Challenge
Many students enrolling in teacher-training programmes only realise after several semesters that the teaching profession does not match their expectations. Justus Liebig University Giessen wanted to support aspiring teachers in their self-reflection well before enrolment — with an online self-assessment that honestly weighs interests, abilities, and expectations against the demands of the programme and the profession.
RWTH Aachen had already developed a scientifically grounded self-assessment platform for teacher-training students that had proven itself in practice. Our task: to conceive, design, and technically implement this existing system for JLU and integrate it seamlessly into the University of Giessen's infrastructure — with content tailored to Giessen's degree programmes and focus areas.
Solution
Building on a jointly developed concept, we designed and technically delivered the Giessen variant, „Fit fürs Lehramt“. The proven RWTH Aachen assessment engine was integrated into JLU's technical environment and adapted to its specific requirements: self-assessment questionnaires, case examples from everyday school life, and practical reflection tasks were tuned to the University of Giessen's range of study programmes.
The OSA is organised in two parts. The first covers topics with a significant bearing on the career decision — prior teaching experience, the participant's own way of making study and career decisions, their personal reasons for choosing teaching, and educational experience gained outside school. The second part is an expectations check of 24 statements on the structure, demands, and career entry of the teacher-training programme. After each topic, participants receive differentiated feedback that highlights strengths and areas for development — without issuing a blanket recommendation for or against the programme.
Particular emphasis went into clear user guidance and the integration of further information about teacher training at JLU. Participation is voluntary and anonymous: at the start of each test an individual TAN is issued, allowing runs to be paused, resumed, and later retrieved together with the certificate of completion.
What We Delivered
- Concept & UI/UX design: Design of the Giessen OSA variant based on the jointly developed concept — from user guidance to visual execution in the JLU context
- Technical implementation: Integration and adaptation of the RWTH Aachen assessment engine (PHP / Yii, MySQL) into the University of Giessen's IT infrastructure
- Content adaptation: Tailoring questionnaires, case examples, and reflection tasks to JLU's degree programmes and focus areas
- Participation & feedback logic: TAN-based, anonymous runs with save-and-resume, differentiated result feedback, and a certificate of completion
Result
A self-assessment tailored to JLU and grounded in research that supports prospective students in making a reflective decision about a teacher-training degree. The university actively promotes the tool, and it contributes to a better fit in study choice — a concrete contribution to the „Gießener Offensive Lehrerbildung“ within the nationwide Quality Campaign for Teacher Education.
