Top Marks for our Online Teaching

2020-10-19

Online Teaching: Prof. Dr. Astrid Otto — Prof. Dr. Astrid Otto during an online lecture via WebEx

The evaluations of our students and professors regarding online teaching in the past semester were very good. For this reason, many students and lecturers have a positive attitude towards the coming online semester at bbw Hochschule.

In a survey on online teaching conducted by bbw Hochschule at the end of the summer semester, 90% of the feedback was very positive. Especially the technical support, the accessibility of the teachers and the teaching of the learning content were positively emphasised. The survey participants saw a particular advantage of online teaching in the fact that it is independent of location and avoids contacts. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lukas Rafflenbeul, Professor of Industrial Engineering and Management, sees further advantages in online teaching: "Online teaching gives both students and us teachers more flexibility - studying is possible almost anywhere. And it is a powerful accelerator for the digitalisation of teaching, which in my view was urgently needed. Finally, teaching will become what many companies have long since become - digital, flexible, international."

The international students in particular are very satisfied with the support provided by the university's lecturers and staff from a distance and are pleased that they can still attend lectures from home, safely from their home country. An international student wrote to us about this: "I am extremely happy with the online semester. The best part is, I don't have to leave the house to attend the lectures. I can attend all the lectures at the comfort and safety from my house. I am really looking forward to the online lectures in my next semester as well." Despite the physical separation caused by travel restrictions, bbw Hochschule thus enables students to attend the lectures and complete their studies as planned within the standard period of study. Prof. Dr. Astrid Otto, Professor of Corporate Communications: "My students welcome online teaching at bbw Hochschule Berlin. Online teaching offers planning security, independence of location and the greatest possible flexibility." And this planning security is currently essential for many students!

Another advantage of online teaching is the many ways in which students can be actively and playfully involved in the course. In order to make online teaching even more exciting and interactive for the students, the professors and lecturers of the subject groups are in regular exchange with each other. Prof. Dr. Johannes Kirch, Professor of Human Resources Management and Business Administration: "Whether with online business games, virtual group work, online self-tests, live polling or gamification elements: Lecturers have the task of providing their students with a learning environment that provides the right incentives for preparing and following up sessions and promotes individual and collective learning. Lecturers at bbw Hochschule consider direct feedback from students, i.e. their customers, as an incentive to proactively face the changes in teaching."

bbw Hochschule and its lecturers very much welcome the current change that is taking place and we can already say that even if face-to-face lectures are once again fully possible, many of the methods and learnings from online teaching and digitisation will continue to be used to a certain extent.