09. June 2020

Professor Kornhuber, his students and digital teaching

Word has already spread about the digital teaching of Professor Kornhuber from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science'. His students are simply thrilled. And so is the professor.

"In the summer semester, I have the privilege of accompanying 14 students in the high-voltage engineering module," says Prof. Dr.-techn. Stefan Kornhuber. He specializes in high-voltage engineering and theoretical electrical engineering. "We're doing classes / courses as usual," he says, "certainly - now restricted by the coronavirus pandemic - in a slightly different format." Lectures will take place via Microsoft Teams, i.e. in video conferences at the usual times. "So that the students' daily rhythm is maintained." Of course, certain things are different when you only meet digitally. Kornhuber's digital teaching was also inspired by the flipped classroom method. The content is prepared by the students. Some of the students form the expert group that evaluates the prepared content. This often results in fruitful discussions. "I'm not the content provider," says Kornhuber, "I'm the moderator."

"The amazing thing is the disciplined, professional and highly motivated approach of the students."

Kornhuber

Kornhuber says that the challenge is now to implement the former blackboard images with the help of online tools and to teach and learn with them. Even with the changed framework conditions: in the absence of a "missing blackboard", the expert groups created posters and slides in PowerPoint. This required attention, guidelines and discipline from everyone involved. "The amazing thing is the disciplined, professional and highly motivated approach of the students," says the professor. It is fascinating to see the flexibility that digital teaching brings compared to the real world. "Communication is much more active." It was important to Kornhuber not to deliver anything out of the box, as he says. Rather, to remain in a live discussion area, to offer teaching at the usual times, not at the blackboard, but via the online channel. "That's my job. I don't do anything special. The biggest thanks go to my students."

We asked two students what makes Professor Kornhuber's digital teaching special for them, what they like about it and what difficulties digital teaching can also bring. 


The synergy between professor and students is really pleasant. The whole subject feels like one big panel of experts, with Prof. Kornhuber imparting the most knowledge. Niklas Fabricius, KIA student

  • What do I like about Prof. Kornhuber's digital teaching?

    Since our faculty and especially our classes are almost all digital, Prof. Kornhuber's teaching is very good for us to compare with other plans and processes.

    I think the use of MS Teams was particularly noticeable, which makes the process much more relaxed for us, as files can be easily exchanged, lectures can be designed with interactivity and students can also create their own groups.
    This is a welcome change, as only one tool really needs to be used for the lecture and not countless different ones such as Webex, BBB, filr, OPAL, etc.

    Interactivity was also the right keyword here, as Prof. Kornhuber values student participation like no other professor. In the high-voltage engineering module, for example, the original plan was to create posters and associated lectures on various topics. However, we now carried these out almost unchanged in teams, which took some getting used to, but for me, for example, was very instructive for future work in the company.

    Prof. Kornhuber also "enforces" questions among the students, which in turn are used to generate the examination questions. This makes the synergy between professor and students really pleasant, as the whole subject is more like a large group of experts in which Prof. Kornhuber imparts the most knowledge.

    In addition, only High Voltage Engineering has succeeded in conducting the numerous practical courses digitally (in preparation for the upcoming face-to-face courses) together with the other lecturers.

    Overall, it is the very extensive feedback from discussions on questions that Prof. Kornhuber obtains that sets him apart from the other lecturers. In summary, it simply feels most like a conventional face-to-face course with a lot of student involvement.

  • What do I generally not like so much about digital teaching?

    I have deliberately omitted the professor from the question, as my points do not relate directly to Prof. Kornhuber, but to digital teaching in general.
     
    For me, the interaction between lecturers and students is particularly important, which sometimes feels strange in online teaching, as it is possible to simply remain silent, which is not possible in a face-to-face course.
     
    In addition, the pace is often too fast in all courses, as the professors cannot check whether the students are still writing or similar, but most of them also get feedback on this.
     


A great feedback culture and appreciative communication at eye level, combined with binding persistence. Marcus Wöckel, KIA student

  • What characterizes Professor Kornhuber's digital teaching?

    For me, the strengths of the course include 5 points:

    • The proactivity, we had an almost seamless transition of the class / course from classroom teaching to online teaching. Communication always took place with enough lead time in the lecture and only if absolutely necessary by e-mail and was to the point.
    • The dynamic and interaction with the students is often encouraged before the actual class / course by the obligation to send in 3 questions for the topic to be discussed together. If the dynamic breaks down in a normal lecture without a group discussion, Professor Kornhuber reacts flexibly and gives the students time to let the content sink in for 5 minutes and then ask questions.
    • The feedback culture and appreciative communication at eye level, combined with binding persistence in the event of feedback from students that is obviously too brief. Sharing one's own screen in seminars is permitted if the solutions to tasks are unclear.
    • Goal- and practice-oriented didactics through self-delivered expert lectures followed by a mandatory discussion. Professor Kornhuber also relies on the MS Teams software, which is already used by many dual students in the company. The familiarization phase was correspondingly short and there were no foreseeable capacity-related lecture cancellations, as was the case in other lectures at the beginning of the semester.
    • He sees himself as a facilitator and moderator in the organization of his class / course. The transfer of responsibility and the achievement of joint solutions is achieved through his moderation and not by decree, but in such a way that the best joint solution prevails and is also supported by the students.
Photo: Prof. Dr. techn. Stefan Kornhuber
Ihre Ansprechperson
Prof. Dr. techn.
Stefan Kornhuber
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science'
02763 Zittau
Hochwaldstrasse 2a
Building Z V, Room 117
1st floor
+49 3583 612-4365

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