With the spread of COVID-19 reaching the level of a global pandemic, it was inevitable for CODE University of Applied Sciences and the digital pioneers that we needed to make some changes. That’s why we decided very early to take action and are now happy to announce that almost all our learning formats take place as usual, but remotely.⁣ It is our responsibility to contribute as much as we can to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Although this poses a big challenge and opportunity to the CODE community, students, faculty and staff, we are working every day on a range of support measures for everyone individually and CODE as a whole to ensure that we maintain a community despite being remote.

So, how are we doing this?

Much more than in physical classrooms – all of a sudden there is an awkward silence. With only one click, students can leave the call without explanation. In-person, students think twice before walking without explanation.

Like many others in this situation, we didn’t have time to plan, but we are aware that, as digital pioneers, we do have an advantage that many other universities and companies don’t have. Earlier in March, from the point when the whole situation started to seem inevitable, we started to think about the equipment. Knowing that our professors will need our full support for the upcoming weeks, we asked them to write down the equipment they need in order to create the best possible learning experience in a remote teaching setup. It seems it’s all about the mic! And, of course, remote conferencing tools.

Online teaching definitely poses a challenge and we do know that through the screen everything fundamentally changes. Our Software Engineering professor Peter Ruppel writes extensively about his experience here on the blog. Even with perfect equipment and tools (and we know that perfection doesn’t exist), there are still obstacles. Much more than in physical classrooms – all of a sudden there is an awkward silence. With only one click, students can leave the call without explanation. In-person, students think twice before walking without explanation. But most importantly, our task now is to create a participatory environment and nurture engaging discussions – there is a moment when sticky notes turn into chat lines.

Students agree that learning units are working really well for now and are mostly positively surprised how smoothly everything has gone in the first few days, while professors and lecturers are giving their best to keep it interactive and engaging. Software Engineering student Maurice says that the learning units were “great and well prepared,” and what was especially valuable for him was the access to different virtual rooms for working in pairs.

Selma, also a Software Engineering student, shared her thoughts on remote teamwork: “We will try out different tools: Google Meet, Tandem, using Notion for documentation; and evaluate each week if it is working for us. Even though we actually did remote meetings before, it still takes quite some time to adjust to the new full remote set up.”

We are helping our students with a few clever tips like staying away from the couch but also super useful ones about the tools they are using, to help them to keep up with the routine, to stay in touch with the team members, and help them to cope with physical distancing.

Julia, a Product Management student, is a team coach and she feared it would be difficult to continue with team coaching remotely, but it turned out to be quite the opposite. “So far our calls seem more efficient than when we meet in person. These calls also reinforced the value of having a moderator or one person who leads the session. However, we are still experimenting with how many (and how long) sessions are required for us to stay aligned and move forward together,” she explains.

We’ve been following many useful resources with practical guides for remote setups. Rule number one: be transparent with our community and give regular updates. Throughout the media, the news is dominated by paranoia, horrifying numbers, and negativity. “CODE has set itself apart from the negativity”, says Graham, an Interaction design student. “Taking decisive and science-based action, creating a support network for all, setting benchmarks for the following weeks, and being transparent all the way throughout. The way that faculty, staff, and a handful of students have taken action to put our campus online is inspiring. The effort to preserve our culture as it is another aspect of our learning experience has reminded me why I study at CODE,” he wrote in a Slack message.

We are helping our students with a few clever tips like staying away from the couch but also super useful ones about the tools they are using, to help them to keep up with the routine, to stay in touch with the team members, and help them to cope with physical distancing.

Strongly believing that nothing can keep the CODE community apart, not even being remote, we do our best to stay connected and keep the CODE spirit up. Every morning, we start the day by sharing helpful ideas and tips for remote working, learning, and living. On Mondays at 5 pm, we have a CODE Spirit Day, during which we do something fun together.

In the meantime, students and staff members are offering different activities to the community: yoga sessions on Wednesdays, daily coffee and lunch breaks, deep-dive sessions where students can focus on their goals and support each other, weekly chess tournaments, and much more. Since that we all miss our campus piano, a couple of students and professors initiated the CODE Italian Balconies project to allow community members to make music together.

We will all get through this together – #CODEremote #staypositive #stayconnected #staymotivated #stayhealthy

---