Online evaluation of a BVT lecture
The participants of Anna Becker’s 2021 BVT lecture “Analytical Techniques and Structure Elucidation” have found an unusual way to show their approval of the event: the flash mob. Actually, one should assume that the experience with teaching at our institute is so great that surprises hardly ever occur. But in times of digital teaching, everything is different. It can be irritating to speak to mute black boxes on the screen because the listeners have switched off their cameras and microphones. Strange thoughts can run through your head. Could it be that the listeners are not listening with high concentration, but are busy with completely different things while you are working away? Of course that’s nonsense, because our students are fortunately interested in our teaching and we are well aware of that. But such thoughts are probably normal when you have no one in front of you and you can’t tell from the faces whether the explanations are understandable, anecdotes funny or examples interesting. What a wonderful surprise it was for Anna Becker to receive an online evaluation with a friendly flash mob, so to speak. Apparently – and not really surprisingly – she actually had the backing of her audience. Getting such a creative and positive sign of approval during the last lecture hour of this semester was so good for her! How nice for us, that our teachers are also motivated by their students.