As part of the SmILe Ideas Competition, all students at Mainz University of Applied Sciences were invited to submit ideas for improving teaching. Five students were selected from all the submissions by an interdisciplinary jury composed of students and faculty members. On St. Nicholas Day, they had the opportunity to present their ideas in a five-minute pitch in the auditorium. In addition to the top three prizes, an audience award was also presented based on a vote:
1st Prize (€500) – Jana Rassl – Idea: CampusGO
Jana Rassl recognized that the university offers its students a wide range of digital services, but that these are scattered across various platforms. As a solution, she therefore proposes an app that brings all these services together, enabling students to manage their entire daily university life using a single app. In addition to a well-developed concept, she presented a marketing strategy for how the app could be promoted among students.
2nd Prize (€200) – Lina Hülsmann – Idea: hsm.skills
Students in the three academic departments acquire different skills and knowledge as part of their studies at Mainz University of Applied Sciences. But how can interdisciplinary exchange be promoted, and how can students network to support one another? In her pitch, Lisa Hülsmann provided the answers to these questions: hsm.skills is an OpenOLAT course where students can post online requests to find someone with the right expertise.
3rd Prize (€100) – Niklas Heuer-Jungemann – Idea: Olat’s Feedback
Niklas Heuer-Jungemann was very impressed by the concept of the SmILe Ideas Competition and would like to see a similar feedback channel for students that is accessible at all times. To this end, he proposes setting up an OpenOLATS section where students can submit and rate suggestions for improvement. The suggestions that receive the most support will be forwarded by the student representatives of the departments to the university administration.
Audience Award (€100) – Myra Bischoff, Naima Hernandez, Charlotte Heyder, Carla Schneider, Moritz Wirth – Idea: Find your workzone!
The largest group made the strongest impression on the audience: The team presented a proposal to make it easier to find empty rooms. As illustrated in the pitch, students like to retreat to empty seminar rooms for group work. A screen in the Magistrale on the Campus site is to be linked to the room management software and display available rooms.
All award-winning ideas will now be reviewed for feasibility.
