Education in times of crisis: Rapid transition to distance learning

Abstract

The COVID‐19 crisis is having a significant impact on the quality of life and future of young people; it can also lead to disruption in education. A disruption would pose a severe threat to the entire society in the postcrisis period. Therefore, educational institutions must respond quickly and ensure the continuity of the educational processes. Our research goal has been to develop and implement a model enabling a rapid transition from the traditional to the distance learning model in a state of emergency. Our focus has been on conceiving technical, organizational, and pedagogical changes that educational organizations need to implement to enable different interaction methods, ensure continuity, and provide high‐quality education. We have defined and implemented a model, which is described in detail in this paper, thus giving guidelines for a rapid transition to distance learning, which is not restricted to the crisis times only. We have evaluated our approach by monitoring the IT solutions and surveying students and teachers at the School of Computing, Union University of Belgrade. The results indicate the high satisfaction of these participants in the educational processes. They imply the acceptability of prolonged distance learning, if needed, and embrace the hybrid education model for the next generation of students.

Opinion of students on online education during the COVID ‐19 pandemic

“…Bao (2020) was perhaps the first to describe how universities were moving from classroom‐based education to online education because of the raging pandemic. Researchers have tried to understand the viewpoint of students on online education during the COVID‐19 pandemic using empirical studies in India (Mishra, Gupta, & Shree, 2020), Serbia (Bojovic, Bojovic, Vujosevic, & Suh, 2020), and USA (Patricia, 2020).…”

“…However, no university was ready for a complete shift to online education. Empirical studies have found that students feel that they learn better in physical classrooms than through online education (Bojovic et al, 2020). Students miss the help they receive from their peers in classrooms and laboratories and access to library (Patricia, 2020).…”

“…Only a few researchers have covered these issues. For example, Patricia (2020) reported that students prefer face‐to‐face interaction with professors and Bojovic et al (2020) reported that many professor lack confidence on online assessment techniques.…”

El software como apoyo didáctico en la enseñanza de la electrónica digital en la educación superior en México [Software as a didactic support in the teaching of digital electronics in higher education in Mexico]

“…La aparición del COVID 19 en China -y que se propagase en todo el mundo durante el 2020llevó a una modificación sin precedentes sobre la forma de vivir y, en específico de aprender, mismas que se tuvieron que adaptar a un confinamiento impuesto por cada gobierno nacional (Bojović et al, 2020;José et al, 2020;Luna-Nemecio & Tobón, 2021;Nassr et al, 2020;Villegas-Ch et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2020). En situaciones inesperadas como ésta, la educación basada en herramientas virtuales puede ser de gran ayuda (Romero-Rodriguez et al, 2020).…”

“…Las investigaciones actuales muestran y analizan la forma en que el software educativo apoya en los programas de enseñanza en todos los niveles (Campos et al, 2020;Estany et al, 2017); tanto de forma parcial, con el uso de un software para realizar algunas prácticas o experimentos virtuales, como de forma global, con la utilización de un software como acompañamiento de todo el desarrollo de un curso educativo, señalan, las ventajas y desventajas que dicho software supone, las habilidades necesarias para su empleo y la forma de utilización (Bojović et al, 2020;Kalu, 2018;Karvinen & Karvinen, 2018;Kholis et al, 2018;Melo-Solarte et al, 2018;Rodríguez-Alabanda et al, 2019). Es inaplazable el análisis de la adecuación de los softwares, más utilizados en el TecNM, hacia una aplicación específica y adaptada a un programa educativo de una asignatura.…”