In the first undergraduate year, Ard teaches an introductory course that touches on the central topics of his field. Many of these topics are explored in more depth each time until the Master's. Ard: "The nice thing is that they are two extremes in terms of the form of education; the undergraduate course is large-scale, and the topics are still new to students, while master students already have quite a lot of substantive knowledge." Ard says that this variety makes teaching interesting, but that's not the only thing: "The interaction with students is actually even more fun and always different. Even if I teach the exact same course every year and would ask the exact same questions, every answer is different."
Ard tries to make his lectures in the undergraduate course as interactive as possible, for example, by letting students experience bits of existing research. "That way, students are test subjects in my lecture for a while and have to remember or recognise things. If this is done well, it often prompts questions. Then the best part is to see them interact with each other."
A possible challenge at university, according to Ard, is the following: "The current education policy focuses on reducing large-scale lectures. I totally agree, but I wonder how that will be carried out. In the Bachelor's, we teach 450 students, and to teach these students via seminars, for example, is almost impossible. I am definitely in favour of a good mixture of teaching forms and am therefore very curious to see how this will develop."