Sometimes it was challenging even for university students to adapt to online education, which had both its advantages and disadvantages, during the COVID-19 pandemic. But the practices that were tried and succeeded should be kept in the future. This was the conclusion of Babeș–Bolyai University teachers at a round table discussion in Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca) last Friday at the 11th Kolozsvár Hungarian Days Festival.
Vice-rector of Babeș–Bolyai University (Hungarian Biology and Ecological Institute) Bálint Markó spoke on the spot with lecturer Magda Illyés (Psychology and Pedagogy Faculty), lecturer Valér Veres (Sociology and Social Work Institute), and lecturer and vice-rector of the Hungarian Institute of the Economics Faculty Levente Szász. Lancaster University lecturer Dénes Csala also joined the discussion online. (Our previous interview with Dénes Csala, primarily discussing fake news, can be read here.)
However, Babeș–Bolyai University teachers had different experiences with online education. More or less, they agreed that it cannot substitute 100 percent personal, physical meetings, but those practices that turned out to be successful during the pandemic are worth keeping in the future.
Valér Veres, for example, found it positive that the virus basically forced the institutions to step forward in the field of digitalization, and despite the initial fear, the closing exam results were not worse than in previous years. According to Magda Illyés, lecturers became more flexible and creative and were forced to treat their students as partners. But on the other hand, one negative of online education was the disappearance of verbal communication IRL; the teacher could not get any feedback from students as would normally happen during classes in a physical classroom, said Bálint Markó.
Levente Szász mentioned that international articles, published at the beginning of the pandemic, suggested that the end of traditional education had arrived, and higher education is moving exclusively to the online space. But he strongly disagrees with this opinion:
“Based on this period, this will not happen in my opinion; this cannot happen like this. There is a lot that can only be delivered face to face; when I can close the classroom door and see the students in front of me, I can feel their vibe.
I have to talk differently to students sitting in the last row than the ones sitting in the first one if I want to catch their attention.
I can see their nonverbal feedback, I know when I have to take a break and when I have to say something spicy because, otherwise, I would lose them. So, there are a lot of factors that can only be passed along face to face. And at the same time, there is also the spirit of the University, where the teachers and students can meet physically, which would be hard to replace with today’s technology,” Szász summed up the conversation.
Title image: Illustration (Source: Babeș-Bolyai University Facebook)
