Dear Mr. Heiden,

Last semester, you brought some of your students back to the university from purely online teaching, of course while strictly adhering to the COVID-19 hygiene guidelines. Could you please describe the technical setup you used?

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Heiden: In the winter semester of 2021/2022, I taught groups of ten to thirty students in four computer science courses (both in the Bachelor's and Master's programs) in a hybrid format. I conducted the class from the lecturer's station using my laptop, and my presentation was displayed on the screen in the lecture room. The absent students joined via Webex and could follow the slides on my shared screen during the online meeting.

How did you manage questions or contributions from your online and in-person participants?

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Heiden: Many of the in-person students brought their laptops to the class and connected to the online meeting with them. This allowed for intermediate questions, comments, or presentations of solutions to be shared centrally via the Webex meeting. In-person students without laptops could use the lecturer's laptop for presentations. I repeated the contributions of the in-person students for the remote participants since they wouldn't have been audible via Webex otherwise. Alternatively, in-person students could use the microphone on their own laptops, with which they were logged into the online meeting. At such moments, I would mute my microphone to avoid feedback. Contributions from remote participants were made audible to in-person students after announcement via the Webex chat through my laptop speaker or the room's loudspeaker system (if possible). External visual contributions were displayed on the screen in the room through the Webex session.

You describe the interaction in hybrid classes as more challenging compared to purely online or in-person settings. Was the extra effort worth it for you?

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Heiden: I conducted the hybrid format in a minimal way, and as a conclusion, I can state that it fundamentally works, but I prefer a uniform approach. On one hand, in-person students appreciated the physical presence as an advantage and were grateful for the opportunity to attend the class in person. At the same time, remote participants welcomed the option of online participation and gratefully accepted it. On the other hand, the measures I described above to ensure equal participation of both groups were somewhat cumbersome and did disrupt the flow of the class. From my perspective, the hybrid execution of a class is only desirable when weighing the advantages and disadvantages in individual cases because it has disadvantages for in-person participants compared to purely in-person classes and for online participants compared to purely online classes.

How can these disadvantages be mitigated?

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Heiden: To minimize these disadvantages (I personally believe that they cannot be completely eliminated), the use of an additional person would be useful, responsible for the involvement of the remote participants throughout the course. This additional person could be, for example, a student assistant who supports communication between the online participants in both directions, thus relieving the main instructor from these additional tasks.

Your students greatly appreciated the flexible attendance options in your courses. Will you continue to offer hybrid formats?

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Heiden: Except in special situations (for example, when teaching staff with specific qualifications cannot be on-site and is only available online, or when only externally available infrastructure should be used), I generally consider in-person teaching to be the better-suited format. It promotes direct communication between instructors and students and among students. Moreover, in-person teaching serves as an anchor, particularly for less intrinsically motivated students, making it easier for them to attend classes regularly and attentively. I chose to offer hybrid options in the winter semester of 2021/2022 to provide students who wanted to enjoy the benefits of in-person classes despite the pandemic situation with the opportunity to do so. For everyone else who did not want or could not take advantage of this option, I offered greater flexibility through online participation.

Thank you for the conversation!