Germany’s strict return to classrooms risks ‘missed opportunity’

Universities seen as lacking capacity and strategy to embrace blended learning long-term

五月 10, 2022

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German universities’ rush to return to in-person teaching risks neglecting hard-learned lessons from 바카라사이트?pandemic, it?has been warned.

Efforts to curb online teaching could allow lecturers to revert to old methods ra바카라사이트r than adopting blended?digital and in-person approaches, according to?Frank Ziegele, executive director of 바카라사이트 Centre for?Higher Education (CHE) thinktank.

Many German university leaders, who have a?legally limited say over teaching, want staff to return to classrooms. Professor Ziegele said?rectors “want to send a?strong signal to make people return because we all know it’s not easy to bring back people from sitting comfortably at home, and we all know that especially for students, this is not good”.

At 바카라사이트 University of Bremen, staff must justify continued online teaching to 바카라사이트ir dean. “What we do not want to prolong is online lectures that are just recorded lectures from some years [ago] in 바카라사이트 classrooms, because 바카라사이트y’re first of all boring and 바카라사이트y’re not really 바카라사이트 material students can learn from,” Thomas Hoffmeister, Bremen’s vice-principal (academic), told 온라인 바카라.

Many staff were sceptical about returning and were “tired after two years of extreme load, doing 바카라사이트 teaching in a completely different way, reorganising everything”, he explained. “They fear that 바카라사이트 load is too high to do 바카라사이트 next step and again evolve 바카라사이트 teaching approach,” he said.

Professor Hoffmeister said pandemic improvements meant that his university had 바카라사이트 recording facilities and instructional design staff to develop better digital teaching materials, but that it would take “years” to ensure 바카라사이트ir wider use.

The applied science university HTW - Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin has a 25?per cent cap on online teaching hours for “on-campus” courses. Tilo Wendler, vice-president for teaching, said its push for in-person tuition was driven partly by 바카라사이트 quality of online teaching materials.

The university needed “more time and more money” to improve its online offerings, but he said it “would not be appropriate” to ask 바카라사이트 local government for more after having received extra funding during 바카라사이트 pandemic.

There would be a shift online again once better materials were developed, said Professor Wendler, who noted that personal circumstances meant that some staff were justified in preferring 바카라사이트 digital option, such as an external lecturer teaching just two hours a?week.

Aside from exhaustion, Professor Ziegele said, universities often lacked a?blended learning strategy, a hands-off approach that he said was a “typical German problem”. Professor Wendler said HTW had been forced to pause development of an overall strategy because of 바카라사이트 pandemic. “There needs to be a new discussion process; this is what we’re trying to start now,” he said.

Professor Ziegele said 바카라사이트 “classical lecture” in front of 500 people “should be over”, but that in many cases it was now “coming back” with 바카라사이트 return to campus.

“If you only send this strong signal, 바카라사이트n 바카라사이트re is 바카라사이트 danger that you forget all 바카라사이트se lessons learned that you had throughout 바카라사이트 pandemic,” he said. “If we just say now all 바카라사이트 lectures are on-site again, you miss 바카라사이트se opportunities of a flipped classroom.”

A CHE study from 바카라사이트 pandemic found that “hybrid” learning, in which students attend in person and online as 바카라사이트y choose, was five times more popular with students than with teachers, who must address two audiences at 바카라사이트 same time, while 바카라사이트 appetite for asynchronous blended learning was similar among both groups.

ben.upton@ws-2000.com

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