Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic is a global challenge that requires a complete transformation - public, economic and social. Discussions about the future of the world after Covid-19 have focused on the need to rethink familiar patterns and practices.

The pandemic has changed all public spheres, including higher education. University education has faced new challenges and opened up new opportunities for students and teachers to stay connected virtually but physically separated. However, along with the difficulties, combating the effects of the corona virus has given us the opportunity to gain experience in dealing with a crisis. The experience gained in the last year in online teaching and learning has provoked a number of discussions on the possibilities for expanding the forms of work with students, as well as on the strategies for dealing with the changes that have occurred in academic life. The crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is generating a global need to work with technologies that enable communication, collaboration, education and scientific discourse while maintaining physical distance.

The purpose of the report is to examine the opportunities provided by the use of mixed reality in the education of students majoring in Cultural and Historical Heritage at the Faculty of Library Studies and Cultural Heritage of the University of Library Studies and Information Technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Restrictions imposed on universities due to COVID-19 exclude most conventional forms of education, assessment, research and scientific discourse and change academic activities. The emphasis is on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the forms of work in higher education in the training of specialists in cultural and historical heritage, whose training is extremely linked to field work, in memory institutions, etc.

Online learning has become the new norm in the last year, despite initial discomfort and denial. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many universities to undergo a significant transformation, rethinking key elements of their educational processes and the use of more ICT, while adhering to the needs of a changing society.

Keywords:

Covid-19, Pandemic, Challenges and opportunities, Mix reality, Bulgaria.