What a change, suddenly having to switch to a different teaching mode, rearranging class-sessions to online sessions, in-class exercises and quizzes to extensive homework and adjusting final exams so that students are able to write their exam at home, because, we are all at home now.

One side of the coin is to study or work at home where we can feel comfortable and work in our own pace, turning the video and audio connection on or off as we please. We can work and study at night or in the early morning hours perfectly aligned with our own and unique biorhythm.

As part of the Master's degree program for General Management, I teach Managerial Accounting for international students and regarding our Bachelor's degree program, I am setting my focus on Management Control Systems. In both classes I interact with students and try to inspire and motivate them to learn the practical approaches of our course content. However, in times of distant learning, motivation created a challenge for students and for me, presenting the other side of the coin. While Master students seem to be much more flexible having quickly adjusted to home-study and the very limited interaction in online sessions, my Bachelor students missed my presence and I must say, I missed them. The limited interaction in online sessions was due to limited replies from students. Sometimes, I had to ask three or four times until some student chose to reply. Students do not feel as confronted and involved due to the distance. Maybe that is why homework was at first insufficient for the Bachelor students. Master students, however, mastered their homework right from the start. I had to change and rearrange my didactic approach for my Bachelors in order to help them find a basis for study and a structure to build up course knowledge. Since Management Control Systems can be quite abstract for Bachelors who have not yet had any empirical practice in companies, it was necessary for me to be constantly available to them. Hence, we had feedback sessions and communicated per email even between the sessions. This increased my workload tremendously; however, homework was also improved tremendously thereafter. Though, it cost a lot of energy for me and my students.

At last, I am pleased that results of my applied distant learning methods were fruitful. However, for me, the quality of in-class teaching cannot be substituted and after asking my students, they feel the same way. Well, Bachelors anyway. For my Master students, it turned out to be pretty evenly mixed.
We are left with the question: will the practice with distance learning endure now that we have experienced it; and if, to what degree? And what about the other side of the coin?

Contact:

Johannes Slacik

Institute of Management Accounting