AI-generated summary
The COVID-19 pandemic rapidly accelerated the adoption of teletraining tools and methodologies in higher education, making remote learning and exams mandatory during the 2019-2020 academic year. This sudden shift challenged students, professors, and administrators, many of whom lacked the necessary digital skills and resources, leading to improvised solutions and a steep learning curve. To prepare for future disruptions, universities, in collaboration with regional authorities, were advised to develop contingency plans for the 2020-21 academic year. These plans include teacher training in distance education, adapted evaluation methods, and structured tutorial schedules, with all measures made public before enrollment begins, as outlined by the Ministry of Universities.
To support this transition, the Ministry, alongside institutions like UNED and UOC, launched the “University at Home” platform, offering online teaching resources and tools. Students are encouraged to develop key skills to succeed in teletraining, including effective time organization, mastery of ICT tools, active participation, strong written communication, and personal responsibility. Beyond addressing immediate challenges, online education opens new opportunities for acquiring additional skills not covered in traditional curricula, enhancing future employability. The rise of mass teletraining also fosters lifelong learning, enabling professionals to continually update and expand their competencies in an evolving job market.
Non-face-to-face training will begin to be part of the university educational landscape permanently, coexisting with face-to-face attendance at university campuses.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the very rapid adoption of teletraining tools, standards and methodologies. Distance university education, including the 19-20 end-of-year exams, has not been optional.
Academic year 2020-21
The coronavirus crisis has brought about a radical change for students, professors and university administrators, who have had to switch to remote teaching and remote management overnight.
Many universities have had to improvise solutions. Many teachers and students did not have the right digital skills and have been overwhelmed and misplaced.
Once the first wave of the pandemic has passed – and hopefully, the last – it is necessary to prepare for an uncertain future, increasing the resilience of the education system.
Each university, in collaboration with its regional administration, will establish a contingency plan before the start of the 20-21 academic year that allows, in case the health situation requires it, “a massive and immediate change to an online teaching system”.
Such contingency plans must include training plans for teachers in distance learning, adaptation of evaluation systems and establishment of schedules for tutorials.
This is stated in the document prepared by the Ministry of Universities, “RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE MINISTRY OF UNIVERSITIES TO THE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY TO ADAPT THE 2020-2021 UNIVERSITY YEAR TO AN ADAPTED FACE-TO-FACE TEACHING“, DATED 10 June.
It also points out that “all adapted face-to-face measures must be made public prior to the opening of the enrolment period at each university”.
The Ministry of Universities, through the UNED and in collaboration with the UOC, under the umbrella of the CRUE, has promoted the “University at Home” platform to facilitate the transition from face-to-face to virtual teaching for universities. This platform has online teaching resources available to teaching staff and the university community as a whole, with useful content for online training: didactic modules, methodological orientation content, technological platforms and software.
And university students, what kind of changes should they adopt, what kind of skills should they improve to take advantage of teletraining? It is a topic that is little talked about and that has many of the more than one and a half million students we have in Spain on tenterhooks.
We compile the recommendations proposed by educaweb, one of the reference portals in training programs and courses:
- Organization: When there are no face-to-face classes, organizing time well and complying with the calendars set by teachers is much more important.
- Mastery of ICT: It is necessary to master the tools used for the course. It is recommended to spend time learning all the functionalities of the tools to get the most out of the course.
- Attitude: It is necessary to motivate yourself. The attitude must be active and participative in the different tasks that are proposed.
- Communication: Participation in forums and communication with teachers and other classmates is less verbal and more written. Written communication skills can be acquired through practice and through self-training on the Internet.
- Responsibility: There is no greater responsibility in teletraining than in face-to-face training, but it becomes a more personal and less social matter. It is worth reflecting on this.
Online training also offers new training opportunities in aspects or skills that each one’s university career does not cover, opening up the range of possibilities and creating a more powerful curriculum that can have a lot of value in the future.
Mass teletraining is here to stay and will promote another growing trend, lifelong learning, which allows professionals to update, recycle and acquire new skills and abilities.
