Abstract:

In March 2020, with the explosion of the COVID-19 pandemic, the university system had to overcome an unexpected huge challenge: the digital transformation of the learning-teaching process. In that situation of social restrictions, the information technologies (IT) acquired a fundamental role and became a basic tool to continue with the teaching system at the university. In a short period of time, the classical face-to-face teaching model was replaced by a new methodological approach based on a digital world. With the control of the pandemic, the students came back to the classes, first in small groups, that grew until reaching the current situation, in which we have recovered the classical teaching scenario designed before pandemic. However, although the digital transformation has been considered a revolutionary methodology, poorly explored in the past, we wondered about the opinion of the teaching staff when comparing digital and classical teaching system at the university. To answer this and other questions, we have carried out a pilot study with professors of the Degree in Pharmacy at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, who have experienced the evolution of the teaching system from a virtual situation to the classical face-to-face model, with an intermediate period of teaching in reduced groups.In this study we have designed a survey with 20 closed questions to evaluate the impression and opinion of the teaching staff along 3 academic years (from 2019 to 2022), where 3 different teaching systems were applied, in order to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of each educational situation. We discovered that most of professors agree with virtual teaching for theorical lessons, but they do not recommend for laboratory practices or assessment of skills. Professors considered that on-line teaching impacts negatively in the academic development of the students. However, surprisingly, virtual communication was positively valued for periodical meeting between teaching staff and students. In conclusion, the study reveals that the traditional face-to-face teaching model is the most appropriate for an experimental degree as the degree in Pharmacy, although virtual communication is well accepted to evaluate the progresses of the students along the courses.

Keywords:

COVID-19 pandemic, digital transformation, small groups of students, university.