The Slightly Unusual Semester #6 – Digitalization Surge at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar

»The arrival of the coronavirus crisis caused a huge increase in demand for the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar’s IT systems«, explains Hartmut Hotzel, Head of the Service Centre for Computer Systems and Communication (SCC). »Nearly 100 workstations shifted to home-working overnight: this was a major challenge, both for my staff and for users, who now had to complete their work from home«.

The SCC team provided a quick and reliable response: staff worked virtually around the clock in shifts to prepare computers for use in home offices. As there were not enough laptops and not enough were available for purchase to make up the shortfall, complete workstations with desktop computers in people’s homes were set up. However, urgent orders of headsets, cameras and other hardware have been delayed by the crisis and delivery times sometimes been as long as three months, and delays are still ongoing.

Hardware, software and instructions for working from home

Simply providing the necessary hardware, however, was not enough. Technical and administration staff needed access to the university’s highly protected systems – from the outside. Employees in University Communications and the SCC therefore examined things from the perspective of their colleagues working from home and created a catalogue of tools and instructions covering a variety of topics such as VPN connections, accessing project drives, using Cisco Jabber telephone software and much more. Human Resources and our data protection officer also developed and supplied information about data protection and working securely from home. The SCC developed IT solutions that enabled secure remote access to central administrative products for all relevant tasks.

Moodle and BigBlueButton – not just for teaching

University students and teachers also all suddenly found themselves moving to a digital environment, primarily via the teaching and learning platform Moodle. The SCC therefore quadrupled the system’s computing capacity and storage in just six weeks. A survey on general study conditions and concepts completed in 2019 showed that at the time, Moodle’s scope of functionality was not yet being fully utilised. Instead, it was primarily being used to make learning materials available online. A recent survey of students and teachers has demonstrated that the available functions are now being exploited to the full – thanks also to the eTutors programme and the Digital Toolbox.

Members of eLab staff trained a total of 64 students in handing the Moodle platform, didactics, and producing teaching videos. Student assistants also received training in copyright and data protection. With their newly acquired expertise, they have been offering and will continue to offer valuable support to Bauhaus-Universität Weimar teaching staff. The eLab’s Digital Toolbox supports teachers by providing virtual self-study spaces, tutorials and tips for transforming content, materials and formats into digital form. In the recent survey, students particularly praised the clear commitment shown by teachers during this process.

Another new addition to everyday teaching and learning is the video conferencing system BigBlueButton (BBB). Project and course meetings required video conferencing software that could be integrated into the e-learning platform Moodle. Another key factor in the choice was the fact that the open-source system had to be compliant with data protection laws and able to operate on our own servers to avoid being dependent on external providers. Once again, the response time was quick: just six weeks after the project was launched, eight video conferencing servers were working behind the system to share the load and enable large-scale events such as the Open Campus Day (HIT) and the Lange Nacht des wissenschaftlichen Schreibens to be organised without issue. In addition, for the first time ever, a university-wide online Project Auction was held via Moodle and BBB at the start of the semester. The university has invested a total of €260,000 in IT infrastructure.

However, it was not just teaching activities that needed virtual spaces. Committee meetings, department sessions and even simple team discussions within departments or faculties all needed a venue. A detour via a Moodle environment felt overly time-consuming and complicated. A second BBB instance was therefore created on our own servers, meaning that university staff can now easily create and use their own spaces via meeting.uni-weimar.de. The system is currently powerful enough to allow 1000 simultaneous users with sound and images. When used passively, i.e. purely as a presentation tool, it can support several thousand users simultaneously. The system has not yet reached the limits of its capacity.

Digital Open Campus Day (HIT) for prospective applicants and digital aptitude tests for future students

This year’s applicants and prospective students are also having to use new communication channels. After the Open Campus Day (HIT), originally planned for early March, had to be postponed as a result of the pandemic, staff from the Office of Student and Academic Affairs began developing new formats. The »Digital Orientation« website was created to provide prospective students with a wide range of information about studying at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. Virtual tours and galleries also offer an impression of what studying in Weimar is like.

In addition, a digital Open Campus Day (HIT) was designed and held in early July. Online seminars presented in-house videos about the individual degree programmes, and prospective students could ask questions live via the chat function. Student Services and other central university facilities also provided their own information.

At the Faculty of Art and Design, aptitude tests were quickly converted into digital format. Portfolio reviewing and aptitude tests could not take place onsite as the university was closed to the general public. Online forms were therefore used to upload portfolios and exercise solutions and to transfer large volumes of data and make them available to the relevant committees.

However, the biggest challenge was the aptitude tests. A direct conversation between committee members and applicants where candidates have an opportunity to present their own work is one of the most important stages in the application process. BBB was once again used for this purpose. Special test spaces allowed prospective students to get used to the platform, run through their presentations and prepare for their tests. There was also a video tutorial to explain the most important functions.

The challenge of digital »summaery2020 remote«

The university’s annual exhibition will also be held in digital form. All of the project output from the past academic year will be presented online from 30 July 2020 under the title »summaery2020 remote«. There has of course been high demand for project websites and the ability to show the wide variety of student work. To make it easier for students to publish their content via the university website, University Communications created video tutorials explaining the university’s content management system, enabling anyone to fill a website with content.

Many of the presentation concepts are based on moving images, with projects explained in graphical form via videos. A new data-protection-compliant content element was developed for this purpose, enabling videos to be easily embedded via the Vimeo platform. The usual summaery is currently being expanded with various presentation options. The layout is also being slightly revised and equipped with additional filter functions so that visitors can easily find their way around the first digital annual show and enjoy viewing current student work and project output in a virtual environment.

»All in all, this spontaneous shift from a primarily analogue format to a digital one across all areas of the university has been very successful. Every member of the university has been equally involved, showing that we can solve crises such as this if we work together«, confirms Dr. Christian Koch, Vice-President of Academic Affairs and Professor of Intelligent Technical Design. »Looking forward, it is now time to reflect and identify which things worked well and which did not. From a technical perspective, I think that most of us are now well prepared. Didactically, however, we all still have much to learn«.