Doctoral seminar- cross-national virtual

Doctoral students from six departments (Prof. Leimeister and Söllner from the University of Kassel; Prof. Leimeister, Brenner, Back and Seufert from the HSG) were present over the three days, presenting their dissertation projects and engaging in discussion. "The virtual format has and advantages and disadvantages," says Prof. Dr. Jan Marco Leimeister, one of the supervising professors. "For the doctoral students, it is a very good opportunity to present their research - but also open questions - in a short video; what is clearly missing in this format is the social interaction, for example when eating together or playing soccer after the hard thinking work." Doctoral students had mixed reactions to the new format; most prefer to meet in person, but commented positively on the feedback culture in the virtual format. The use of Miro boards (see image below) made it possible to provide informed feedback on individual videos and structure the discussion. However, the concentrated work on the screen over several hours was very exhausting and: "The shared after-work beer was definitely missing...".

The goal of this seminar is to advance the respective dissertation project through intensive discussions with doctoral students from other chairs as well as professors and post-docs. In addition, new ideas and impulses for one's own dissertation project are to be gained through the feedback gained in this workshop and peer groups are to be established through points of contact to topics of other participants.