Teaching Philosophy

Dominik Herrmann (V2 / 20191010)

I am enthusiastic about information security and privacy and I love teaching. I want to inspire you and appeal to your curiosity. I have written this document to help you understand the reasons behind the design of my courses.

I make serious efforts to ensure that you actually learn something – and not only for the exam. I honestly care about you and I make an effort to accommodate everyone to the best of my abilities, for instance by recording all of my lectures. As I really take an interest in your success, on occassion, I will have to make unpopular decisions to make you (more) successful. Like some of my colleagues, I accept that it is “more important to be a good professor than your favorite professor”

Most of the time, learning is fun and inspiring. Learning complex concepts, however, is often quite challenging. It requires dedication and perseverance. I see my role as someone who supports and guides you in this endeavor.

I do have high expectations and I demand from you that you make a significant effort. As a consequence, I will challenge you. I may even have to make you feel uncomfortable, e.g., when you are overwhelmed by a task at first. In hindsight, you will hopefully recognize that these have been the moments when you grew the most.

Circumstances demand that I am not merely a mentor for you; I also have to assess your success. When it comes to grading, I am committed to the principle of fairness. This means, among other things, that I cannot tolerate cheating. When designing exams, I aim for equal levels of difficulty by finetuning the weights of easy and challenging tasks. As a side-effect, every exam looks quite different. Exams must be unpredictable to ensure that everybody has the same chances and there are no shortcuts such as concentrating one’s studying solely on exams from the past.

Grades are only meaningful if they are a genuine and truthful measure of your knowledge and skills. As we all know, written exams are not the best assessment technique. Written exams, however, do have the desirable property of pairing fairness with efficiency. We have to live with this compromise for now.

1. Why are we here?

⊕ You are here because you want to improve your skills and extend your knowledge. You are probably also here because a bachelor’s or master’s degree benefits your chances on the job market.

Studying at a university, however, is not so much about preparing you for concrete jobs on the market. It is about shaping your personality.