Abstract:

Royal Decree 463/2020, of 14 March, which declared the state of alarm for the management of the health crisis situation caused by the COVID-19, provided for the suspension of face-to-face educational activity in all centres and stages, cycles, grades, courses and levels of education, including university education, indicating that during the period of suspension, educational activities will be maintained through distance and "online" modalities, whenever possible. The University of Alicante extended the subjective scope of application of the Regulations for the Adaptation of the Curriculum of the University of Alicante (BOUA of 24 July 2015) to all students during the period of non-attendance teaching. Curricular adaptations were made, understood as the set of non-significant modifications or adjustments to the ordinary curriculum, which were applied at two levels: curricular adaptations to support teaching as well as assessment tests. These modifications were adapted to each subject and to the period of inability to attend. The authors of this paper, teachers of different subjects from the Physics, Chemistry and Optics and Optometry degrees and the Master in Clinical Optometry and Vision, Master in Biomedicine, Master in Biotechnology for Health and Sustainability and Master in Medical Chemistry, surveyed students on their opinion about studying during confinement. Results show that all students returned to their family houses. Although most of them had a personal space for studying and working, they had some problems adapting their schedules to the family routines. Almost half of the students in all levels reported a mild worsening in family finances and were concerned about the consequences of this worsening for the continuity of their studies. Regarding technological issues, most of the students answered that they had at their disposal computers, cameras and microphones, together with a good internet connection. Most undergraduate students expressed refusal to be recorded during exams. This rejection was not so clearly expressed by the master students. Finally, regarding the teaching methodology, the students in all levels show their preferences by on-line synchronous lectures with access to recorded files and solved exercises, although they informed that lectures during confinement were carried out through video tutorials, asynchronous lectures and downloaded material for autonomous study.

Keywords:

COVID-19, curricular adaptation, online synchronous lectures.