Abstract:

At Institución Universitaria Colombo Americana -ÚNICA in Bogotá, Colombia there was a full institutional transformation due to the contingency generated by COVID19. A fully face-to-face program had to adopt a remote learning model practically overnight. The purpose of this paper is to share the lessons revealed by the pandemic in terms of modality, technology integration and pedagogical innovation. The project herein reported aimed at characterizing the digital mindsets and competencies of the professors at the institution, and analyze whether the professional development initiatives launched to respond to the needs of the community would have an impact on their perceptions regarding online teaching and digital technologies.

After 2 semesters in the remote teaching modality, the institution adopted the Synchronous Online Flipped Learning Approach (SOFLA) (Marshall & Rodriguez-Buitrago, 2017; Marshall and Kostka, 2020) as a pedagogical response to the methodological challenges evidenced by professors during the initial quarantine and the subsequent semester. The present paper explains SOFLA thoroughly, as well as the results of a case study characterizing the different digital mindsets and competencies held by professors at ÚNICA. Questionnaires, focus groups and in-situ observations were used to collect data about professors’ digital competencies, students’ responses towards the teacher training actions taken by ÚNICA, and, as of 2021, the implementation of SOFLA.

Preliminary results show that professors at ÚNICA evidence differences in the way they perceived the transition between face-to-face to remote teaching at the institution. Their initial digital mindsets held by professors played a key role in their ability to adapt to the new modality since they varied. For some of them, technology was still foreign, while for others, digital tools were already a part of their everyday exercise. Their perceptions of digital tools and pedagogies determined the degree to which they committed to their continuous improvement. The results of the first year of data collection revealed the need for additional training on digital pedagogy since professors needed further guidance to transform their online spaces into interactive, active, and open scenes for learning to occur. Thus, a result of this need is the implementation of SOFLA as of the first semester of 2021.

ÚNICA has evolved from a merely face-to-face institution to becoming one that embraced the use of technology by most of its members. During 2020, professors learned the use of digital tools thanks to the actions promoted in the institution. However, the need for a more thoughtful implementation of an online pedagogy was revealed after professors integrated technology abruptly and isolatedly in their courses. Thus, professional development also evolved at the institution urging professors to exert pedagogical innovation to accompany the use of technological tools in order to strengthen the synchronous space in their classes. Teaching in higher education, especially in pre-service teacher programs, raises challenges for professors since, as we propose in ÚNICA, they have to model good teaching for their students. However, the pandemic situation drove them to exemplify learning, adaptability and wellness, as well. Thus, this paper presents some of the lessons learned and the challenges faced at a teachers’ college in South America during the crisis generated by COVID-19.

Keywords:

Remote teaching, Flipped Learning, SOFLA, Teachers' college, Pre-service teachers, Professors.