A university entirely in Online Teaching: Who would have expected this before Corona?
Instead of sitting in a lecture with fellow students, you now sit alone in front of your computer at home. Online teaching and digital courses pose new challenges for teachers and students alike. How can you make the best use of digital courses?
Be prepared – have all the materials you need for the course ready. This includes not only lecture notes, notepad and pencil, but also a small snack, refreshments and the coffee or tea. Having to run somewhere quickly during the lecture to retrieve forgotten things is inconvenient and distracting.
Silence please! – Make sure that you are undisturbed. If the flatmate wants to chat with you, the washing machine in the background beeps and the cat jumps on your keyboard and the computer shuts down – all this is an unnecessary distraction. Set up a workstation and make sure that you are undisturbed there and everyone knows that you are now concentrating on your work.
Participate – Every course, not only online, lives from participation. Speak up and ask when things remain unclear. Find out how this can be done in your courses. In the chat this is possible without interrupting the lecturer and for word contributions there is the zoom hand to get in touch.
Giving feedback – The online concept is also new for the teachers. Not every digital course is already running optimally. Constructive feedback and suggestions are welcome. Where is there potential for improvement? What is already going great? If you like something particularly well, tell the teachers so that they know how their new concepts are received.
In addition, the digital formats open up new possibilities. Events are streamed live and can be followed from anywhere. Other lectures are available as download on demand and can therefore be accessed at any time. Both formats have their advantages and everyone should find the best way to participate. Live lectures open up the possibility to participate in the events without having to travel. Especially for enquiries or interactive formats, participation is possible in this way. Questions can be asked and ambiguities eliminated via chat or microphone. Direct interaction between teachers and students is thus possible.
In contrast, on-demand lectures offer maximum time freedom. Whether in the morning, at noon or in the evening: the lecture is just a click away. If dinner is just about ready or you need a short break for fresh air or coffee, click once on Pause and continue later at the same place. And if you’ve lost the connection, you can easily rewind and listen to the lecture again. Even when dealing with content that you can already do and do not want to repeat, you can simply rewind a bit and continue with new and interesting topics.
Ideally, courses offer both. If the recording is uploaded after the live event, one can participate interactively in the event as well as access the content during the learning phase and thus prepare oneself optimally. In the same way, a missed event can be easily made up for. Life always gets in the way of planning.
Written by: Iris Heisterklaus
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