Teaching in higher education during COVID 19 pandemic - Empirical findings and assumptions based on results of an online-survey in a European context

Abstract

The COVID 19 pandemic is a worldwide phenomenon: On the one hand, it poses challenges to all social subsystems, on the other, it tests the extent to which they can cope with such situations. This is also the case in higher education. In this context, digitization, which has been driven forward in the field for years, provides approaches and instruments for adapting to such situations by converting the system as far as possible to operation in virtual space. This has been done in many places in universities and universities of applied sciences. It remains to be seen how this is perceived by those involved. Therefore, the following article addresses the question: To what extent has the conversion of teaching and learning as a result of the restrictions on teaching caused by COVID 19 worked from the point of view of the teachers? To answer it, this paper presents empirical results of an online survey among teachers of the Cooperation Network for Risk, Safety & Security Studies (CONRIS). The results indicate a broad use of various digital tools for teaching and communication with students, but also deficits in the area of crisis structures as well as in social regards.