‘Online is Better than Nothing, but Face-to-Face is the Best’ Attitudes of Teachers and Students at Universities of Music Concerning Online Teaching in the Corona Crisis

Abstract

Last year, due to the nationwide university closings in connection with the corona pandemic, German universities of music faced particular challenges in terms of catching up with the digital technology, media skills and didactic experience in dealing with digital teaching and learning. In particular in the artistic subjects (vocal and instrumental tuition, ensemble courses) there was nearly any reliable experience with online formats. With several surveys of music teachers and students, we have accompanied the externally forced digital change over the past year. Our findings show major differences especially between academic and artistic teachers in terms of the acceptance of online teaching in general, but also concerning the specific work situation and the assessment of the long-term consequences of the corona pandemic for the process of digitization and university education. Our surveys show that the possibilities of digital teaching aren’t used to its full range. Especially formats without personal contact are hardly taken into account when thinking about teaching strategies. Through the analysis of free text comments, we were also able to identify recurring justification patterns for the acceptance or the rejection of online teaching on a personal, socio-ecological and content-related didactic level. In view of the results, the development of a mission statement for digital teaching at the universities of music seems to be indispensable for the future.