Information Days 2020 – a virtual orientation
For the first time, ETH’s Information Days were held in a virtual-only format on 2 and 3 September 2020. More than 3,600 prospective students had the chance to visit a virtual marketplace and get a glimpse of the wide range of study options at ETH Zurich.
Due to the coronavirus situation, ETH’s Information Days had to be planned differently this year. The stands and lectures in the main building gave way to video conferences and virtual presentations, offering future students a virtual opportunity to explore the range of Bachelor’s degree programmes on offer. It was the first major ETH event to be held in this digital format.
More than 80 virtual presentations
ETH Rector Sarah Springman greeted prospective students this year in four languages in her video address and set the mood for the event-filled programme. For two days, participants were able to log in and watch more than 80 presentations and listen to livestreams via Zoom in order to collect useful information about the degree programme of their choice.
In particular, this format provided prospective students from 25 countries, including Brazil and New Zealand, with an opportunity to have a look at the study programmes. As in the past, most attendees came from Switzerland, as 90 percent of all new ETH Bachelor’s students hold a Matura school-leaving certificate from a Swiss secondary school.
Lecturers and current students answered all kinds of questions. Videos of students on a campus tour offered a glimpse of the two sites in the city centre and at H?nggerberg. The student advisory service provided in-depth information on the choice of course of study, as well as course planning and course financing. Two separate events were also hosted by French and Italian-speaking students for visitors from western Switzerland and Ticino.
One step closer to the right degree programme
More than 3,600 prospective students took advantage of this wide-ranging opportunity to take a closer look at and ask questions about the various study programmes, from medicine and architecture to physics and biology.
The challenges of the virtual format
“Attendees used the chat feature intensively. We received a lot of good questions that we were able to answer in a similar setting to a panel discussion,” says Andreas Wieser, a professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering (D-BAUG). However, he qualified this: “There were almost no real discussions in our virtual space, since most of the visitors only wanted to use the chat feature and didn’t sign into the audio channel.”
Wieser was part of the presentation on Geospatial Engineering, a smaller and lesser-known degree programme. For these study programmes in particular, the virtual format presented a unique opportunity. “Our presentation attracted more attention among the prospective students than in past years,” says Wieser.
On the other hand, he was disappointed that there were hardly any spontaneous discussions with attendees after the live presentation. The Zoom rooms that were set up specifically for this purpose saw very few visitors. These rooms were designed to simulate a face-to-face situation, so that prospective students could stop by the “stand” after the live presentation and talk about their individual questions and concerns. Wieser’s overall assessment of this year’s Information Days: “We’re happy that we were able to host ETH’s Information Days, but hope that next year we can put on an event with real stands and face-to-face communication again.”
The Information Days in figures
Gaby Kl?y from Student Services, and an organiser of the Information Days, is also happy that the event was still possible despite the pandemic. “Together with members from the team and from Multimedia Services, we worked closely with the departments to move this big event into the virtual space very quickly,” she says. She also thanks all the participants for their hard work. The live presentations went smoothly thanks to their teamwork, several test runs and extensive training.
Asked about the number of participants, Kl?y says: “We had a quarter fewer registrations than in previous years, when we saw 4,500 to 5,000 prospective students. But there were more late registrations, and I had the impression that many people decided to come spontaneously, which is very pleasing.” The individual Zoom presentations were well attended and some, such as medicine and materials science, even had more visitors than in the past.
What did prospective students think of the experience?
Aside from the numbers, how were the presentations received? Kl?y and her team conducted a survey among attendees. “Thank you so much for this glimpse into life at ETH, despite the pandemic situation. The presentations were highly informative and helped me select my course of study,” said one respondent. People wrote of “friendly and motivated lecturers” and “an excellent organisation, great dedication, motivation and a wide range of information.” When asked which event format they preferred – virtual or in-person – three quarters of respondents said that they would prefer to attend the event in person. Overall, 91% of attendees found ETH’s Information Days 2020 to be “good” or “very good”.
What’s next
Kl?y is optimistic about the coming year. Should the coronavirus pandemic linger on, she and her team are well prepared to host the event digitally again. But the event organiser also hopes that ETH will be able to invite prospective students to visit the main building once again.