Impact of the non-face-to-face
methodology, as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the teaching
mediation process of higher private education in Costa Rica
Ph.D.
Erika Barrantes Zúñiga
Facultad de Educación
Universidad Hispanoamericana
MSc.
Julio César Castro Miranda
Facultad de Educación
Universidad
Hispanoamericana
ABSTRACT
This article shows the results obtained from the research project during
the period from June 14 to August 10, 2020, which aims to show the findings of
the methodology of the teaching mediation in digital platforms, as a result of
the national health emergency, and worldwide, experienced as a result of the
pandemic of COVID-19 embodied in the emergency executive decree 42227-MP-S, and
based on the official letter issued by the National Authorities, all this in
the Republic of Costa Rica.
Keywords:
research project; teaching mediation; digital platforms.
Impacto de la metodología no presencial, como
consecuencia de la pandemia COVID-19, en el proceso de mediación docente de la
educación superior privada en Costa Rica
RESUMEN
El presente artículo muestra
los resultados obtenidos de un proyecto investigativo realizado durante el
periodo del 14 de junio al 10 de agosto del 2020 en el contexto de la educación
superior privada, en la que se pretende mostrar los hallazgos de la metodología
de mediación docente en plataformas digitales, esto como consecuencia de la
emergencia sanitaria nacional, y del urbi, vivida a raíz de la pandemia del
COVID-19 plasmada en el decreto ejecutivo de emergencia 42227-MP-S, y con base
en el documento oficial emitido por las autoridades oficiales, todo esto en la
Republica de Costa Rica.
Palabras
clave: proyecto
investigativo; mediación docente; plataformas digitales.
Artículo
recibido: 10. Junio. 2021
Aceptado para publicación: 16. Julio. 2021
Correspondencia: [email protected]
Conflictos de Interés: Ninguna que declarar
1. INTRODUCTION
Since
March 16, 2020, all the higher educational centers in Costa Rica have been
obliged to migrate the face-to-face classes of most of its academic offerings
to an alternative methodology such as distance learning through technological
platforms. The basis of the decision lies in the emergency not only worldwide,
but also nationally, in relation to the SARS-COV2 virus pandemic.
As
a result of the emergency declaration issued by the Presidency of the Republic
of Costa Rica, in which the decree 42227-MP-S obliged the entire public and
private state apparatus whose purpose is the production of goods and services,
to make the necessary adjustments so that their activity would not be stopped.
Higher
education institutions were requested to make their respective premises to turn
their operation to the non-presential nature in the dictation of lessons. An
official document was issued that enabled the universities to make the
pertinent adjustments, so that the entire academic offer could be carried out through
virtualization and non-presence at the time of receiving and dictating lessons.
As
it is stated above, the official document provided the universities with the
pertinent guidelines so that its students could continue to receive their
respective lessons in the different campuses nationwide.
The
maximization of quality and continuous improvement are foundations of high
value and importance for the universities, in their slogans of impacting their
students in the short, medium, and long term, helping the educational processes
to be significant in the hands of professors of high professional practice.
2. BACKGROUND OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN
COSTA RICA
The different
systems of higher education in Costa Rica, have had to overcome major events of
the past, such as the rapid exponential growth in student enrollment, as well
as the great economic crises of the eighties and early nineties. It was these
events that prompted the different governments of Latin American nations to
create measures aimed at generating study opportunities for their citizens,
through the creation of private universities, whose supreme purpose is to
provide these opportunities for academic preparation with the aim of providing
their students with cutting-edge tools to face the demanding labor markets that
exist today.
In the 1970s,
higher education underwent an accelerated expansion due to the rapid population
growth of the 1950s in Costa Rica. As it can be seen in Table #1, the
exponential growth of enrollment marked the planning route in the creation of
study opportunities for the citizenry, as shown in the following table:
Chart #1: University enrollment in
Costa Rica, 1985-2004
|
Type of
universities and total number of students |
1 985 |
1990 |
2000 |
2004 |
|
58393 |
67132 |
133755 |
162925 |
|
|
Public |
50033 |
54999 |
61654 |
75974 |
|
Private |
8360 |
12133 |
72101 |
86951 |
Source: Own
elaboration based upon Fernández & Fernández (2007)
In the period
shown above, it is evident that public and private universities in Costa Rica
attended a large number of students whose desires to prepare themselves for the
work environment, and who were encouraged on a large scale to take higher
education studies according to the opportunities and interest to become
professionals. The above-mentioned growth gives the idea that Costa Rica has
diversified its offer of higher education institutions compared to the fifties,
in which there was only one public higher education institution, and that in
the nineties, it was greatly increased with the appearance of private
universities, providing a range of opportunities for students to choose their
higher education institution considering socioeconomic and geographic
conditions.
As it is shown in
the following table, private universities have had an accelerated and
exponential growth since the 1980s, compared to public universities, whose
growth stagnated in relation to private universities. One of the main reasons
why these educational institutions have grown so much is that students are
looking for a quick insertion in higher education. One of the main reasons of
the students when making the decision to enter a private university lies in the
speed of entry, the little bureaucracy to become a university student, and to
enhance their job opportunities more quickly by being able to obtain the degree
that certifies them as a professional in the educational branch they choose to
be part of.
