Abstract:

The disruption of teaching activities during the end of course 2019-2020 and then the transformation of different academic activities to compile with new distancing norms brought different challenges to academic staff and students. This document analyses the different alternatives performed for adapting to a pandemic crisis with a strict lock-down and the way new teaching equipment and sanitary protocols were introduced to modify the daily working routines in an attempt to create a different scenario of normality and learn the way social connections and work can be adapted to a pandemic scenario.

Online learning and distance learning are not new teaching ideas. This type of strategy has increased adepts in recent years with the boom of better internet connections and improvements in information data handling. What was recognized as a necessity for different university centers, that is, to adapt to the new technological scenarios and generations of students fully digital, had become an abrupt reality when strict pandemic regulations were implemented.

The social distancing imposed in Spain in spring 2020 made all university services to be closed and teaching staff and students were abruptly confronted with the use of different teaching platforms. This modification of the traditional way of teaching resulted in the learning of completely new skills. However, the average age of teaching staff in Spanish universities is high which brought as result the realization of the difficulties in implementing the digital learning era.

In the present document, the transition to a completely digital learning platform is analysed, considering the difficulties found in the way it was undertaken by the university personnel and how it was experienced by the different integrating members of the Teaching Innovation Group. It was also analyzed the pros and cons of the course 2020-2021, which in the university of León was organized by keeping an online component combining with learning activities performed on site in a blended-learning model that kept COVID infectious incidents low.

Keywords:

COVID19, distance learning, e-learning, LMS, learning management system.