Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the semester for HR students in Ludwigshafen also started purely online instead of face-to-face events. Online studies and the lecture period of the summer semester 2020 began on a broad basis on March 16. At the end of the semester, it can be said that the switch was successful and that it has become a full semester of study. The students have not lost a semester.
After a steep start-up curve, all courses were switched to online mode after around one month and have now been completed. Blended learning, i.e. the mix of methods of learning and education, is a good description of the learning methods used: a mix of synchronous online teaching in the eClassroom (video conference systems with live stream) plus asynchronous distance learning based on prepared learning materials, videos of recorded lectures plus structured self-study using literature sources.
Participation in the synchronous live online lectures via video conferencing system or OLAT learning management system regularly achieved participation rates of > 90%.
It was an advantage that a large proportion of the professors already had experience with distance learning, online study, blended learning or other forms of e-learning from career-integrated, continuing education Master's degree programs. HWG Ludwigshafen has an extremely broad portfolio and a long tradition of distance-learning and part-time programs in the Master's field, as can be read on the HWG overview pages. HWG Ludwigshafen will also be able to exploit this competitive advantage in the coming semester.
Examinations have also been adapted to the online semester, be it term papers, seminar papers, presentations, thesis papers, videos or oral examinations online. All methods were used to ensure an academically complete semester, in close cooperation with the student group representatives.
Currently, at the end of the examination period on July 18, the degree program management and the academic The management of the degree program and the academic director of the degree program can state that academic operations and the examinations of the summer semester have been conducted in line with academic standards. The special esprit de corps, i.e. the corps spirit of the degree programs, has once again proven its worth.
Anyone interested in the HR degree programs, whether Bachelor's or Master's, for the coming winter semester can be assured that academic studyability will also be ensured for the coming winter semester 2020/21 at HWG Ludwigshafen and that the academic level will be maintained. level will be maintained. In addition to face-to-face teaching in selected courses, there will be synchronous and asynchronous online modules supplemented by distance learning units. Naturally, the proportion of face-to-face teaching cannot be precisely quantified at present, as it depends on hygiene standards to protect all those involved and on the requirements of the Ministry of Science.
With all due caution, applicants can assume that 20 - 30 % of course hours (so-called SWS) will be taught in traditional lecture halls. In order to optimize travel times, a fixed, constant weekday should be expected on which the lectures take place in the lecture hall on the Ludwigshafen campus. Online events, consultation hours and distance learning will then take place on the other weekdays. This means that no purely online semester is planned.
On this planning basis, applicants can expect their courses to run. Even in the event of an unexpected "red traffic light phase", the direct switch to 100% online teaching would not be a technical problem for professors or first-year students.
However, the Bachelor IPO and the Master IHRM are and will remain in principle face-to-face courses at a university with a strategically favorable location in the metropolitan area Rhine-Neckar: close to the metropolitan regions Frankfurt-Rhine-Main and Stuttgart, which promotes the important early networking with local companies for career entry.
According to the latest information, the first semester of the Bachelor IPO starts on November 2, and the Master IPO starts on September 28, 2020.