"ETH is not a distance learning university"
Emergency mode at ETH has led to many changes: from teleworking and virtual lectures to online events, concepts that were still in their infancy a few months ago have now become the new normal. We spoke with Gerd Kortemeyer, who heads the Educational Development and Technology office (LET), about his experience under emergency operations, the ideal mixture of online and classroom teaching, and which aspects of the lockdown are here to stay.
What has life under emergency operations been like for you at LET?
It was a huge challenge to switch over to online teaching in such a short time, but there were several factors that took the pressure off to a significant degree. For one, we never had to worry about a system crash thanks to ETH's excellent technical infrastructure. But primarily we felt an immense atmosphere of solidarity all throughout the institution, which alleviated a lot of our stress. Teaching staff, students, support staff and the Executive Board were all acting in unison. And when something occasionally did go wrong, there was a lot of understanding on all sides.
How would you rate ETH's switch to online teaching?
For the most part I'm pleasantly surprised. Our surveys show that the transition worked out very well. 95 percent of the courses could be held online, and for the rest – particularly labs – students have mostly been able to make up for them. In surveys, students and teaching staff have given high marks to the online courses, and the grade distribution on exams corresponded to the norm.
For the most part, online courses just continued the traditional form of lecture hall teaching, albeit digitally. That's a pragmatic solution, and it's what worked the best on short notice, even though it involved an enormous amount of effort. But the fact that we could make this switch so successfully should give us some food for thought.
What do you mean by that?
Classroom teaching suddenly disappeared, but students were still able to learn successfully, as evidenced by their performance on exams. This has also been the case at other universities, which leads us to the conclusion that there's a lot of untapped potential when it comes to classroom teaching. The one-sided transmission of knowledge that happens in a traditional lecture can also take place virtually. This means that the classroom could be used more for interaction-based teaching methods, something that was of course also done at ETH even before corona. Giving and listening to lectures can be enjoyable. We don't want to lose that. A well-designed lecture will continue to have the power to inspire, but maybe it doesn't have to fill an entire hour. It's all about the mixture.
Could you describe the ideal mixture of online and in-person teaching?
The best mixture is based on synergies. Online and classroom teaching complement one another. If you place the purely knowledge transmission part online, then you free up more time in the lecture hall that can be used for more active methods like doing group work or weaving in interactive clicker questions. Students go online to prepare for their time in the classroom, which makes the time spent there even more effective.
Classroom teaching will be highly restricted in the Autumn Semester. Does that mean this ideal mixture will already be in place?
How close we can already come to this ideal form of hybrid teaching in the autumn depends on various factors. The main challenge is finding a way of making the limited time in the classroom as enriching as possible. Putting this into practice requires enormous effort and will be a challenge for students and lecturers alike. So their patience is part of the key to success. Blending learning largely relies on stability in order to function, so in-person courses need to be held according to plan. The danger is that you just have double the effort instead of achieving synergies. As we don't know how the pandemic will play out, we need to find a system that's as robust as possible.
Which aspects of the lockdown are here to stay?
The switch to emergency mode was a wake-up call. It's forcing us to rethink our value system, and we're still at the beginning of this process. People have shown a great deal of openness – and also courage – when it comes to questioning traditional assumptions. At the same time, there's also a newfound appreciation of classroom teaching. ETH is not a distance learning university. We're proud of the many top-notch researchers who teach here and interact with our students. Over the long-term, we will have to invest more in online resources that round out and complement classroom teaching. In the end, I hope that we can retain our optimism and the palpable feeling of solidarity, because the Autumn Semester is going to be a big challenge. But if we can overcome it, we'll emerge stronger from the crisis.