Overcoming the Challenges – the Impact of COVID-19 on Agricultural Higher Education in Ukraine

Abstract

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, higher education institutions all over the world have been faced with the urgent need for going online. Still, higher education institutions in Ukraine have met this new challenge with significant gaps in online education expertise. In this paper, we provide a brief overview of the major challenges that have become relevant to Ukrainian agricultural universities in the pandemic period. In particular, we tried to evaluate the main areas where the major interventions have been carried out, such as providing access to relevant ICT infrastructure, methodological support and training of academic staff etc. The results of the case study support the conclusion that the rapid shift to remote learning has the potential to be the impetus for radical decisions in the context of implementation of pedagogical innovations and digital tools in agricultural higher education.

Building a resilient university: ensuring academic continuity—transition from face-to-face to online in the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Aspects of e-learning most affected by the transition during the COVID-19 pandemic were discussed in academic publications recently. For example, Knysh and Dudziak ( 2020 ) highlight the major relevant challenges for Ukrainian agricultural universities in the pandemic period: access to relevant ICT infrastructure, methodological support and academic staff training. Marshall et al ( 2020 ) discussed the issues that higher educational leaders were confronted with: equity, access to technology, teacher training, resources, financing, and the well-being of students and staff.…”

Practices and perceptions at the COVID‐19 transition in undergraduate animal science courses

“…For many institutions, the sudden transition to remote teaching constituted a prolonged emergency. Capacity for remote teaching depends on information and communication technology infrastructure; available training, support, and funding; institutional and departmental teaching culture; student preparedness for remote learning; and faculty workload and motivation, among other factors (Knysh & Dudziak, 2020;Meyer & Xu, 2007). In past research, instructors reported that teaching online imposed a substantial workload above teaching in-person, typically requiring weeks or months more preparation (Freeman, 2015).…”

Liminality, disruption, and change: A prismatic look at pandemic education

“…Pandemic education (which may also be referenced as distance learning, eLearning, pandemic learning, or distance education) is atypical of the regular online learning structures previously found in higher education; instead, it is a form of emergency eLearning (Nordmann et al 2020 ). While some see the innovations developed in online learning as an opportunity to improve education (Knysh and Dudziak 2020 ), others caution that emergency eLearning should not be normalized as a replacement for face-to-face learning (Murphy 2020 ).…”