Corona Pandemic and Teaching in Mining

With the beginning of the corona pandemic, contacts were restricted and events were banned. The teaching had to adapt. Online lectures replaced face-to-face events. The Institute for Mining and Special Civil Engineering at TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Freiberg/Germany, was able to implement corresponding courses immediately and also found regulations for internships and excursions.

Discrepancy between the imperatives of science and the limitations of personal freedom

It started first, as with some other diseases. In Wuhan/China, a region with 11 million inhabitants, there was a series of cases of pneumonia. On 31st December 2019, China reported an increase in pneumonia to the World Health Organization (WHO). The first officially confirmed death was reported in China on 11th January 2020. On 24th January 2020, the virus reached Europe. (1, 2)

The first corona case in Germany was diagnosed in Bavaria on 28th January 2020, and the first two deaths were reported on 9th March 2020 (3, 4). On 11th March 2020, the WHO characterized the outbreak as pandemic (5). In addition to many other measures, this was followed in particular by a mask requirement, contact restrictions, closure of shops, ban on events and, as a result, problems with supplying the population, among other things. In Germany this was among others toilet paper, which, despite repeated assurances that there was enough in the warehouses, did not find its way onto the shelves in sufficient numbers for weeks and months. At the beginning of 2022, some people felt transported back to the year 2020 when they read the headline from Business Insider Germany: “Toilet paper is running out again, but panic buying is not the reason this time” (6). The reason this time was higher raw material prices, increased energy prices and rising logistics costs. That was certainly partly due to the effects of the pandemic. And yet bad feelings were awakened again.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, doctors and governments around the world have had to deal with skeptics, non-believers, but also “pandemic-weary”. “I don’t know of any dead people in my area yet”, “it’s all just scaremongering” are two of many arguments that you hear every now and then. Vaccination should help. Statistically proven, ultimately confirmed as safe and highly effective by worldwide independent studies, there are doubters and opponents of vaccination here too. One’s own physical integrity is used by some to avoid being vaccinated. If you look into the past, you can see that vaccination was a blessing to mankind to prevent permanent paralysis from polio, tetanus, which is often fatal, children born blind or mentally handicapped from rubella, or death from diphtheria or smallpox. Precisely because one could still see and know the dramatic consequences of diseases without vaccination, this was widely accepted. In the former GDR there was a compulsory vaccination (7) for some particularly dangerous diseases. In the Federal Republic of Germany, on the other hand, vaccination has not been compulsory since 1954 (7). Compulsory measles vaccination was introduced in March 2020 (8). All other vaccinations are based on the recommendations of the Standing Vaccination Committee. This freedom of self-determination together with a relatively high vaccination rate and not experiencing the direct effects of such diseases led and apparently leads to an increasing degree of questioning of vaccination in general and a vaccination requirement in particular with actually comparatively minor “disadvantages”, such as reddening of the skin or a feeling of pressure but only last a short time. The last thing that opponents of vaccination keep citing is the number of deaths caused by vaccination. But how high is it really? The safety report of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut (9) states – among other organizations worldwide – that 106,835 suspected cases of side effects for 74,871,502 vaccinations were reported up to 30th June 2021, interestingly more than 2.5 times more in women than in men. Depending on the vaccine, only 0.1 to 1.1 % of these are fatal, which is around 1.4 per 100,000 people or 0.0014 %. In comparison, the number of deaths from alcohol in Germany (approximately 74,000/a, (10)) is around 65 times higher. Without the possibility of vaccination, but with drastic containment measures, 33,200 people died of Corona in Italy between March and May 2020. In comparison that would be over 160 times more deaths – despite protective measures such as a ban on going out.

The pictures from Italy went around the world. The call for reliable protection grew. In the meantime, the ban on going out and contact have had an effect. Doctors all over the world learned and found the first treatment options. The first vaccines have been tested and approved. The number of deaths fell, as did the number of people with severe illnesses. The longing for openings grew steadily. Educators warned of the effects of the corona restrictions on pupils and students. It must not be the case that learning deficits occur, mental problems increase or interpersonal relationships suffer as a result of the corona pandemic. No generation should have disadvantages. Mothers must be able to place their children in childcare. People need to be allowed to meet again.

Undoubtedly legitimate concerns, but are these also legitimate demands? Have we forgotten how to endure to a point where it is safer? Are we setting wrong priorities? Preventing the learning deficit at the expense of more infection and more deaths? These are extremely complex questions that are difficult to answer. No matter how you react, there is always a “but” in our fast-paced, information-hungry world. Thinking into the arguments of others becomes more difficult over time. You do not want to hear the other arguments anymore. So how to get out of this dilemma, how to decide in this situation: teaching online or in person? Fewer contacts or meeting for lectures in the lecture hall? Practical training in a small room? Many of us will realize: Of course we want our freedoms back. But who can decide how much risk is still acceptable? Let’s just listen to the science a little more and accept that it is a pandemic and a pandemic is war. In war one cannot have all freedoms. War has an impact on the psyche, education suffers and has to be done in other ways or caught up on. The difference between the pandemic and war is that in war you can see the effects directly (Table 1).

