Excellent Education Awards for FEM

Both courses were also rewarded in 2015. For Ute Sass-Klaassen (also nominated several times for the Teacher of the Year Award) it was even the third time: her course was also rewarded in 2014. Students appreciate her course for the knowledge on all aspects of wood: how trees grow, how a forest arises and how it is maintained, and the use of wood.

FEM also had a substantial contribution to a third awarded course: Ecological Methods I (REG31806), coordinated by Fred de Boer from the Resource Ecology Group.

This was the fourth time the Education Awards for the best 30 courses were presented. All laureates received a statuette of a seedling and 1000 euros to spend in education. The coordinators with the highest ratings received slightly larger statuettes.

The Executive Board of Wageningen UR highly values excellent education. Therefore the Executive Board awards a prize for excellent education on a regular basis. A quality indicator is calculated based on the results of questions on course set up, learning outcomes, teaching methods, previously acquired knowledge, overlap, the contribution of the lecturers to the learning process, examination and on the general rating of the course.

Students' opinions on their education is one of the indicators whether Wageningen University provides courses that inspire young people and meet their expectations. To qualify for a prize, a course has to meet two conditions: 1) at least 10 students have filled in the course evaluation, and 2) the response rate for the course was at least 20%.
Student satisfaction is an important indicator for quality of education, but should not be the sole source of information. This is the reason the peer review of courses are taken into account as well.