On Monday, the lectures of the summer term 2020 started at all universities in North Rhine-Westphalia. The WiSo Faculty had, however, taken the opportunity to start the online lectures as planned on 6 April. The new situation of exclusively digital teaching is an exciting learning process with iterative improvements for everyone involved, whether students or teachers.

Our interview (still from the first week) with Isabelle Richter (4th semester, Business Administration, Corporate Development) offers vivid insights.

Dear Isabelle how did you find it that the WiSo Faculty started online teaching as soon as possible?

I think it is more than good that the WiSo has made an effort to start lectures as soon as possible, because it gives me the feeling that everyday life continues. At a time when most leisure activities are prohibited, most people are very grateful to have a meaningful occupation. Of course, for financial and other reasons it is also important for most students to be able to continue their studies as planned and they gratefully accept this.

Which courses did you participate in online?

So far only Management Skills, another lecture will follow soon.

How did you experience the course?

In my eyes there was little to no loss through the online format. In the specific case of the Management Skills course, we had to omit some exercises dealing with the topic of communication, as these could not be reproduced online. Nevertheless, we were able to work out meaningful content together in the group and also solve and present interactive tasks. It was a new and interesting experience.

How does the communication with the lecturers and your fellow students work? Have you found practical ways to directly exchange information?

The Management Skills course lives from communication and exchange in the group. With our lecturer we were able to have a very good exchange via Zoom. For our tasks in small groups of five students we founded a Whatsapp Group and held Zoom meetings in small groups. So we could solve the tasks well and there was no lack of communication.

What do you think of the online design of exercises and tutorials, where it is especially important to work on tasks together with your fellow students?

Of course it would be easier to meet in person, but Zoom is really a good substitute (or Skype). It also has advantages to be able to meet with fellow students only online, because nobody has a long way to go and most people have more time windows open in which they have time to solve the tasks. Depending on the complexity of the tasks, this can of course become more difficult. However, if you use Google Docs, in which documents can be shared and even worked on simultaneously, this should work well in almost every course.

The changeover period was very short and does not only cover the course itself. How do you think the online offer has worked so far? Can you easily access everything you need?

Personally, I have not had any technical problems so far. In Ilias I was able to access all materials and every participant managed to get into the course in Zoom without any problems. Since both the camera and the sound of each participant can be switched off by the participant himself, the question is of course whether some of them might not do other things on the side, which they could not do in a classical lecture. But as always, this is the responsibility of each individual student.

Did you use support?

Not yet, no.

Do you have suggestions for improvement?

It would be good to have a longer lead time and to pass on information about what takes place when. A short info from the individual courses, how they imagine the term to be and what is planned when and how. But I think that this is maybe just generally still uncertain and in planning and will come soon.

Did you tell other students and friends who are not at the WiSo about the beginning of the online lectures and how did they react?

I have heard from most of my friends from other universities that they are also trying to continue their teaching online. Nevertheless, the University of Cologne seems to be one of the previous universities, which makes me happy.

Dear Isabelle, thank you very much not only for this closing and all the best for the future.