Abstract:

The paper presents the design and delivery of the university courses before COVID19 crisis and their transformations during and after the crisis. The described changes entail the period of the last three academic years – 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22, and affect five elective courses conducted by the authors – "E-learning", "Design, development and evaluation of educational software", “Instructional Design for Technology Enhanced Learning”, “Planning and Management of Technology Enhanced Learning”, and “Digital Design and Multimedia – Graphic Design”. These courses are intended mainly for students in bachelor programmes in Software Engineering, Informatics, Computer Science, and similar at the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski".

A brief overview of courses structure and delivery before the COVID19 crisis is provided. In this period, the courses are conducted in a blended learning mode, courses in the e-learning platform are used as an assistive tool, mainly to provide learning content and as an environment for assignments administering and submission. Communication through the e-learning platform is primarily asynchronous, limited to course organisation messages and instruction guidelines. The main face-to-face communication takes place during the traditional classroom sessions.

The main courses’ transformations made during the COVID19 crisis for the period 2019-20, 2020-21 are described. The transformations from a blended learning mode to a remote online mode are presented, emphasising the active use of various communication tools in the e-learning environment, especially those for synchronous communication, as well as the application of new learning methods, such as flipped classroom, which aim to increase both the quality of teaching and the motivation of students for active class participation, which is one of the main problems in online education.

The main focus of the paper is on the last academic year, 2021-22 when, with the attenuation of the COVID19 crisis, the university is gradually returning to traditional face-to-face form of education. Courses are again provided in a blended learning mode, and the main communication is returned to the traditional classroom. But a largest part of the changes in the courses design and delivery, which occurred during the COVID19 crisis, also find their place in the new blended learning mode of delivery. A detailed analysis of the transformations that occurred during the crisis has been made. They were preserved as good practices applicable in the blended learning mode. After the COVID19 crisis the use of different communication tools become much more active, compared to the period before the crisis. The application of the flipped classroom method turns out to be very effective in a blended learning mode as well. On the one hand, it is a very good tool to motivate students’ participation. On the other hand, it provides an opportunity for more efficient usage of time from lectures, for active participation of students in discussions on new topics, on which they have a preliminary view.

We can conclude that despite its overall negative effect on the society the COVID19 crisis had its positive aspects on the traditional classroom mode of instruction trough the experience collected during the forced entirely online mode of instruction.

Keywords:

Blended learning, remote online learning, flipped learning, COVID19 crisis.