The path into the semester #6 – Bauhaus experiment: a »remote semester«?

With the digital semester, the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar will itself be transformed into a laboratory for new work: the academic staff of the Faculty of Media have spent the past few weeks converting the planned lectures and seminars into digital formats to make »remote studies« possible.

»Imparting teaching content and skills exclusively in digital formats because of the need for social distancing is also an experiment for us staff. It is fascinating to see what different approaches colleagues from the departments of media studies, computer science and media, and media management are taking to the digital semester,« comments Prof. Dr. Henning Schmidgen, Dean of the Faculty of Media and Professor for the Theory of Media Worlds.

Shift happens: back to the future with radio

Prof. Nathalie Singer from the Faculty of Art and Design and Prof. Dr. Christiane Voss from the Faculty of Media have initiated an interdisciplinary radio project entitled »Shift.fm – the remote programme of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar«. For one whole semester, students from various disciplines will consider the challenges of the current time – and thus also the coronavirus pandemic – from a future perspective and reflect on these using auditory means: how will we look back on the 2020 summer semester in 2025? What social changes will have taken place? And how will the attitudes and behaviour of the subjects have evolved?

Guest lecturers and teaching staff from the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar will convey the technical skills involved in radio broadcasting with digital input events, tutorials and exercises in moodle. They will moreover support the student teams in the conceptual development of their own fictional radio documentary from a future perspective. The audio contributions are based on the reading of texts and retrospectively question what has changed on the epistemic, aesthetic and political levels in the present day. The changed cultural technique of radio and the consequently new aesthetics arising are also to be considered: how can podcasts and radio art be created in home studios or audio walks on Google Street View? How can jam sessions with musicians be held via video chat?

With the support of countless practical partners, such as usmaradio.org and the Museum for Communication Berlin, a radio station developed jointly will go live for several weeks at the end of the summer semester. The programme will reflect on the current rapidly changing times through artistic content and multiple perspectives. It will be streamed on bauhaus.fm and occasionally also broadcast on Radio Lotte (106.6 kHz). »Last but not least, shift.fm – the remote radio during this time of physical isolation will offer a shared platform for communication and exchange on campus activities,« said Prof. Singer of the project’s intention.

Digital reorganisation of university teaching

The current crisis is accelerating the media changes that are taking place anyway and raising new questions about the potential of media companies to innovate and the associated changes in media usage. »I believe the summer semester 2020 will provide a suitable framework for observing and analysing the structural changes in the media market now happening all the faster and for questioning the social consequences. Simply returning to business as usual is no longer an option,« says Dr. Christopher Buschow, Junior Professor for Organization and Networked Media, looking towards the next six months.

Within the Master’s degree programme in media management, his course on the digital reorganisation of media corporations (»Die digitale Reorganisation von Medienkonzernen«) will explore the transformation of established media enterprises from an organisation theory perspective. Buschow had planned face-to-face lectures featuring smaller interactive elements, such as discussion rounds, case studies and guest lectures by experts from the field. In the restructured course, he will now combine the use of new tools with tried-and-tested methods: »The current situation is new for us all, the technical infrastructure is complex and the possible teaching methods are versatile. For me, the guiding principle is therefore to use formats and communication channels that the students have at least already used in their daily lives.«

This means things like voice messages, for example, will be used at the start of the digital semester. This will not only allow students to introduce themselves in person, but also help teaching staff to determine students’ previous knowledge and sound out their expectations. Additional formats, such as regular e-mails at the start of the week, podcasts and instant messaging services, can also help to facilitate the mediation and acquisition of knowledge largely independent of time and place. According to Buschow, »remote studies« thus open up new possibilities for teaching and learning, which could also prove useful as support tools during future classroom teaching.