{"id":125991,"date":"2021-04-26T11:56:31","date_gmt":"2021-04-26T09:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=125991"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:25:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:25:34","slug":"because-my-daughter-was-born-working-from-home-was-an-advantage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2021\/04\/26\/because-my-daughter-was-born-working-from-home-was-an-advantage\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Because my daughter was born, working from home was an advantage\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking at how Covid has affected Tobias Brandt\u2019s everyday life so far, it hasn\u2019t all been bad. The RSM teacher wouldn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPauline Wiersema<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

\u201cSince the pandemic broke, I\u2019ve basically been back in my native country of Germany, near Stuttgart,\u201d says Brandt from his home office (which has since started doubling as a nursery). In the background, two large windows look out on a wooded hill, which is showing the first flush of spring green.<\/p>\n

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Tobias Brandt in his working room near the forest<\/span><\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

\u201cI can\u2019t imagine a better place to be in during the past year of the pandemic We try to take a stroll in the woods every day. And to be honest \u2013 and maybe I shouldn\u2019t be saying this \u2013 there were certainly advantages to having to stay home this past year, since it coincided with the birth of my daughter. Before the pandemic, I worked three days a week in Rotterdam, where I stayed in a flat, and spent the remainder of the week in Germany. Now I didn\u2019t have to miss a thing,\u201d explains Brandt, as he holds up his baby daughter Sophie for the camera.<\/p>\n

Insane and intense<\/h2>

On the other hand, his teaching workload already doubled in the academic year 2020 because RSM had just moved his Business Information Management lectures from the third year to the first year. \u00a0Brandt calls the period of the first lockdown \u2018insane\u2019 and \u2018intense\u2019.<\/p>\n

The only plus was that Brandt and his colleagues had already hatched the idea of offering several tutorials via video. Which proved a fortunate decision when in mid-March 2020, it was suddenly curtains for face-to-face instruction.<\/p>\n

Letting go of perfectionism<\/h2>

\u201cThe big drawback of recorded videos is that you want to do a perfect job. This means a ten-minute video quickly takes a full hour to record. It didn\u2019t take long for me to abandon this perfectionism though.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs it is, I enjoy teaching face-to-face a lot more, because it allows you to interact. Live streams provide at least some interaction with the students, which I enjoy a lot. And if you happen to make a mistake, you can correct it straight away. No one\u2019s bothered by this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Angry e-mails<\/h2>

Another change that took up a huge amount of time was organising the new examination formats. Since RSM doesn\u2019t use online proctoring for subjects that are attended by a lot of students (combined, Business Administration and IBA have no fewer than 1,400 first-year students), Brandt was tasked with the challenge of developing new strategies to assess students\u2019 progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had little support or guidelines to work with; not even an indication how we should go about this. I think we spent at least a week simply setting up the final examination. If it were up to me, we would have had a passed\/failed system, without any marks. But this wasn\u2019t an option.<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018If it were up to me, we would have had a passed\/failed system, without any marks. But this wasn\u2019t an option\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

\u201cUltimately, we decided on a combination of examination tools: three group assignments during the course, combined with a final exam consisting of a short essay and a quiz in which students had to answer a set of questions. They were given very little time to answer so they wouldn\u2019t be able to confer. The results of the quiz determined 30 percent of their mark.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a lot of angry e-mails from students \u2013 particularly regarding that quiz under time pressure. Some of them were quite rude. My answer to these people was that while I understand that you may write something like that in the heat of the moment, I advise them to sleep it over for a night before blasting off an angry e-mail. Also, the quiz tests your ability to be quick on your feet and apply your knowledge under pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Facing same challenges<\/h2>

In the first six months of the pandemic, Brandt didn\u2019t have any time left to work on his research. \u201cFortunately, I was able to get a deferral for a lot of revisions I had to submit \u2013 editors and the academic community in general were very understanding. We were all facing the same challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n

By autumn, when his daughter was born, he had managed to clear the stacks of outstanding work from his desk, leaving him free to take just under two months off. And to ramble through the woods every now and then.<\/p>\n\n\t

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De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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