INNES quality standards

At INNES, you will find a learning space that is academic and professional, yet friendly and individual. Our small groups give students the benefit of increased personal interaction with their teachers, so they can expect a more personalized learning journey and thus faster progress in their German language courses.

Registration I Placement Level tests

Learning German at the right level is essential to your learning success. Apart from our easy online registration and free online German-level test, you will benefit from a personal-level assessment on the first day of your course.

Feedback System to assure high quality

In each course, there is a three-fold feedback process to maximize student satisfaction:

#1 lesson observation

#2 online satisfaction survey, and

#3 class feedback.

Lesson observations are followed by personal feedback or training session which aims to turn good teachers into fantastic teachers. After the first week of the course, students can fill out an anonymous Satisfaction Survey online, so that all questions, doubts or problems can be responded to immediately. Because we believe that open teacher-student communication is the heartbeat of a good class atmosphere, teachers conduct anonymous class feedback in course week two. Finally, our helpful reception staff always has an open ear for all your concerns.

Inside the classroom

All teachers at INNES are trained to teach in accordance with our quality charter. This quality charter includes guidelines detailing what students need to achieve in order to be awarded a certificate with ECTS, as well as: what elements influence students’ final scores, how to handle progress tests, course planning, course methodology, feedback procedures, and community building.

All INNES Teachers work according to the following didactic principles:

#1 Student-centeredness. People, their personal needs, and their stories always stand in the foreground of
all learning, and not the materials.

#2 Individual treatment. All learning activities are graded to participants’ individual needs and
wishes. Stronger students get extra exercise and challenges, and weaker students extra support. To guarantee individual treatment, we keep our groups small.

#3 Student feedback. Teachers create a communicative classroom environment in which feedback,  wishes and suggestions can be shared personally at any time. Teachers always conduct anonymous
in-class feedback after the first week of the course to respond to students’ suggestions.

#4 Well-structuredness. All teachers carefully plan and stage their lessons (and the entire course) in
correspondence to students’ needs. They also give students an overview of the entire course, test
dates, excursions, etc. on the first-course day.

#5 Group dynamics for active lessons. All teachers employ a mixture of individual, pair, and group
work to keep learners engaged and involved at all times. Our teacher’s mantra is to explain only as
much as needed, so that students can be as active as possible, and communicate non-stop in German
with each other.

#6 Balance of all four skills with extra focus on speaking practice. From the beginning, you will
practice speaking, reading, writing, and listening. However, at INNES we emphasize extended speaking practice in all courses, because we know that this is the skill needed most in real life. This
turns our students into independent communicators.

#7 Variety of activities. While it is important to establish some kind of learning routine, we know
that learners love variety – which is why we train teachers to make sure that activities are creative
and varied to engage learners with all their senses.

#8 Learning transfer. We at INNES are very structured and we expect our teachers to guarantee a
smooth changeover between levels. In addition to the progress tests throughout the course,
students draw a learning diagram visualizing the contents learned at the end of the course, thus reviewing everything and self-assessing their learning development.

Course Materials

A good course book and useful materials are also very important. We always keep up-to-date with the course book market in order to choose the best option for you. In addition, we have a well-equipped teacher’s library full of only the best didactic materials for German language learners.

Quality assurance

We proudly hold the Wien Cert – a certificate granted to only the best educational institutions in Vienna. The acquisition of Wien Cert signifies our unwavering commitment to educational excellence. It serves as a mark of distinction, signifying that INNES has met rigorous standards and demonstrates a dedication to academic quality.