MANAGEMENT OF CRITICAL INCIDENTS IN DISTANCE EDUCATION

One of the biggest challenges in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) agenda in the Spanish context is related to the pedagogical methodological changes that should be reconsidered in a Higher Education system that was used to deliver knowledge through lecture based class. The EHEA approach of active learning methodologies, continuous and formative assessment, competence oriented education and learner centred methodologies has been a Copernican revolution for the Higher Education sector in Spain. These challenges should be considered in addition to the new profile of students, the new native digital Millennial. Considering both the EHEA changes and the new generation of students, in the context of distance learning universities, generates a new kind of critical incidents that could overwhelm teachers and destabilize the good dynamics of the distance education course. In this paper we consider Critical Incidents as unexpected situations, usually generated by students, according to several studies that provoke emotional reactions and ineffective responses (inhibition, insecurity, stress, etc.). The results of the research surrounding the critical incidents in the traditional university classrooms demonstrate the need for training the professors to address these incidents. In this respect, the research group SINTE, in the context of the research project FI_PANIC (EDU2010-15 211) has designed a course aiming to prepare the virtual university professors to identify and manage the Critical Incidents by three-fold methodology: to recognize the events, to interpret them and to learn strategies for dealing with them and manage the emotions generated when the Critical Incident appear.