“Giving tutorials from home wearing my pyjamas and slippers is something I could have hardly imagined a few months ago. When I was asked, two years ago, if I would like to work as tutor for an introductory course (STEOP), my university life has turned by 180 degrees.
Having graduated from an academic secondary school with previous knowledge rather in the fields of mathematics and natural sciences, I was really quite worried about subjects such as financial and cost accounting when I started my studies in International Business Administration. Today’s freshman students additionally face completely new challenges. In times of coronavirus, they often miss the personal contact with professors and other students. Thus, questions pile up, of course. This is also why my e-mail account is regularly bursting at the seams.
When I think of my own insecurity in the first months of my studies, being able to dispel one or the other doubt is an extremely fulfilling task. The attempt to re-design the lecture in a rather student-friendly way certainly also diversifies my daily working routine when working from home, but it also causes me quite a headache time and again.
Naturally, also my own university life did not remain unaffected by the coronavirus. I am now in the third semester of my master’s programme in Business Administration and am soon going to additionally start the new degree programme in Business Analytics, which covers exciting and current topics of big data. I already upgraded my couch office for this: Skype and Zoom were quickly installed and more and more new tools join them. But I quite miss the coffee breaks with fellow students between lectures. Instead, I now have coffee with my roommates in the kitchen.
And sure, it would be desirable to have the tutorials in the lecture hall again. Nevertheless, I am confident that the change to more flexible teaching methods also brings about several positive developments for the university of the future.” – Rebekka Prader
Rebekka is studying Business Administration and Business Analytics at the University of Vienna.
P.S.: In the winter semester of 2020/2021, teaching will take place digitally, on site and as a combination of both (hybrid teaching). Here you can find up-to-date information and everything you need to know about studying.
