"I think we’ll probably develop a more relaxed attitude to distance learning."
As a member of the MELETE group, Dr Andreas Steiger works together with colleagues on evaluating new teaching practices. ETH’s switch to running its academic operations entirely online gave him an opportunity to share the expertise he has amassed in this role. In this interview, he talks about his experience of the Department moving online.
What were your first thoughts when you heard that all teaching was being made to switch to a remote format from 16 March?
I was relieved, because the various departments at ETH had been coming up with their own solutions at a rate that was spiralling out of control, and the ETH Executive Board’s decision put a stop to that. We finally had something that we could all work with, and it applied to everyone – none of us had any choice but to get on board with the new system. Unsurprisingly, however, some uncertainties did start emerging about how well our plans would work in practice. It wasn’t clear how the students would receive them either.
How well do you think the switch went?
It was an overwhelmingly positive experience from my point of view – everything worked really well. ETH was extremely well prepared for the switch and it quickly adapted the technology we needed to our new situations – like Zoom, the video conferencing tool, or the recording equipment in lecture theatres.
Together with the IT Support Group (ISG), you took on the role of providing support to lecturers shortly after the switch. How did that come about?
The ISG has no experience how the teaching staff actually uses the available technical facilities – that's not part of their job. My experience meant I was able to step in here, so I put together some tips from my colleagues and was there to give people advice. I mainly provided support to lecturers who had never worked with this kind of technology because they’d always preferred to use the black board for their lectures.
Our Director of Studies was also very fast in responding to the situation. We had quickly realised that teaching would run much more smoothly if the Department had a good amount of equipment like tablets available, so he released the funding we needed for that. The ISG purchased the tablets for us and provided lecturers with technical support for them.
You were able to switch to the new lecture format pretty quickly, but how did it work with exercises?
That side of things was definitely more of a challenge. We gave some of our equipment to our doctoal teaching assistants so that they could do some preparation and review work on the exercises. Some of them then produced videos for our student teaching assistants, who watched them in preparation for exercises with the students.
How did the students respond to the new setup? Did it make much difference to the teaching?
During lectures, I found that I got more questions through the chat function than I normally would. Students feel less inhibited about asking questions that way, and it perhaps also helps that they can log in under a pseudonym if they want to. Their questions are actually sometimes answered by fellow students, which is a really nice side effect of the format. When we get back to physical lecture theatres, I really hope I can still have access to a tool that students can use to ask questions in relative anonymity while the lecture is taking place. It would be especially useful for larger first-year lectures.
Do you have any recommendations for remote teaching?
I’ve always created a video podcast and provided PDF copies of my notes. All of my materials are made available online after my lectures – that way, students can access them at any time and study whenever and wherever suits them, even if they have something like military service going on as well. I think we could definitely continue taking that approach. It works well as a whole concept and doesn’t rely on physical lecture theatres. There’s a general feeling among lecturers that nobody will come to a lecture if you just make all the materials available to them in another way, but I don’t see why we should force students to attend lectures. If they want to use the materials in a way that suits them better, why shouldn’t we let them?
Do you think this situation has led to permanent changes in the way teaching is carried out?
I don’t think a lot of the changes will stick, but I think we’ll probably develop a more relaxed attitude to distance learning. Let’s say you’re at a conference but you still want to deliver some teaching – you could use Zoom to teach from wherever you are, or you could record a video in advance.
Another interesting outcome of the situation has been that lecturers have had to re-evaluate their teaching methods. They’ve had to stop working on autopilot, if that’s what they were doing before, and really start engaging with teaching. That’s undoubtedly been a positive effect.