"We are not a distance learning university"

UBTaktuell: Mr Huber, finally, an in-person semester is about to begin. What has changed compared to the previous semesters?

Martin Huber: Since March 2020, we have had to teach largely online for infection control reasons. Now we can finally offer the sort of face-to-face contact again that deserves the name. A look back shows that in the last winter semester, we were able to hold four weeks of teaching with face-to-face courses. At that time, however, we had to maintain physical distancing of 1.5 metres. In plain language, that meant that 90 instead of 600 people could attend a lecture in Audimax. We have been fighting against this fixed distance since May 2021, and finally it’s been worked out, the 1.5-metre distance no longer has to be maintained in face-to-face teaching.

Will the lecture halls now be full again?

Theoretically, we should be able to fill them. But we wish to handle our new freedom responsibly and have therefore decided to use only 50 per cent of room capacity in the winter semester.

Presence depends on the size of the subject

Does that also mean that only 50 per cent of the students can attend classes?

No, you can't say that. The proportion of classroom teaching depends on the size of the subject. Even now, large subjects like economics or law cannot accommodate all students of a cohort in one room. In these cases, we will work with clever and now proven models of digitally supported teaching. But smaller subjects can already offer a really high proportion of their teaching in person again. Basically, face-to-face teaching depends on optimal room occupancy on campus. At this point, I would like to thank all those who have contributed in recent semesters to ensuring that a maximum of our teaching can take place in person.

So, in-person study is possible again. For everyone?

It is important to us that the initial phase of the degree programme can take place in person as much as possible for students. That means we want as many first-year students as possible, and those who have started studying here since the outbreak of the pandemic, to get to know the campus. Of course, there are risk groups - there were already risk groups before the coronavirus - for whom it is not wise to be on campus in person for their own safety. But these are exceptions and we are finding customised solutions. Apart from that, we have made the following announcement: the 2021-2022 winter semester will be a semester of in-person attendance. We are looking forward to that, because we are not a distance learning university.

Joint work learned to appreciate

You are not only Vice President of Teaching & Learning, but also a teacher yourself. What will you take with you from your period of digital teaching into the in-person semester?

One of the most important experiences for me from this time is that in-person study is a valuable time to work with each other academically and synchronously. Students have noticed this. Knowledge transfer can also take place through other channels. This works particularly well when we lecturers make well-structured material available online in advance. Like all my colleagues, I have also developed further in digital teaching and enriched my teaching with digital elements. I personally have recently worked with audio files to convey knowledge. Students can listen in again if something is still unclear.

How is that reflected now?

Digitally supported teaching, i.e. diverse forms of blended learning as well as hybrid elements in teaching, are now established and will be maintained wherever they have proven successful. In recent semesters, many teachers have found the Continuing Education Centre for Higher Education Teaching (FBZHL) to be a valuable support structure with offerings for digitally supported teaching. What was considered the interest of individuals before March 2020 has now become part of everyday teaching due to the disruptive challenges of the pandemic, which we have managed well together. Our face-to-face teaching will continue to be supplemented with digital elements and supported didactically in a meaningful way. Since 2018, we have presented the teaching award for digitally supported teaching. This year, we had 18 really outstanding applications, which illustrate in cross-section what has changed in teaching on campus. I am particularly pleased with the high level of commitment and the great creativity with which digital elements have been integrated into teaching.

And where do we go from here?

I hope that we will soon have the pandemic under control to such an extent that by the summer semester of 2022 we will be able to conduct teaching without restrictions and, from the student perspective, have a 'normal' semester once again. However, it is also clear that this new normality means a change in teaching and studying: things will not go back to the way they were. Our university has evolved.