Interview: Reflecting on a year of digital teaching at the Chair of International Management
Studying at university looks a lot different today than it used to before the pandemic. Not only the students had to adapt to the new normality, but also the teaching staff has faced big challenges and put great efforts into rethinking their courses.
An interview with Sarah-Alena Rössig, research assistant at the Chair of International Management.
© Jana Dünnhaupt
The first lockdown in Germany and the consequent decision to cancel all offline courses came shortly before the start of the summer semester 2020. What was the biggest challenge back then? How did the Chair of International Management overcome them?
Sarah-Alena: After the OvGU decided to have a digital summer semester 2020, we had a team meeting to discuss how we can transform our courses into a digital format. The guiding principle for the transformation process was to ensure that students learn the content despite the new circumstances. Still, we also wanted them to have fun and enjoy participation in our courses. We had many discussions about how to transform our teaching materials and our presentation style to keep students engaged. We tested different tools with the team to decide what works best for us. Overall, it was an intensive period of working at the Chair. We often revised our ideas and started all over again, but it also intensified our teamwork further. As the situation was entirely new for all of us and we had one common goal, the support for each other made it fun to take our courses to the next level.
How has your teaching evolved over the past 12 months?
Sarah-Alena: One of our key learnings was that we cannot rely on asynchronous teaching only. In the summer semester of 2020, we started uploading teaching videos for our lecture. We received feedback that students were afraid they could not ask their questions immediately while listening to the content. As a consequence, we established weekly live meetings, which were embraced by many students. We also enjoyed the possibility to be in direct contact with our students too. Therefore, regular live meetings are one element that we keep in all our courses. As with many things, a mixture is often the best decision. So, we try to have asynchronous and synchronous teaching in our courses.
What do you miss most in digital teaching compared to the normal offline setting?
Sarah-Alena: I miss the opportunities for an informal exchange with students. There were always opportunities to talk to each other before and after classes or during encounters on the campus. In the online context, you start the meeting, and there is complete silence in the meeting room. In addition, in large classes, I am also often starring at a lot of black screens during my tutorials. That still irritates me because you quickly get the feeling that you are talking to yourself.
What are the advantages of digital teaching in your opinion?
Sarah-Alena: From a student perspective, I think teaching videos provide some advantages compared to in-class teaching. Videos are available on-demand, so students can learn and work through the content whenever it is best for them. Speaking of different chronotypes, the owls can study during the evening and night hours. The larks can start early in the mornings. In addition, I had good experiences with the use of breakout sessions in seminars. During the meetings, we often ask our students to work on short cases or other exercises in class. That works very well in a digital format. So far, we received feedback from seminar participants that they also enjoy working in the breakout sessions with fellow students.
Has the pandemic influenced your PhD research as well? If yes, how?
Sarah-Alena: I was shortly before launching a survey when we went into lockdown. I wanted to survey team members and how people work together, but it did not make any sense to start the study as everything moved online. I was forced to change my research plans, but I hope to launch the survey in the future. Also, the collaboration of all PhD students at the Chair was affected. We used to have regular research days with each other to discuss our progress. Right now, we only have weekly online meetings with all PhD students. But, thanks to Zoom features, we still have a lot of fun together and I am sure we can meet in person again soon.
Do you want to know more about our engaging courses and seminars? Click here to find out more about our course offer. If you want to change perspective and read up how our students experience studying during the pandemic, check out the blog articles written by Indu and Temur.