Table 1 Categorised answers to the question “What barriers were encountered at your institution in the summer semester 2020?”. Answers were retrospectively divided into the following six main categories: (1) Face-to-face teaching could not take place, (2) know-how of educators, (3) integrity-related aspects, (4) technical aspects, (5) additional personnel required, (6) additional time and effort required for implementation of digital teaching

Missing technical equipment

“insufficient technical equipment”, “technical implementation”, “Insufficient supply of recording equipment”, “little or no equipment”, “lack of technical equipment, poor technical infrastructure”

Failure of hardware or software

“poorly functioning video conference software”, “Lack of server performance […]”, technical shortcomings of the ILIAS platform”, “technical difficulties, also on the part of the students”, “ILIAS platform was overloaded”, “Initially great difficulties with […] video conferencing tool”, “partly bad/very bad internet connection of institutions/offices/clinics”, “outdated technology”, “initially lack of software for digital teaching”, “no internet connections in classrooms, no recording technology, no transmission technology to larger lecture halls, […] poor intuitiveness of Moodle“

Technical know how

Inadequate instruction in digital technology”, “technical competence of the teacher”, “training of lecturers”, “Insufficient technical support”

Unused technical equipment

“tablet-based testing is not possible, expensively purchased equipment ultimately cannot be used for our subject in this semester, and is therefore superfluous”, “the pilot phase for tEXAM was postponed to the winter semester 2020/21”

No lectures, seminars, practical courses

“Face-to-face events not possible or under very strict and elaborate hygiene conditions”, “Conversion of classroom teaching to digital teaching”, “practical courses were not possible in some cases”, “impossibility to offer practical exercises online”, “Furthermore, the practical implementation of internships, with the experience this entails for their future careers, can never be replaced by digital internships”

No exams (e.g. OSCE)

“large premises for e.g. face-to-face examinations are not available”, “large group examinations […] were or are very difficult to organise due to the regulations (distance rules), as suitable premises are lacking”, “all OSCE examinations were cancelled”, “A major organisational problem was the implementation of the face-to-face exams under the corona-related distance and hygiene regulations. Sufficiently large premises had to be found”

“A lot of work distributed among few people in the institution”, “personnel (no student assistant/secretary/team teaching”, “Not enough manpower”, “little or no manpower available for the creation of own educational films”, “Examination in small groups at 5 locations at the same time: requires many personnel resources”, “Unexpected considerable extra work through conversion to digital teaching”, “[…] and additional personnel were needed for supervision, disinfection and admission”, “Additional personnel required”

“teaching specifications by the faculty that are too tight in terms of time”, “Very short time window to convert the contents of the semester to completely digital”, “very limited time to implement digitisation”, “lack of time to build more complex courses in Moodle”, “No time to develop didactically more sophisticated concepts”, “little time for implementation”, “additional time and effort”, “material preparation strongly depends on individual willingness to invest additional hours (outside working hours!)”

Missing knowledge

“untrained personnel”, “knowledge”, “no know-how on online teaching”

Lack of willingness for digital teaching

“Partial unwillingness of teachers to support digital teaching”, “[…] that digital teaching has been implemented very poorly or not at all, and they continue to “resist” the innovation”, “Reluctance to learn new things. Everyone wants to have some kind of service. Preferably personal support at every event”, “The challenge of adequately instructing all lecturers”, “in some cases little willingness to become acquainted with digital topics, analogue ideas are to be implemented 1:1 digitally”, “Reservations about digital teaching formats”, “Extremely good and fast support from the university with regular training (technology and didactics) for lecturers and students”

“few feel responsible”, “students’ complaints, lack of personal support”, “To find suitable alternatives for high-quality online teaching that was optimal for both teachers and students”, “high demands of students on digital teaching and its prompt implementation”, “Difficulties in obtaining royalty-free image, sound and video material”, “[…] solving the weekly quizzes to confirm participation”, “lack of uniformity (each subject had different platforms or different digital teaching methods)”, “support with regard to data protection; setting up a university video server with videoconferencing software for all video conferences, etc”, “Additional formalities for each procedure”, “On-site and face-to-face teaching and examinations continue to be very important, as this is the only way to get the best feedback on how students have problems, what they could understand well and what they could not”