Students’ parallel and alternative actions during online teaching: A case of cultural change

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 students at a German higher educational institution to find  out about the parallel and alternative actions they engaged  in during online teaching and learning. The aim was to gather initial evidence on how academic cultures are  interwoven with domestic cultures as part of online  teaching and learning. Four types of integration were  identified: dominance of domestic culture, dominance of  academic culture, alternating between cultures, and  interlocking of academic and domestic cultures. Fifteen of  the twenty-four interviewees said they were less focussed  on their studies. The paper discusses the implications of  these findings for university teaching in the context of  students’ self-organisation and academic freedom.