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Specialists from Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PCUP), Tec de Monterrey (Tec), and the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) analyzed new teaching strategies and challenges of universities in the post-pandemic period.
Training and planning: critical strategies for distance education
Specialists from Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PCUP), Tec de Monterrey (Tec), and the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) analyzed the new teaching strategies and challenges of universities in the post-pandemic period.
What must be considered for teachers to accompany their students in remote and hybrid learning environments? In the last edition of “Diálogos” (Dialogues), we talked about this and other topics with Olga Ballin, Director of the Center for Teacher Development and Educational Innovation at Tec de Monterrey, Angie Vásquez, Academic Coordinator of Teacher Training at the Institute of University Teaching, Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, and Teresa Guasch, Dean of Psychology and Education Sciences at the Open University of Catalonia.
Lessons from the Pandemic
For Angie Vásquez, the pandemic has led us to learn new ways of teaching. In the case of PCUP, she highlights that the most important thing at the beginning of the health emergency was a rapid institutional strategy to face the crisis. “There was a great commitment from various actors of the university, who spoke out for support and accompaniment to the teacher and, of course, there has been a greater reliance on technology. However, the most important things are the human and pedagogical aspects,” she said.
For her part, Olga Ballín explained that before the beginning of the pandemic, Tec de Monterrey had changed its educational model, so adapting to the virtual modality and turning to greater use of technology was like a “triple jump.” Managing technology as an enabler and source of continuous support is an area of opportunity; we saw it as a plus and not a necessity. Another lesson for us is the importance of interactions between the teachers and their students. In this challenging time, this aspect has given a turn to education, “she said.
Having had a functioning online university model at UOC before the pandemic, commented Teresa Guasch. They learned that they had the responsibility to help and transfer their knowledge to other institutions adapting to this new situation that was utterly unfamiliar to them. “We also had to adapt to the new reality of our students and accompany them in facing the difficult new context of the pandemic,” she explained.
Although the three universities were at different stages before the pandemic, there were common trends highlighted by the specialists:
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The students are the protagonists.
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The teacher’s role has changed. Beyond knowledge and experience, the teacher must have new competencies, such as accompanying the students.
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A balance between methodology and technology is needed in the new hybrid teaching framework.
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A techno-pedagogical design with an institutional perspective is a necessary adjustment for every university.
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Planning becomes fundamental in the virtual, asynchronous environment.
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Greater student autonomy in the learning process does not mean leaving the student without accompaniment.
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The teacher’s virtual presence and reliable sources of communication are fundamental to generating a good learning environment.
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Accompaniment and feedback to the student are critical. For this task, one must leverage the tools, analytics, and platforms to do the monitoring.
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Both the synchronous and asynchronous modalities have positive advantages contributing to the learning process. Take advantage of them.
New challenges to universities
Faced with a future of significant changes and challenges, universities must take an institutional approach based on their experiences, the experts stressed, pointing out that different problems must be solved in different ways. This should be seen as an opportunity.
Along these lines, the institutions need:
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To train the professors to accompany the students. This is a challenge with still a long way to go.
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The learning assessment is more authentic, genuine, and formative.
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To ensure that training tasks are much shorter and support resources more expeditious. Tools and products must be more directed and focused.
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To be increasingly flexible in all aspects so that the decisions made are easy to implement and help the teachers and students to face the challenges and changes.
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That the professors work collaboratively to build knowledge, share experiences, and assimilate changes in well-planned steps.
Finally, the experts stressed that institutions would need much flexibility, auto-management of processes, and planned accompaniment to face this scenario. Articulating the tasks clearly from all university areas will be critical for the necessary implementations and changes to work.
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Previous editions (in Spanish):
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Translation by Daniel Wetta.
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