Abstract:

The pandemic has consequences in bride spectrum of the society. Information and images reaching out evoke different emotions and fears in us. They often lead to misunderstandings, tensions, conflict and even crisis. The fact that personal contacts are currently limited makes things more challenging. For months, the majority of professional communication has been made via virtual platforms. The exchange between participants requires coordinating support from a moderator or mediator. There was observed a lack of overview in virtual communication, the lack of feedback and emotions and commitment. The use of these communication channels will most likely play an important role in a post-pandemic world. Therefore, the authors started to teach and train the student´s specific skills, improving communication skills and collaboration to communicate and to deal with conflicts face-to-face, approaches to prevent conflicts and an integrating approach to negotiation, mediation process, to create common solutions, conclude an agreement. The paper deals with the processes of conflict prevention and management that resulted from personal meetings towards virtual formats and hybrid approaches. According to the authors, these processes will continue to play a role in the post-pandemic future due to their efficiency and effectiveness. Virtual as well as hybrid settings in their academic courses at different Universities in Slovakia and Germany. The research will be made through questionnaires among the students from different universities concerning the development of communication skills. The results will be applied for further development of curricula of the communication skills and management of conflicts.

Keywords:

COVID-19 pandemic, mediation, conflict management, virtual mediation