Personalized and research-led teaching as building blocks to success during pandemic times in Austria's higher education sector

ABSTRACT

Problem: 35 years after signing the Ottawa Charter, the field of health promotion is undergoing a dynamic development. This also applies to the tertiary education sector. There is still no law in Austria that regulates occupations in health promotion. Another challenge is that students within a specific cohort have different interests, goals and prior knowledge. This requires flexibility and openness. Besides, the COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the need for digital, flexible and personalized teaching and learning opportunities at universities. Concept In this paper the didactic framework of a full-time bachelors' programme as well as a part-time masters' programme at the University of Applied Sciences Burgenland is described. The CompHP framework and the outlines of a new health education policy in the DACH region formed the basis for defining study goals. Principles In order to achieve the study goals, two didactic principles are combined personalized teaching and learning and linking teaching and research. Conclusion: During the COVID-19 pandemic, using a variety of didactic principles and creating a concept for the implementation of distance learning methods can help meet the challenges during the knowledge transformation process. Results may be referred to a wide range of study programmes in various academic fields. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022. All rights reserved.