Consequences for teaching at the Institute for Mining and Special Civil Engineering at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg

The pandemic meant that on 16th March 2020, the TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Freiberg/Germany, also initially switched to standby mode, secured the facilities and postponed upcoming exams. On 17th March 2020, classroom teaching was suspended until at least 4th May 2020 and all TU buildings were closed. The library was already closed on 14th March and the canteen on 19th March 2020. At the same time, the first e-learning measures were mentioned and the requirements for implementation were worked out. Tutorials were developed and made available, tools were created, e. g., via the OPAL platform, hints at possible forms of teaching were given. Depending on the previous knowledge of the teachers, options were shown for how the semester could start in April. This ranged from the virtual classroom to streaming, video transmission, scanning slide sets and delivering them, question time over the internet and more. A particularly intensive effort was made to provide the hardware and software. For transmissions from the lecture halls in particular, there were logically only a limited number of options. The question of online conferences as a form of teaching, question time or employee meetings was initially unclear, mainly due to security issues. Employees were sent to work from home and had to find ways of communicating with other colleagues and teachers from one day to the next. It started with questions about how to be reached by phone, but quickly led to the question of how documents can be exchanged and how to coordinate in groups. On 6th April 2020, the semester was able to start as planned on the one hand, and on the other hand exclusively as an online event. Of course it was very different. While some lecturers postponed the start of lectures or only handed out teaching material, others went online in the lecture halls or recorded lectures so that they could then be made available.

There were also different approaches at the Institute for Mining and Special Civil Engineering. For the area of teaching in underground mining within the professorship for raw material extraction and special underground processes, the online lecture started on the first day. In the meantime, one or the other web cam or a drawing tablet had been purchased and the handling of various programs and tools had been tested and learned. A positive effect was that nowadays every engineer can handle computers, which applies in particular to the mining sector and mining education. Mine planning or ventilation network programs are the hand tools of today’s mining engineer. The provision of documents and PowerPoint presentations in lectures is often the state of the art in teaching. Even before Corona, almost all lectures were available in digital form, albeit not in an online version. Whether an existing PowerPoint presentation is better than a few slides with cover letters and developing dependencies on the board is not up for discussion here. For decades, scientists have found that you remember things better when you can see, hear and write them down or even touch them. The latter does not apply to PowerPoint presentations with slides provided, and the impression that (not only) the students remember less and less and rely more on mobile phones and the Internet is clearly there. Nevertheless, simple things like an inexpensive graphics tablet make it possible to add things to an online lecture, to underline texts, to paint simple sketches directly or to use a blank page like a blackboard (Figure 1).

Such additions or changes can then be saved or discarded if desired. But of course it also makes a difference whether you stand in front of the students in the lecture hall and show and explain PowerPoint slides, pay attention to the reactions, observe the facial expressions, assess the attention, answer questions or even ask a question yourself, the blackboard as a tool, showing illustrative examples, such as drilling heads, psychrometers, anemometers, displacement samples, etc., or whether the lecture has to be held completely digitally from the home office or later from the office room. In this respect, adjustments to the existing presentations were necessary, especially in the early days. New examples have been included, images have been added, texts have been expanded and explanations have been adjusted. The BBB (Big Blue Button) and also ZOOM for video hosting crystallized as platforms. For the former, only very limited capacities were initially available (number of rooms and number of participants per room), which gave rise to fears that not all lectures and seminars could be held. However, this fear was quickly dispelled. On the one hand, the periods for lectures were extended to 8 p.m., on the other hand, there were not enough lecturers in the early days who wanted or were able to use this opportunity. This meant that all courses on underground mining could be offered and held.

Not only BBB was used for this, but also the ZOOM video conference system after clarification of legal and, above all, security issues. In contrast to initial difficulties with BBB, Zoom was also stable with many participants and with video. There were hardly any interruptions due to network failure or poor network quality, not at all in most lectures, at least not on the part of the lecturer. It cannot be said with certainty whether there were noteworthy failures on the part of the students, at least there was no noteworthy feedback or visible failures.

Face-to-face lectures and exams in compliance with the hygiene rules were again possible in small groups from 4th May 2020, as were hybrid events (face-to-face and digital at the same time). On 15th May 2020, the canteen was partially reopened. For lectures, in addition to wearing a mask or a face shield – depending on the distance from the reader–- ventilation was also required, with the windows and doors being open at all times. Internships and excursions could also be carried out in compliance with certain rules. The same applied from the beginning of the winter semester until the second lockdown. For some, as predictable as the rising sun in the morning, travel and contacts at home and abroad and the non-compliance with the hygiene rules of some led to a renewed increase in the number of infections. Most mining internships and excursions could still be carried out with the known hygiene measures, a few were postponed to the coming semester, and none had to be cancelled. However, non-essential exams have been postponed.

First experiences with online exams were already gained in the summer of 2020. So that each individual does not have to familiarize himself with it separately, two employees in particular within the professorship took over the preparation of online exams using the Onyx system, which is new at the institute. They worked more intensive with the program and were always ready to help. This was particularly useful in the first few months of 2021, when there were also a few exams/examinations.

