FOCUS GROUPS

Two focus groups with academic staff, one in Austria and one in Macedonia, will be conducted with representatives from each university. The teachers and lecturers will discuss alongside a semi-structured interview guideline issues regarding the implementation of blended learning in their institutions before, during and after COVID-19. Within this, the chances and weaknesses of online and blended learning and teaching and their effects on students and professors is a central topic to be discussed.

Two focus groups with a broader business community, one in Austria and one in Macedonia as well, will conclude the research by emphasizing the business area. The central point here is the question of whether business students are equally well, better, or even worse trained for their job through blended learning. The participants of this focus group are selected upon the following main criteria: cooperation of the businesses with the universities and correlation of the business sector with the BA and MA programs of the universities.