2026 Distinguished Teaching Award winner – a passionate educator who has developed new forms of assessment

In May 2026, you were told that you would be receiving the Independent category Distinguished Teaching Award.

Did you have any idea that you might be in line for this award?
“Not a clue! It was a huge surprise. I feel very honoured.”

Five awards, each worth SEK 20,000, are made each year. Students and teaching staff can nominate teachers in one or more of the specific nomination categories. To be nominated, they must have made outstanding contributions that support and promote students’ learning.

Do you have any idea who nominated you?
“Apparently it was a joint effort on the part of several of my online students. As the programme can be quite demanding in terms of time requirements, I was quite touched by this.”

Assignments and interactions must be meaningful

You received the award because you have developed new forms of assessment with continuous feedback as an important part of the students’ learning process and because you are a passionate about pedagogy.

What strategies do you use, and do you employ anything special in terms of pedagogy?

“I’ve been teaching online asynchronous courses since 2009, that means courses where teachers and students don’t have to be online at the same time. These courses require many structures and strategies for the course architecture that are not necessary when teaching in a physical setting. For example, information needs to be available in certain locations and consistent throughout. I spend a lot of time trying to anticipate what parts of the course might be confusing or unclear and making them as clear as possible. I also try to reply as quickly as possible to e-mails because we don’t meet in person or in online video conferencing sessions. I e-mail them once a week with reminders about their assignments.

Most importantly, I try to make the assignments and interactions as meaningful as possible, with lots of opportunities for creative brainstorming, playtesting, reflection, and feedback between participants. The students do a lot of writing in the course, which can feel repetitive, so providing clear instructions for how to meaningfully engage with one another is important. The students do meet with their small group at least twice in most courses to playtest their games, which can help them feel more deeply connected with their peers. But ideally they are also having meaningful conversations in text form in the asynchronous classroom. One strategy I employ is “Ask a Question, Answer a Question”, where students should ask a question of their peers specific to the content of that person’s post, and answer any questions posed to them, ideally asking a new one in return. This practice can help to keep the conversation going.

Finally, when possible, I try to scaffold knowledge as much as possible, first introducing concepts or brainstorming, then building on that in later assignments, so that piece by piece they are creating a foundation for their creative and academic work. This latter part is especially important since my students are often lifelong learners who may have been out of school for quite some time pursuing careers in helping professions, and may feel insecure or unsure about their academic skills. By breaking down tasks into smaller bits and demonstrating how they combine over time progressively from smaller assignments to larger ones, hopefully the academic process feels less daunting for them.”

What do you think is the most important thing about teaching?
“I think it’s not one thing, but rather a combination of remaining curious, excited by the students’ growth processes, being open to learning from them at least as much as they learn from me, and caring about their trajectory in life. Being a teacher is a sacred duty to me, one that I often feel that I fall short in doing, but I try to stay committed to constantly improving my capabilities.

Sharing stories and exercises with colleagues

Do you also contribute to your colleagues’ educational development?
“As teachers in the game design department, we meet regularly, share stories, discuss challenges, receive feedback from students, reflect on our practices, and offer suggestions for improvement. Our administrators also support our process so much by helping us understand the student experience from multiple angles. I feel blessed to be surrounded by other passionate educators.

I also share educational role-playing exercises with colleagues, including at the Innovation Game and CIRCUS Summer Schools, as well as offering training in conflict transformation and non-violent communication, for example for staff and teachers in the ENLIGHT Network, through our Erasmus+ ROCKET programme. I regularly present at educational conferences such as ENLIGHT Teaching and Learning and co-organise conferences and seminars on educational role-playing, such as the Edu-Larp Conference last year in Gothenburg, and the Transformative Play Initiative Seminar in 2025, which was co-financed by the ROCKET project as an outreach event, as well as the Uppsala Forum on Democracy, Peace, and Justice and Region Gotland. I think it’s important to continue to improve my own skills and I gain so much inspiration from learning about innovative teaching practices from others.”

Do you have any concrete tips about teaching and learning?
“I think the key to academia in general, whether teaching or conducting research, is to cultivate one's curiosity. There is always more to learn - from our students, from each other, from new studies or other fields. Keeping our passion for discovery alive and remaining humble about everything we know we still need to learn is important, to paraphrase Socrates. Sometimes, it’s far less important for me to tell students what I know and far more fruitful to figure out the right questions to ask them to help them discover their own inner knowing, fostering their ability to seek knowledge for themselves, and encouraging them to engage in peer-to-peer learning, which I also reap the benefits from.”

What will you do with the award money?
“I probably need to spend less time working on bureaucratic processes and more time out exploring the world and tending to my own curiosity, perhaps experiencing role-playing games in other countries more often.”

Ulrika Hurtig