Online teaching – a preliminary conclusion

At the University of St.Gallen we have already completed the first half of the semester. Therefore, this is an ideal moment to reflect on the past couple of weeks and draw some preliminary conclusions. For me, the following insights have been crucial:

1. In the current situation, in which many people only see their family or colleagues, I feel extremely privileged to work together with an international group of people. The exchange with students regarding how they manage the Corona situation in India, Portugal, Hungary, France, Austria, Spain, Sweden or China was very enriching. I would recommend, that whenever possible, you allow for a personal and emotional exchange at the beginning of every online session. 
2. Splitting up participants into groupwork works way faster and more effectively than in the offline world. The set-up time is basically zero. One click and 47 students are split up into predefined virtual breakout rooms and work together on a problem. No time is wasted searching for breakout rooms or waiting for participants who went to the toilet. Every group has the identical start and finishing time. Everything works synchronously and on demand.
3. It is much easier to recruit high-end guest speakers from around the world for a speech. In the offline world this would have been a day trip for a speaker including travel expenses and transfer time. Nowadays this is done online directly from the CEO’s office. That is why we had the pleasure of having a 45-minute session with Thomas Sedran, CEO VW Commercial Vehicles, around the topic of “Leadership in times of crisis”.
4. Professors and students have to get to the point quicker. This is especially not easy for professors. ?? But it doesn't help ... the attention span is much shorter online - derivation, amplification and duplication must therefore be omitted if you don't want to lose your audience. That’s why I always try to ask myself the question: What is the core? What do you want the students to really keep in mind? What makes the difference to what you already know anyway? That forces me to focus and reduce. Otherwise the question arises: "Where’s the power and what’s the point? - PowerPoint.” ??
5. What impressed me most was the newly discovered ability to listen. I have often experienced meetings in the offline world in a way that the participants either do not listen at all, listen with the intention of speaking themselves, or listen to contradict. In this CEMS master course I have experienced something that I rarely see on campus. I had the feeling that people listen, that people let others speak and that they respond empathetically to the respective arguments. Often, the parallel chat even gives hints and support for improving the session. For instance, in order not to interfere with each other, the students themselves created an order for the sequence of questions, which they wanted to address towards the CEO. 

In summary, it was a great experience, which was only lacking one thing: seeing the students in person and feeling the energy in the room. I could only guess it and was happy when one or the other student gave a thumbs up or had a smile on their face after a statement was made - but these are always only fragments of reality. This can’t be compared with laughing together in a room full of students who are willing to learn, the applause you receive after an intensive session or the moment you can hear a pin drop when a participant shares a very personal insight in front of the entire group.

I sincerely hope that we will soon experience the best of both worlds.

All the best,

Wolfgang