Faculty of Social Work, Health and Nursing were primarily involved in the development.

About the academy

The Akademie Ausgezeichnete Hochschullehre e.V. is a nationwide network of outstanding, active lecturers. In face-to-face and online formats, it creates spaces for collegial exchange, member initiatives, shared responsibility and joint learning - with the aim of making excellent university teaching visible and developing it further. The network grows in a quality-assured manner via a review-based admission procedure.