How does an online exam work? There are a number of rules for this, above all it is about the question of confidentiality (data security) and proof that the student is not cheating. Everyone knows that there were and are always possibilities, you just have to limit everything to the extent that you can be sure that everything is comparable to “normal” face-to-face exams. It is fundamental that all students have to turn on their cameras. If someone does not have one – laptops all have one these days – a workstation can be provided, which was not necessary for the mining students and will probably remain the exception otherwise. The preparation for the exam is done with Opal/Onyx. A wide variety of test scenarios can be created here. From the large number of possibilities, just mention: Questions with predefined answer options (single or multiple answers), answer options in text form, images can be inserted and much more. The exam can be started by the student, the examiner then confirms and the time only starts to run from this point in time. The respective status is saved if the connection is interrupted. Then the student can dial in again, the time is interrupted and he can continue from where he was. When he is finished, he can read everything again and hand it in, if this form was chosen by the examiner. The examiner then evaluates. Alternatively, there are options in which the test is immediately evaluated by the program. With the camera switched on and of course the type of questions and a possible time limit, it can be ensured as far as possible that the use of impermissible aids – such as in presence tests – is prevented. Diploma and student research papers as well as literary work that are not time-critical must be defended. Up to now, attendance has been required because the student has to give a presentation with appropriate slides (PowerPoint). In the specific case, a supervisor or staff member is therefore required to be present, all others are connected online with password protection, as are, of course, company supervisors. In compliance with the hygiene rules, the defense then takes place in hybrid form.

Another aspect of the mining education are internships for the students in the lecture-free period or before or during the preparation of their graduation theses. There were no problems with graduation work last year, the companies made these internships possible in compliance with the applicable rules. Compliance with the hygiene rules means that additional expenses and coordination are also necessary in the companies, e. g., with regard to accommodation.

In general, however, it should be remembered that the situation was and is difficult for some students and in some disciplines. It started with the closure of the canteen. Not everyone was set up for full selfcare or had limited options. Part-time jobs such as a temporary waiter, working during the lecture-free period or while studying were suddenly no longer possible, which put some students at risk of financing their studies. Some students got into trouble. Donations were called for and a special fund set up by the Association of Friends and Sponsors of the TU Bergakademie Freiberg e. V. at the savings bank Sparkasse Mittelsachsen. Foreign students had other problems. Some of them did not receive a visa to enter the country. Depending on the region, lectures via the Internet are then in the middle of the night, provided the Internet works at all, electricity is available and a laptop or computer is available.

The winter semester 2021/22 should then take place in attendance if possible. For the mining sector with a manageable number of students, this was possible without any problems, while maintaining minimum distance and mask requirement during the lecture. Then the seven-day incidences rose again to a record high. This was also pursued until the end of the semester due to new findings regarding the effectiveness of individual measures and falling hospitalization rates despite high incidences. Nevertheless, everyone had to prepare to immediately switch to online events or online exams if necessary. So far this has not become necessary. A large number of internships and excursions could also be made up for, of course with a certain adjustment to the corona situation and certainly also minor corona-related smears. The underground practical course “ventilation measurement”, e. g., was moved to the surface. Although this required a several kilometer long walk to a tunnel (so called “Rösche”), this had the advantage of showing and explaining evidence of mining history along the way. In addition, a mask was only required if the distance of 1.5 m could not be maintained. An anemometer measurement then took place a few meters in the tunnel (Figure 2), in front of the grating not an ideal place, but suitable for a practical training. The remaining students stood 10 m away on the path and were asked to observe and comment on the measurement until it was their turn. Further excursions are planned for summer 2022.

Summary

Overall, the teaching in the field of mining worked well. Lectures and seminars took place, as did most of the excursions and internships. The few missing excursions and internships will be made up for. It is often discussed whether online lectures are better or worse than face-to-face events. A strong negative psychological effect is discussed above all for schools and especially for the first grades. When you are studying, you are dealing with adults, who undoubtedly feel the effects too. How big these are or whether there are also advantages is not so easy to answer and would be material for a separate study after the Corona crisis. However, a few points regarding online teaching should be mentioned without judgment:

• More free time between individual lectures, but lectures until 8:00 p.m.
• No need to travel from lecture hall to lecture hall, which means less stress for some.
• More time for meals.
• During lectures, it is possible to switch off one’s own video and microphone, so that “casual clothing” can be worn at the same time and eating and drinking are possible.
• Calls can be answered.
• The reader does not see when you are bored or doing something else.
• You can walk around at the same time.
• The reader is less able to judge the reaction of the students and may explain some things in too much detail or too briefly, although the students can and do ask questions.
• A lack of direct contact leads to mental stress.
• Being forced to stay at home is annoying, joint activities are not possible.
• Learning together is only possible without mutual contact.
• Using the library has become more difficult (borrowing after registration).

The list could go on. It is to be hoped that the measures taken by the federal government will soon return to a new normality. Declining numbers of infections in summer give hope, while falling temperatures in autumn create new uncertainty.