Andrea Esser is Professor of Philosophy focussed on practical philosophy at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. Since 2017, she has been a member of the expert panel of the Academy for Teaching Development (Akademie für Lehrentwicklung). Prof. Esser approaches digital teaching with a certain scepticism – she does not reject it in principle, but she thinks it is important to test the limits and make them clear. She is convinced that face-to-face teaching cannot be replaced without some losses.
I miss the feedback. [...] I am dependent on the fact that real processes of understanding and formulations come from the students, that they think along, that they go into thinking and writing. So, this is per se very much designed for a dialogue. [...] This dialogicity is not easy to transfer to a zoom meeting.
Prof. Dr. Andrea Esser
Nils Boysen is Professor of General Business Administration and heads the Chair of Operations Management. He is still open for face-to-face teaching, but sees clear advantages in digital teaching due to his very heterogeneous student body with different educational backgrounds and alternative working time models.
My hope would be that the heterogeneity of the offers – face-to-face and online – would increase and that students would have greater freedom of choice. Those who are dependent on studying online due to time restrictions will get better online offers, and those who still want to study in the traditional face-to-face mode should feel free to do so. And maybe there are solutions in between as well.
Prof. Dr. Nils Boysen