How teaching and learning are changing: Event Education Symposium discussed consequences of the pandemic
Event teachers from all over Germany, the Netherlands and Scotland met on June, 11th as part of the 2nd Event Education Symposium of the Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts at the invitation of the Event Management degree programme. How do event degree programs deal with learning and teaching in the pandemic? What strategies have they developed, which tools and methods have they used? What worked out well, what didn't? And how do the students rate these experiments? What experiences have they gained in recent months?
The digital event, which took place as a Zoom conference, gave a profound and very differentiated overview. In addition to contributions related to concrete teaching and learning, the symposium also presented event-related Master's degree programs from Germany, Scotland and the Netherlands. The participants were invited to parallel breakout sessions. Longer breaks with yoga, saxophone and a variety of network offers structured the program. Prof. Dr. Kim Werner opened the event with a keynote speech on the international perspectives on teaching and learning in the pandemic. She reported from a research project. Among the high-ranking speakers were Prof. Stefan Luppold, Prof. Dr. Hermann-Josef Kiel, Prof. Dr. Dirk Hagen, Prof. Dr. Lothar Winnen, Prof. Thomas Sakschewski, Prof. Dr. Martin Robertson, Guido Aerts, David Jarman, Prof. Dr. Torsten Busacker, Prof. Dr. Tobias Ehlen, Prof. Dr. Thomas Bauer, Dr. Siegfried Mattern, Doreen Biskup, Georg Lichtenegger, Prof. Dr. Isabelle Thilo and Prof. Dr. Gernot Gehrke. In addition, students from different universities supported the lecturers.
In addition to these contributions and presentations from the point of view of the lecturers, the student project team produced two video recordings for the Event Education Symposium, which summarized the opinions and moods of the students. Here, the tense and challenging situation of the students in the pandemic became particularly clear once again.
With a focus on Scotland and the participation of Prof. Dr. Martin Robertson and David Jarman from Napier University Edinburgh, the symposium was also a platform for establishing and shaping the partnership between the universities of Hanover and Edinburgh in the field of event management. As a funded project entitled Eventful Cities, Eventful Universities (ECEU), it is part of the Scotland initiative of the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture.
Prof. Dr. Isabelle Thilo and Prof. Dr. Gernot Gehrke, who both teach in the Event Management course at Hannover University of Applied Sciences, are responsible for the Event Education Symposium project as inviters and those responsible. A practical project by students of the 4th semester under the direction of the lecturer Sara Pamina Bartsch organized the event and produced it as a Zoom conference.