'During the first lockdown I worked from 7pm to 4 or 5am'
Michaël Berghman is an ESHCC-affiliated lecturer who lives in Antwerp. He was fortunate enough to be in the middle of a research-only period during the first lockdown. In recent weeks, he has taught lectures both online and on campus.
‘I had never worked with a tablet before, but my colleagues explained to me how to do it’
Christiaan Heij is a lecturer in Econometrics and has been working exclusively from home since March. He always teaches his online lectures from the same spot in his home, with a nice impressionistic tapestry in the background. Being over the age of sixty, he is glad that those in-person classes that are still being taught to first-year students are being taught by his younger colleague.
'If a colleague who is normally quick to answer e-mails fails to respond to one, I will ask them if they are OK'
Brigitte Hoogendoorn is a programme manager at the Erasmus School of Economics and is a lecturer herself. She has noticed that her colleagues are all intrinsically motivated to facilitate their students’ learning to the best of their ability, sometimes at the expenses of their own well-being.
'I try to be as understanding as possible, but they have to take steps themselves if they are genuinely experiencing problems'
Femke Hilverda is an assistant professor at ESHPM. At the moment she supervises Master’s students and a research group, but before the summer, she also taught tutorials and guided Master’s students towards the completion of their degrees. Moreover, she did so from her home in Gouda, where her neighbours decided that the first lockdown was a great time to completely renovate their home.
'Once I asked a student to turn her camera on during an online session, but it turned out that she was driving a car'
Georgina Mercedes Gómez is associate professor at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS). Among other things, she teaches classes in Local Economic Development and supervises students in writing their theses. She was about to leave for Argentina for a family visit when the corona crisis broke out.
'Even when you give a lecture in a hall to 250 students, there will always be some on their phone or sitting backwards or asleep'
Since last May, Sandra van Thiel has been professor of Public management at Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences. She had worked at EUR before, but it was still strange to return to her old workplace during the pandemic. She is very appreciative of the ICT support given to staff and is also happy to try out new things herself.
'As far as I’m concerned, this is your classroom, use it even when I’m not here'
Nathalie van der Kooij is a lecturer in Legal Academic Skills and a tutor in Jurisprudence at the Erasmus School of Law (ESL). She is a staunch proponent of online education and believes that lecturers should help make it easier for students to socialise more with each other.
'When my series of lectures kicked off, I told my students: in the next nine weeks, all my time will belong to you;
Florian Madertoner, 41, received the Rotterdam School of Management (RSM)’s 2020 Innovative Teaching Award. Previously, he was voted best lecturer of the year by his students for several consecutive years. Madertoner calls himself a ‘teaching machine’ and went into overdrive when the pandemic began.
'The first person to report at the end of the term which hats I’d worn during the term would win a prize: a chance to pick a hat of their own choosing in a hat shop'
Fred Petrij (59), clinical geneticist at the Erasmus MC, has been voted ‘the Faculty of Medicine’s lecturer of the year’ several times. Interactivity is his strong suit, and he is trying to keep it in his online seminars lectures, as well – among other things, by organising a hat competition.
'I felt a lot of inner resistance against online teaching. I was in no mood for it whatsoever'
Evert Bisschop Boele is endowed professor of Culture Participation at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication. Before the lockdown, he used to travel once a week from Haren, Groningen to Rotterdam to lecture master students enrolled in his subject. While he personally felt a lot of resistance against lecturing online, his students actually proved highly appreciative of his efforts.
'I got a lot of angry e-mails from students – particularly regarding that quiz under time pressure'
Looking at how Covid has affected Tobias Brandt’s everyday life so far, it hasn’t all been bad. The RSM teacher wouldn’t call it a blessing in disguise, because he of course was also stressed by the situation, but the biggest advantage was that he was home when his daughter was born. Thanks to teleworking, he was able to spend a lot more time with his family than he would otherwise.
‘If I’m talking about anxiety disorders in the classroom, I’ll show clips from a popular Netflix series about someone who has an anxiety disorder’
Matthias Wieser teaches the ‘Stress and anxiety’ course at Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences. He’s a music lover and he uses music as a way of creating a sense of community among his students.
