{"id":128558,"date":"2021-07-07T12:32:24","date_gmt":"2021-07-07T10:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=128558"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:25:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:25:43","slug":"lecturers-were-hanging-in-there-but-man-did-they-miss-their-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2021\/07\/07\/lecturers-were-hanging-in-there-but-man-did-they-miss-their-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Lecturers were hanging in there, but man, did they miss their students…"},"content":{"rendered":"

If one thing was clear from the \u2018Lecturers Are Hanging in There\u2019 series of articles EM<\/em> has written in recent months, it was how incredibly motivated lecturers were to make things work for their students. The lecturers we interviewed often did more than just teach their classes, and some of them truly went above and beyond.<\/p>\n

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Lecturers hung in there<\/span><\/p>

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By far the most radically dedicated lecturer was RSM\u2019s Florian Madertoner<\/a>, who gave his students (some 1,800 Business Administration and IBA students) his mobile phone number, so that they could message him if anything was the matter, be it in their studies or in their private lives. He spent a few hours every night chatting with his students on his phone. He also taught live lectures on YouTube, and at the end of the year he organised a pub quiz for a group of students at his own place, which was live-streamed to his other students.<\/p>\n

For her part, ESHPM-affiliated lecturer Femke Hilverda<\/a> also said that she was spending more time talking to her students. \u201cIf a student calls you in tears, you don\u2019t just hang up on them,\u201d said the lecturer, who went through a rough time of her own when her neighbours decided to renovate their home during the first lockdown.<\/p>\n

Hats, Zoom meetings and music<\/h2>

And then there were Erasmus MC\u2019s Fred Petrij<\/a> and ESL\u2019s Nathalie van der Kooij<\/a>. The former wore a different hat during every online lecture and turned it into a competition for his students, while the latter placed her Zoom channel at her students\u2019 disposal so that they could hang out there even when no lectures were being taught. ESSB\u2019s Matthias Wieser<\/a> compiled a special Spotify playlist for his students so as to create a sense of group togetherness even though the students were not able to meet in person.<\/p>\n

Brigitte Hoogendoorn<\/a>, who is ESE\u2019s programme director as well as a lecturer, also saw the flipside of lecturers\u2019 high level of intrinsic motivation. Remote working proved highly mentally taxing for many lecturers.<\/p>\n

Outside the comfort zone<\/h2>

The pandemic also forced lecturers to try and use new-to-them methods, some of which were quite outside their comfort zone. For instance, ESHCC\u2019s Evert Bisschop Boele<\/a> really hated the idea of teaching online, but he got over it. And not only did he receive many compliments from his students, but he also found himself admitting afterwards that things could have been far, far worse.<\/p>\n

An online world also opened up to veteran lecturer Christiaan Heij<\/a>, who works at ESE and is about to retire. He learned how to work with a tablet and provided his econometrics students with many, many online Q&A sessions, without complaining.<\/p>\n

ESHCC\u2019s Micha\u00ebl Berghman<\/a> was new to recording videos, as well. He transformed his guest bedroom into a studio and generally recorded his lectures in the evening and in the wee hours of the night, when his children were asleep.<\/p>\n

Presumably those were the same nights Fred Petrij spent tossing and turning, nervous about the prospect of teaching his first online lectures. \u201cA large chunk of my seminars is interaction-based, and I felt I wouldn\u2019t be able to give my students that online.\u201d He managed to do so, anyway, as proven recently when medical students voted him the best Year-3 lecturer.<\/p>\n

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