KU takes stock after one year of corona

Not only schools have been confronted with major challenges in organizing their teaching practice since the outbreak of the corona pandemic. At universities, too, teaching and service operations had to be re-designed and implemented under completely new conditions in the past year. At the KU, this could so far be implemented thanks to intensive crisis management based on a continuously adapted hygiene concept. As a result of the pandemic, the University experienced a digitalization boost.

“Currently, the KU does not see any urgent need to act. Still, please be aware that appropriate hygiene measures can significantly minimize the risk of spreading infectious diseases.” This is the wording of a circular e-mail to all members of the KU sent out on February 27, 2020. The media had previously reported on the first Covid 19 cases in Germany with increasing intensity. Business at the university was still running smoothly. But just one week later, travel warnings had to be sent out to staff, and students were advised to reconsider or cancel semesters abroad in risk areas. A few days later still it was clear: The start of the summer semester had to be postponed. 

The beginning of the corona pandemic one year ago was very dynamic – and to the present day, the University has still not returned to normal operations or teaching and learning processes. Especially at a small university like the KU, where personal encounters characterize daily life and special emphasis is placed on the close exchange between lecturers and students, social distancing and the lockdown represent a major and painful experience for many.

In order to maintain the teaching practice under these conditions, seminars and lectures had to be converted to virtual formats. Professors, other academic staff and lecturers redesigned their courses within a short period of time. "All of us at the KU have experienced a steep learning curve. The past months were a turbo boost for digital and hybrid teaching", described Prof. Dr. Markus Eham, Vice President for Studies and Teaching. A specially established "Digital Teaching Task Force” led by Markus Eham very successfully supported the lecturers with ideas and practical tools. In the 2020 summer semester, over 90 percent of the more than 1,500 planned courses could take place. In the winter semester, only 47 of just under 2,000 courses had to be canceled due to corona – this mainly affected field trips. 

In converting their courses to a digital format, lecturers made every effort to make a virtue of necessity and developed innovative teaching projects that were also particularly special due to their collaborative character. For example, a seminar on computer games was held from the perspective of political education as a joint project with the TU Dresden, a virtual journey to German and Austrian congregations took place in a theology lecture, and the Journalism Department implemented a podcast project on the history of Eichstätt. The Professorship of English Didactics offered students of teaching degree programs the opportunity to gain practical experience in teaching at partner schools despite the pandemic situation by skillfully integrating various web tools. Conferences were shifted to the Internet just as lecture series, some of which thus had an audience far beyond the Eichstätt and Ingolstadt region.

The purchase of a campus license for the web conferencing tool "Zoom" in March 2020 was one of the first measures to further enable teaching and committee meetings. Connections are mostly stable, and initial data protection concerns were resolved through improvements by the provider and a special KU contract (sessions with sensitive content run exclusively via KU servers). In the period from March 1, 2020, to February 10, 2021, a total of 108 339 Zoom meetings were held via the KU license (on weekdays, there are 800 to 1,000 web conferences). A total of 758 500 participants in those meetings sat in front of a screen for a combined total usage time of over 55 million minutes. Zoom has made some things easier (people can save on travel and commuting time) and others even newly possible (attend lectures in pajamas). The conferencing tool will certainly also be in continued use after corona – although students and lecturers alike long for seminars and meetings without webcams and headsets.

Just under a year ago, the KU University Management formed a crisis task force. Since then, the "Corona Task Force" has met every Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. – with a break during the summer vacation time. The task force with its eleven members includes the heads of Facility Management, Human Resources Department, Student Organization and the Examinations Office, the Computer Center, and Library, as well as the heads of the divisions for Health and Safety, a representative of the Legal Department, and the vice chair of the Staff Representative Committee. The crisis team is coordinated by the head of the Department of Communications and Marketing, who discusses the task force's recommendations with University Management and informs students and employees weekly by means of circular e-mails and information that is uploaded on the website. 

The KU Presidium has also had a fixed agenda item every week for the past year: "TOP 3: Corona". Due to KU President Prof. Dr. Gabriele Gien, the crisis management and the constant changes in the framework conditions due to new political decisions tie up a lot of working time and energy. But, she adds, this effort pays off: "We regularly get feedback and thanks from our students and also from our colleagues for the successful crisis management." Gien emphasizes that the lecturers also had to do a considerable amount of extra work. "Especially for lecturers who had to look after their own children at home during the school closures, the burden is very high." In addition, she also thanks KU students. “Overall, they are very understanding of the teaching restrictions that are sometimes unavoidable”, said Gien. The University Management also maintains a constructive exchange with the Student Representatives Council, thus actively involving students in the search for solutions.