There's no such thing as impossible

The Plan

The integrated management systems/integrated management program at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences is designed to be practice-oriented from the very beginning. Professor Brauweiler’s Master's degree programme focuses on projects, teamwork, and collaboration with local and international partners.

The Project Management module is scheduled for the 2020 summer semester. For the first time this semester, lectures will be conducted using the “flipped classroom” model, and the practical component will take place in small groups of 4–5 students working as a team. In collaboration with the city of Zittau, represented by Kai Grebasch, students will develop concepts to make the city’s events—from the weekly market to the Christmas market—more sustainable. The kickoff event with the project partner will still take place in person during a team-building session at St. Marienthal Monastery, and everyone involved is looking forward to a productive and intensive collaboration. No sooner had everyone returned home on Friday afternoon than it became clear that in-person instruction would be suspended due to the COVID-19 situation, and in-person contact between students, instructors, and the project partner was a thing of the past.

The Solution

So what now? Of course—adapt. From now on, everything goes online. But how? In the blink of an eye, emails, chats, and phone calls are flying back and forth nonstop. The big questions kept coming up: “Can we find a way to convey the theoretical input as a foundation for the project application?” “Can the module’s objectives be achieved?” and “Will our students be able to handle the workload?” The answer: Yes, it’s possible. How? With dedicated students who don’t spend a single minute thinking about giving up on their project. They all have their sights set on contributing to the development of the city where they study and ensuring their academic success. By the end of the semester, they all want not only to pass the module but also to complete the TÜV course in project management and hand over their project idea to Mr. Grebasch so that the city of Zittau can continue working on it in the future.

• The Process

As before, the module materials will be made available online. Questions about the theory and project work will be addressed via online conferences. Progress reports will be presented to the project partner in online meetings, and any open questions will be discussed. Everything is going according to plan, except that the participants gather in front of their computers armed with headsets and coffee, solving technical problems along the way, and sometimes looking good—or, as the semester progresses, less so.

• The Result

Three fully developed concepts are presented to the City of Zittau: They focus on preventing plastic waste by replacing so-called “shirt bags” with reusable nets and boxes, as well as the use of reusable containers for hot and cold beverages, including a self-cleaning option. In July, the students will earn their certificates as project managers in cooperation with TÜV Rheinland Akademie GmbH and the Centre for Knowledge Transfer and Education.

Incidentally, this approach is good with fictional projects, as demonstrated by the students in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, who are once again working diligently on complex project tasks entirely online this semester. We’re supported by Hartmut Paetzold, who is teaching the MS Project software virtually for the first time, and other hardworking colleagues like Ulrike Bobek and Johannes Schaumlöffel, who are helping to meet the significantly increasing demand for consultation. The credit goes—and not just in the form of ECTS—to our students.

From a Single Module to the Entire Semester

The incredible thing is this: All modules in the “Integrated Management Systems” and “Integrated Management” degree programmes have been running online according to schedule since mid-March. The tools vary depending on the instructor: Skype, BigBlueButton, Jitsi, YouTube channel, Zoom, Opal—it’s the mix that makes the difference here. If someone had asked us beforehand whether it was possible to conduct an entire semester virtually, we would have laughed it off. And now we’re set to complete the semester as scheduled... Even events that go beyond regular instruction, such as our IMS seminars, are taking place online via BigBlueButton after a brief hiatus—as was the case with the most recent seminar on “TISAX – ISO 27001 in the Automotive Industry” with our partner, T-Systems Multimedia Solutions GmbH. The feedback from the participating companies: consistently positive.

Our Conclusion

Without the commitment of our students and faculty—their perseverance, dedication, and hard work—this would not have been possible. We are also fortunate to be able to deliver all of our course content virtually. We have all gained media literacy and will continue to apply the experiences we’ve gained from virtual teaching and communication even when in-person classes resume. A heartfelt thank you also goes to the Centre for eLearning for its support with both big and small questions!