Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken the world by surprise, affecting every aspect of human life, including educational programs. Universities around the world were facing the problem of either suspending courses to retake them later on once the pandemic was over, creating major disruptions in traditional educational calendars, or develop new strategies so that the courses would still follow on the scheduled time frames through the use of information and communication technologies.

Some weeks before the health crisis hit in Mexico, discussions in a private university emerged on whether to suspend courses to develop the required efforts to provide continuity to students' educational programs. After analyzing the pros, cons, and risks associated, the university decided to migrate all courses to different online platforms, so that students could be able to continue with their studies while on quarantine. Synchronous and asynchronous courses were planned. Professors received extensive training in the use of Blackboard Collaborate, Collaborate Ultra, Zoom, Google Hangouts, and Google Meet so that they could connect with their students and continue with their course programs.

The efforts did not come without problems. Some professors who had never used the technology before had problems connecting and using different functions available. Students faced the problem of connectivity in their homes, and understanding the new rules of engagement in virtual settings took some time to be fully embraced. The university had to create new ways of supervising the professors who were working from their homes, creating numerous challenges.
The experience and opinions the participants will help demonstrate best practices and problem solving through the use of communication and information technologies in times of crisis.

Keywords:

Higher education, crisis, distance learning, pandemic, virtual learning.