Page 83 - Research Report 2021 - Institut für Leichtbau und Kunststofftechnik

Reply of a student (7th semester)

The sudden changeover from face-to-face to digital
Teaching in pandemic times: teaching in the summer semester of 2020 posed great
challenges for teachers, but certainly also for students.
Digital versus on-site? How did you perceive the changes at that time? And
how are you coping after almost 4 semesters without
continuous face-to-face teaching?

In the fi rst Corona Wave 2020 – still started at the kitchen
table – we have settled quite well into studying from home
over the last four semesters. Commitment and fl exibility are
the key qualities required of students and lecturers. However,
if both groups brought these skills with them, good teaching © Crispin-Iven Mokry
took place despite all adversities.
What alternative teaching formats did your lecturers
What do you miss most? Do you think there is actually a use? Which of them do you consider particularly useful?
need for face-to-face lectures in order to get the study
content across well? In digital teaching, a clear, well-structured course calendar at
the beginning of the semester is worth its weight in gold. This

Lectures that have been well adapted to the digital format is the most effective way to design the curriculum for studying

over the last four semesters should not be forced back into from home. In teaching itself, good lecture videos are suffi-
the classroom. Clear explanatory videos supplemented by cient if they are supplemented by consultations. For tutorials,
regular consultations can certainly keep up with earlier face- much depends on the complexity and degree of freedom of
to-face formats, if they do not even surpass them in some the task. Simple calculations can be taught well with a video
cases. or a detailed solution via PDF. Using simulation software, on
the other hand, requires a live event.
Which changes were particularly serious for you?
Which would you describe as advantageous? Would you like to see some of the alternative formats
also used in regular teaching? Which formats do you
A suitable workspace at home is a basic prerequisite for digi- consider suitable for this?
tal teaching. Without it, no learning success is possible. How-
ever, setting it up costs time, space and money. Once the Questions tend to be better formulated after you have
set-up is in place and you have found your personal way of thought about the lecture material. In the lecture hall, it was
acquiring knowledge in digital teaching, you can defi nitely sometimes difficult to take notes, think and then formulate

draw advantages from it. For example, commuting times are a suitable question simultaneously, which often resulted in
eliminated. Also freer time management and repetitive learn- the question “Do you have any questions?” being answered
ing with recorded lectures are possible. by the sound of crickets only. Lecture videos supplemented
by consultations can really be an improvement on this point.

Have you attended hybrid lectures, if offered in your
degree programme? What, if anything, has prevented How important is personal contact (in face-to-face
you from doing so? events) with teachers for you? Can social networks,
e-mail, video conferences, etc. well or even fully substi-
There was offer of hybrid lectures in my degree programme tute this? Were your lecturers always available for you?

in 2021. At the beginning of the semester, I was very happy What means of communication, if any, did you use?
to be allowed to sit in the lecture hall with fellow students
again. However, as the semester progressed, this turned out For communicating technical questions, e-mail and video-
to be a rather unplannable pleasure. Illnesses, quarantine conferences are suitable tools and have proven their worth.
or the compulsory stop around Christmas made continuous With questions that are more complex and require calcula-

participation on site difficult. Therefore, parallel videos of the tions or sketches, it was a more difficult task. It is sometimes

classroom events or lecture videos from previous semesters hard to formulate the question so clearly that it can be un-
proved to be important learning tools when another Corona derstood without three follow-up e-mails. This is then a con-
wave intervened. siderably time-consuming matter.

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