Abstract
The declaration of the sanitary emergency of COVID-19 changed the way that multiple sectors operate. In education, in addition to taking care of the health and safety of the community, continuity and academic quality of programs must be ensured. This transition gave rise to a new digital educational model to offer a quality distance university experience. The objective of this chapter is to present a framework to assess the quality of a digital educational model, and to present the findings of an implementation of this model that resulted from the transformation of a medical program amid the health emergency of COVID-19.
TopIntroduction
Technology and digital tools have been incorporated into higher education because of the potential benefits in the teaching-learning process, as well as in the scalability and sustainability that these strategies provide for the transformation of the university experience (López, Hernández-Rangel, Mejia and Fuentes, 2017). Offering content and an educational curriculum at a distance has been gaining acceptance in the community of teachers, and in students, by enabling flexibility through an innovative format for training (Cabero, Llorente and Puentes, 2010). This leads to the need to transform teaching and learning practices in order to trigger transformative educational experiences, where technology and infrastructure are means for collaboration and the generation of networks (Suárez and Najar, 2014).
The declaration of the health emergency of COVID-19 disrupted different productive and industrial sectors (Government of Mexico, 2020), education being one of the most impacted, because in addition to taking care of the health and integrity of the members of the community, it should ensure continuity and academic quality (Valdez-García, López, Jiménez, Díaz, Dávila and Olivares, 2020). Although some universities that routinely carry out innovation already had experience about pilot implementations of educational projects that they could take advantage of, the emergency generated confusion in the different actors of the educational community (López and Valdez, 2019). Teachers had to migrate content and its practice to a new environment, and do it under a record time that involved an intensive training process. The academic support team had to design and execute an action plan to enable resources, licenses and support to provide an experience that was comparable to the one that was carried out face-to-face. Students concerned with their professional development, had to learn to better manage their study time and rhythm, use new virtual tools and convert their homes into classrooms (Camacho, Gómez and Pintor, 2015).
The objective of this chapter is to present a framework to assess the quality of a digital educational model, and to present the findings of an implementation of this model that resulted from the transformation towards a remote format during the health emergency of COVID-19.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Educational Innovation: The application of significant changes and practices in the educational context applied to improve the teaching-learning process.
Patient-Centered Learning: Educational principle that guides medical and health science education putting the patients’ interest and dignity before the learners training. It organizes the curriculum and contents to consider the patient as a whole and not as separated pieces that can be taught chronologically and then integrated upon graduation.
Tecnologico de Monterrey: A private not-for-profit educational institution located in Mexico. It was stablished in 1943 by initiative of Eugenio Garza Sada. Educational innovation is one of its differentiators.
Escuela de Medicina y Ciencias de la Salud: School of Medicine and Health Science from Tecnologico de Monterrey. It was established in 1978 by the donation of the Hospital San José (HSJ) by the philanthropist Ignacio A. Santos.
Digital Education Model: Educational model proposed by Tecnologico de Monterrey as a response for the COVID-19 pandemic. It is characterized by the application of online learning and educational strategies to complement learning.
Online Learning: Educational solution that integrates different pedagogical approaches than face-to-face teaching. It allows the massification of education in a low-cost alternative to distribute contents and promote asynchronous interaction between the academic community.
Distance Education: Any method of educating the learner when there is a physical separation from the teacher.