Exams at Distance

Professor Andreas Asseyer takes one last critical look at the tables in the cafeteria. Where students usually chat over fish and chips, chili con carne, or sweet potato puree during lunch, they now take their exams with the required 1.5 meters between them. Adhesive tape on the floor marks the waiting areas for students, who are lined up wearing their face masks. Three tables with Plexiglas panels help to minimize contact during the exams. Students have to present their IDs before being assigned their seats. Only three people are allowed to enter the building at the same time. But even with all these modifications, in the end it is just another (almost) normal final exam.

This was the theme of this year’s International Week, which took place online for the first time from June 8-12. The International Week is an annual event for all members of the university offering information on the topic of internationalization at Freie Universität, planned and actual international research partnerships, and opportunities for students, employees, and researchers to go abroad. Next year’s International Week is scheduled for June 14-18, 2021.

Working remotely from home is not only a technical challenge for many employees but also a physical one, as their new “workplace” can sometimes bring about ergonomic problems.

To help out, the University Sports Center launched the “Pausenexpress @ HOME” program. Instead of coming to the office, the trainers switched from small groups in person to a digital version offered remotely, so participants could do the short workouts alone at their desks whether at home or on campus. Members of the university and alumni can still sign up for these and other fitness courses online. In the meantime, the Aquatic Sports Center, the climbing hall, and the tennis facilities have reopened in compliance with the Berlin Senate’s hygiene regulations, and outdoor activities were able to resume at the beginning of June.

On Friday, March 13, 2020, Freie Universität closed the reading rooms in all of its libraries. For almost two months, researchers and students were dependent on online media and the library’s quickly set up scanning services to provide library users with digital copies of requested materials. In many libraries, books can now be pre-ordered via the Primo library portal and picked up at the service counter after notification. Since the beginning of July, the libraries of the Art History Institute, the Friedrich Meinecke Institute, and the University Library have opened a few workspaces for studying. These workspaces are available to members of the university, who must sign up in advance and follow the hygiene regulations regarding protective masks, etc.