Abstract:

From the situation given by the pandemic caused by COVID-19, professors from the Facultad de Ciencias (Faculty of Sciences) - UNAM, belonging to the College of Genetics of the Biology career, created a series of video classes to share the different topics of the syllabus of this subject with the students. For those students who do not connect to the synchronous courses for various reasons but can have access to the material and can acquire the expected knowledge. To do this, different teachers participated in homogenizing terms and concepts of the subject that can be used by everyone whenever needed.

Each participating teacher selected at least one topic from the curriculum of the genetics subject to prepare a presentation and present it to their peers. Weekly 2-hour sessions were held, where each teacher presented the selected topic and presented it to the group of assistant teachers. At the end of the presentation, feedback was given to the speaker so that they could make the recording of the display taking into account the observations and could be shared with the different groups of the subject.

This resulted in a consensus of concepts and learning or updating of the different topics presented. The seminar became a Course-Workshop on updating genetics for the attendees (teachers of the subject). On the other hand, it served as an emerging tool for distance education.

The workshop was beneficial for the participating teachers in several terms: peer-reviewed materials were obtained, students were supported in understanding and learning the topics since some students went through various situations that made it difficult to attend classes or understand knowledge even when they were present, due to the different consequences caused by the pandemic. In addition, the teachers were able to update concepts, learn about advances and learn from their peers since each one has an area of specialization within genetics, which is not necessarily the same as another assistant teacher. Last but not least, the meeting among Genetics teachers, translated into an accompaniment to cope with online classes, share anecdotes, proposals, and ideas for better teaching (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFuUtmOSvF2-qtksifsYjBnFJikusl1-8)

Keywords:

Distance teaching, Covid-19, teaching strategies, online learning.