Digital teaching - interim results of THI Business School

In the summer semester 2020 everything is different. For lecturers, students and administrative staff. No lectures in reference mode, library closed, seminars cancelled - and all this probably until at least 19 April. For THI Business School, this is a strong impulse to push ahead with the digitalization of teaching.

"Many lecturers make videos out of their presentation slides and thus explain and prepare the content for self-study," says Anita Sangl, the faculty's representative for the digitalization of teaching. "Some have even completely switched their lectures over to online streaming in the very first week. Virtual PC pools have now been set up via IT support. Many lecturers use forums for the exchange with their students and offer online consultation hours. Project and presentation topics are assigned online. Exercises can be submitted via Moodle and the students receive an evaluation. In a special video conferencing tool, the lecturers can integrate surveys or multiple-choice questions into their live session. In short, we use a wide range of tools to help our students study on their own in the best possible way.”

In order to push this development further, the Extended University Board has decided to acquire additional 200 licenses for a video streaming portal. Furthermore, the faculties will receive special funds to finance student assistants. These assistants support the lecturers in the further digitalization of teaching. At the same time, the creation of these jobs is intended to help at least partially compensate for financial losses incurred by students, for example due to the loss of a student's job.

"Of course, we hope that we will be able to restart operations on a regular basis after 19 April," summarizes Prof. Dr. Bernd Scheed, Dean of the THI Business School. "However, should this not be possible due to the special circumstances, we can continue the semester as before for a long time to come."