First of all: Why it's fun to be a lecturer

As I am not a regular lecturer, every seminar and workshop is a special challenge. But I am usually rewarded with a break from the office routine, with one or two entertaining days full of conversations on the topic with people I don't know at first.

After the seminar, however, the people are no longer quite so unknown to me. There are always moments when the participants or the lecturer talk about their lives: For example, questions are asked, examples are requested and explained. These are not always exclusively topic-related experiences and reports.

Procedure for classroom teaching

I start with a completely empty text file, which is then filled with the content of the curriculum over the course of two days.

What I write is immediately visible on the presentation wall, both the HTML/CSS texts and the resulting web pages in the browser. Each participant has the opportunity to try things out independently and directly on their training computer and everyone can and should ask questions immediately.

I usually speak freely and only have a few presentation slides. Everything is created live in the seminar room. I usually move around the room a lot. If I'm not entering signs, I stand up and explain with everything the room has to offer.

The nice thing is that a seminar always runs differently.

What prior knowledge do the participants have, what questions are asked, what mistakes are made?

I always try to respond to the questions and mistakes and select the examples accordingly. If practical exercises are being worked on, I usually see directly what is being done and hear what is being talked about. I then pick this up again in the course of the seminar.

I also take up experiences that participants have already had and have them explain them using their own examples in order to deepen their knowledge.

Procedure in the online seminar

I thought I could do the same online.

That's basically true - but unfortunately not quite.

I took a little longer to prepare for the online seminars as I had no experience with them. I was not familiar with the "Zoom" medium beforehand.

The weekend before the online seminar, I did a successful test run with my family under realistic conditions: four participants in different rooms, two knew Zoom from school and university, two did not. The test run gave me the confidence that everything would work technically and didactically.

Screen sharing online seminar

My "TV studio" at tecteam was technically and spatially very well prepared.

The content was then initially as usual and the participants were able to work straight away. I shared my monitor with all participants. Questions were asked - that's how it should be.

I always had the impression that everyone was "mentally" involved.

We took regular breaks every hour or so, which I found very important and necessary, as concentration wanes quickly with this form of learning.

Conclusion: Was that good or bad? - I don't know!

One thing is certain: I clearly lacked the freedom of movement that was restricted by the studio situation. A viewer standing next to me would have seen a person talking to a text file and a browser. I couldn't see the participants most of the time, so there was no direct feedback about the reading on their faces.

As there is no direct exchange between the participants, far fewer questions are asked. Conversations don't take place as usual. Normally, the participants not only see what I present as a lecturer, but also what the people sitting next to them are trying out. This leads to conversations in the seminar room. Unfortunately, these discussions are missing. The momentum of a seminar is lost a little.

At the end of the seminar, I didn't know whether the seminar had gone well or badly. That's never happened to me before. Sure - there are evaluation sheets, but I don't normally need them to get a general impression.

Typical person-to-person communication with the usual wealth of facets is only possible to a limited extent via an online tool.

We all, participants and lecturers, still have a lot to learn here.

The online seminars were a welcome change from everyday office life during the coronavirus period. It was very interesting and fun for me, but I would probably have gotten to know the people taking part better in a face-to-face seminar. It is good and probably forward-looking that this form of knowledge transfer exists in this day and age.

Aber ab und an ein Präsenzseminar möchte ich nicht missen.