The OSI offers different types of courses.

Lectures (“Vorlesung (V)”), provide you with an introductory overview of the respective study area. Generally, the assignment you have to complete to receive a certificate of achievement (“Leistungsschein”) in this type of course is a written exam. There is also tutorials (“Tutorium (T)”) and exercises (“Übungen (Ü”), which are held to provide you with further information about the subject of the lecture and give you the possibility to ask questions on the topic. They may be valuable to you, even if no ECTS are awarded for them.

In addition, there are seminars (“Seminar (S)”). There are three different kinds of seminars available at the OSI. In general, they treat specific subjects more in depth than lectures. In these types of courses your participation, your questions and taking part in discussions will directly add to the seminar. There are introductory seminars (“Proseminare (PS)”) and advanced seminars (“Hauptseminare (HS)”), as well as core advanced seminars (“Kernhauptseminare (K-HS)”).

Introductory seminars (PS) are suitable for undergraduate students (up to about the fourth semester), while the advanced seminars (HS) are usually only available for students at the end of their Bachelor or Master students. The core advanced seminars (K-HS) are the basic seminars, belonging to the advanced seminars (HS) of the Master program. They all give you an overview over a certain field of study.

All courses are mostly held weekly and last two hours (“Semesterwochenstunden” (SWS)), which makes 90 minutes in total. An exception are block seminars (Blockseminare), which are held during a few days throughout the semester but last more hours.

Please note that the course structure at other departments and faculties might differ.