Teaching

As a teacher, I believe the most important goal is to encourage students’ motivation to learn, explore and embark on a journey of self-discovery and personal growth. Being enthusiastic about learning is a key driving force to each student’s success and thus a pillar of my teaching approach. I seek to create a safe and inspiring environment where students can develop a grounding in the most important methods and theories, learn core abilities necessary to link content and findings from different disciplines, and learn to evaluate concepts and ideas with regard to their practical, ethical, and societal implications. Furthermore, I aim to build the confidence and self-efficacy necessary to explore, question, criticize and engage with academic research, with the ultimate goal of producing work that embodies societal, theoretical, and pragmatic value.

I want to inspire students to challenge themselves intellectually, to look “beyond the horizon” of existing approaches or methods, and to think critically and creatively. Although I strongly believe that students have to know certain theories, approaches, key studies, and methods, I also believe that it is equally important to foster a mindset that allows them to ask relevant and timely questions. Today, a key skill is being able to connect the dots of acquired knowledge that may seem unrelated at first sight. Understanding underlying principles and applying them to new problems is thus a key aspect of my teaching.

Throughout my education, I had the opportunity to meet wonderful classmates, teachers, and mentors to whom I am deeply indebted for providing a truly positive and inspiring environment for my personal growth. Yet, I know that not all students necessarily have such an experience. It is thus my goal to create and promote a classroom climate of inclusivity and safety, especially for students who may have experienced personal bias or discrimination. To this end, I offer personal counseling and one-on-one opportunities to talk about individual problems and challenges. I further treat sensitive topics or societal issues in ways that prioritize respect for all human beings. It is my goal that all students feel comfortable and motivated to take my classes.

I have taught several courses for undergraduate and graduate students in the Department of Communication at the University of Hohenheim, the Department of Communication at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, and in the Department of Communication Science at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Furthermore, I have taught several method workshops for researchers (e.g., at FU Berlin, the University of Rostock, the University of Hannover, or the Cornell University). If you are interested in learning R, we host an open repository for R tutorials (handouts and video tutorials) at https://github.com/ccs-amsterdam/r-course-material. I also sometimes post R tutorials on my youtube channel.  In the following, you can find an overview of the courses and workshops that I have conducted throughout the last years.

Courses at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

  • Privacy, Self-Disclosure, and Big Data
    lecture and practical sessions, graduate level, spring 2023
  • Computational Analysis of Digital Communication
    lecture and practical sessions, graduate level, fall 2022
  • Privacy, Self-Disclosure, and Big Data
    lecture and practical sessions, graduate level, spring 2022
  • New Media Challenges
    lecture, undergraduate level, spring 2022
  • Computational Analysis of Digital Communication
    lecture and practical sessions, graduate level, fall 2021
  • Public Relations and Reputation Management
    lecture, undergraduate level, spring 2021
  • Social Sciences for Society: Networks II
    lecture, undergraduate level, spring 2021
  • New Media Challenges
    lecture, undergraduate level, spring 2021
  • Marketing and Persuasive Communication
    lecture, undergraduate level, fall 2020 
  • Marketing Communication and the Consumer
    lecture/seminar, graduate level, fall 2020 

Courses at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

  • Data analysis using SPSS
    seminar, undergraduate level, spring 2020
  • Experimental Methodology
    seminar, undergraduate level, spring 2020 
  • Concepts and Theories of Communication Science
    seminar, undergraduate level, fall 2019
  • Reading, Understanding, and Writing Scientific Texts
    seminar, undergraduate level, fall 2019
  • Survey Methodology: Media Use and Effects
    seminar, undergraduate level, spring 2019

Courses at the University of Hohenheim

  • Media Enjoyment: Implications of Video-On-Demand Services
    seminar, graduate level, spring 2018
  • Advanced Statistics
    lecture and seminar, graduate level, fall 2017
  • Media Enjoyment: Permanently Online, Permanently Connected, Permanently Entertained?
    graduate level, fall, 2017
  • Advanced Statistics 
    lecture and seminar, graduate level, fall 2016
  • Advanced Statistics 
    lecture and seminar, graduate level, fall 2015
  • Current Topics in Media Psychology: Self-disclosure in the Social Web
    seminar, graduate level, spring 2014
  • Measuring Online Privacy Literacy: Content Analysis and Scale Construction
    seminar, undergraduate level, fall 2013
  • Current Topics in Media Psychology: Online Privacy
    seminar, undergraduate level, fall 2014
  • Current Topics in Media Psychology: Online Privacy
    seminar, undergraduate level, fall 2013
  • Current Topics in Media Psychology: Excessive Usage Patterns on the Internet
    seminar, graduate level, spring 2013

Workshops for researchers

  • Bayesian Statistics in R
    fall 2022, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
  • Data Analysis with R for the the Faculty of Social Sciences
    spring 2022, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
  • Preregistering Research: What is it about and why is it important?
    spring 2022, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
  • Test Theories and Scale Development with R
    spring 2020, University of Würzburg
  • Data Visualization with R
    fall 2018, Cornell University
  • Statistical Data Analysis with R
    spring 2018, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
  • Learning R
    spring 2018, University of Hanover (with Frank M. Schneider)
  • Increasing Privacy: Empowerment or Paternalism?
    fall 2017, Duisburg (with Tobias Dienlin)
  • Introduction to Statistical Data Analysis with R
    spring 2017, University of Erfurt (with Frank M. Schneider)
  • Statistical Data Analysis with R
    spring 2017, Freie Universität Berlin
  • Analyzing Experience Sampling Data: Multilevel-Analysis with R
    spring 2017, University of Rostock

Workshops at schools

  • Online Data Protection
    spring 2017, Körschtalschule, Plieningen (with Doris Teutsch)