Text: Guido Camps
I try to make the classes as interactive as I can, and to provide opportunities for group work and discussion, but I am quite sure I’m competing with a second screen or an offscreen mobile phone full of Insta pics and TikToks.
There is a reason why we lure students to a campus: it physically removes them from normal life so that they fully open up to new academic insights. Instead, the online classes and assignments are a minor interruption to a life that mainly takes place elsewhere. We try to reach them through a small screen, but we are literally only a screen-sized part of their life instead of a complete context for it.
I’m only a screen-sized part of their life
Our rector reported with satisfaction that the questionnaires about online learning show that ‘the educational quality was as good as in previous years’, and that ‘students were equally involved in learning processes’. I’m pleased to hear that of course, but I’m afraid that what our students are missing out on now is hard to capture in a questionnaire.
Guido Camps (36) is a vet and a postdoc at the Human Nutrition department. He enjoys baking, beekeeping and unusual animals.