Abstract:

The restriction to access face-to-face instruction during the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak challenges higher education institutions, especially those with traditional teaching approaches as they have to move on with the incorporation of Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) and Learning. The challenge involves empowering teaching faculty through training in the management of digital tools, the adaptation of instructional designs, and the delivery of classes in a virtual context. This qualitative case study aims to explore the teachers’ training experience built up in the Center of Educational Research and Services (CISE, acronyms in Spanish) of a Latin American public university. The study results in a description of a strategy called #CiseTeAcompaña (#Cise accompanies you, [translation ours]) developed to train the university teaching faculty with the employment of a diverse portfolio of digital and training resources. The design of those resources followed the application of a combined model which consisted of elements of Design Thinking and the ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation) models. As the training employed Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) and Learning itself, a retrospective analysis of this experience was conducted with the observation of one of the components of the CIPP (Content, Input, Process, and Product) evaluation model. After the analysis of the products elaborated for teacher training in this public university from March 2020 to August 2021, it can be said that 60% of the teaching faculty was outreached with positive comments among the users. Furthermore, this strategy evolved to a postgraduate certificate program on e-learning which became a central part of the adjusted educational model of this university. A description of the components of this strategy is presented with some recommendations for their application in virtual teaching training.

Keywords:

Higher education, teacher training, Covid19 pandemic and education, emergency remote teaching, teaching in Latin America.