Chart #2: Evolution of Universities
in Costa Rica, 1985-2004
|
Evolution of universities
in Costa Rica |
1 985 |
1990 |
1995 |
2000 |
2003 |
|
Public |
4 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
|
Private |
2 |
8 |
24 |
49 |
50 |
Source: Own
elaboration based upon Fernández & Fernández (2007)
Fernández and
Fernández (2007) refer to the antiquity of higher education in Costa Rica,
stating that:
The
history of higher education in Costa Rica is relatively recent, approximately
65 years old. The University of Costa Rica (UCR), created in 1940, assumed sole
responsibility for university education until the appearance in the 1970s of
three public universities that would meet the need for places to respond to the
growth in demand. (p. 7)
Fernández and
Fernández (2007) clearly highlight the three stages in which higher education
in Costa Rica had its boom and its foundation up to what it is today,
indicating that between the seventies and eighties, Costa Rica's public
universities were catapulted. On the other hand, the economic crisis of the
eighties and nineties that had submerged the Costa Rican nation in a
disadvantage of educational and social growth, compared to other nations of the
Central American isthmus; propitiated the interest of the leaders and founders
of private universities, to undertake in a niche market little explored and
exploited, which allowed the growth of private universities, whose vision was
materialized with the Official Authorities to provide the citizens with excellent
institutions of higher private education.
Since the
creation of such visionary institutions, the universities have raised the flag
of quality to catapult the academic integrity in the formation of their
students, with the clear slogan of providing them with competitive,
differentiating, and comprehensive tools in relation to other institutions
nationwide. As stated above, some private universities become active members of
an institution of higher education accreditation, whose purpose is to accredit
careers to provide them with a seal of quality that certifies that the careers
meet international standards. Under this seal, many universities have an
important high percent of their careers accredited, which provide a guarantee
to students that the training they receive in their academic classrooms is avant-garde
and of the highest quality in order to obtain integral skills when obtaining a
job derived from the career studied.
3. CHALLENGES AND ADJUSTMENTS OF DURING-PANDEMIC IN THE TRAINING OF
FUTURE PROFESSIONALS AT PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES
The global pandemic
caused by COVID-19 has severely impacted all areas of human endeavor.
Particularly in the field of education, as cited by CEPAL (2020), "[...] this
emergency has led to the massive closure of face-to-face activities of
educational institutions in more than 190 countries in order to prevent the
spread of the virus and mitigate its impact. This quote frames the hard
decisions that the universities authorities had to take from the moment the
sanitary alert was issued in Costa Rica by the government of the Republic.
In the field of
education, Costa Rica has had to make major paradigm shifts, making
methodological adjustments in teaching mediation, incorporating technology as
an ally to reach all students, changing university classrooms, and establishing
the most unimaginable places as classrooms to receive the training offered by universities
and their professors. CEPAL (2020) stares that:
A
large part of the measures that countries in the region have adopted in the
face of the crisis are related to the suspension of face-to-face classes at all
levels, which has given rise to three main fields of action: the deployment of
distance learning modalities, through the use of a diversity of formats and
platforms (with or without the use of technology); the support and mobilization
of educational personnel and communities; and attention to the health and
integral wellbeing of students. (p.1)
Based on what is
mentioned by CEPAL (2020), the universities adjust its academic and
administrative operation based on the governing body of private universities in
Costa Rica. The aforementioned institution issued an official document, which
details all the adjustments that must be considered to turn the academic
operation towards alternative means of face-to-face classes.
The enormous
challenge and the pragmatic adjustments had to be made abruptly, changing the
face-to-face classrooms to the migration to the platforms authorized by the
universities authorities: Microsoft Teams and Moodle. Both platforms
strengthened the continuity of the academic operation, where the synchrony and
asynchrony of classes could be carried out on these platforms. The use of the
Microsoft platform brought a great number of advantages that González (2020)
highlights:
Microsoft
Teams is a tool that is designed for collaboration and working together. It
allows students and teachers to have virtual meetings, up-to-the-minute
conversations, chats, file sharing, virtual whiteboards, and it also allows
online document co-authoring and can be easily and simply integrated with
hundreds of applications.
Furthermore,
Gonzalez (2020) also adds that "[...] Moodle, an educational content
management platform, which together with Teams, provided the opportunity to
create a perfect simulation of face-to-face classes, but from their electronic
devices. The tripartite relationship between the document issued by the
governmental institution and the one mentioned by González (2020) provided the
universities with the necessary tools to provide continuity of the academic operation,
no matter how aggressive the Coronavirus virus was. This structural adjustment
was carried out by all the different administrative departments, whose efforts
provided the professors with the necessary tools to be able to give lessons
even in unfamiliar environments for both students and professors.
With the
invention of the Internet, the educational paradigm has opened up to new forms
of knowledge that transcend geographical boundaries, in order to reach more
people no matter where they are. In the knowledge society, virtual education
has acquired a leading role due to its high flexibility of coverage within
student populations. In the educational aspect, the Internet has brought with
countless benefits by implementing constructivist and collaborative strategies
and the potentiation of soft skills such as research, autonomy, among others,
through qualitative activities such as virtual forums, e-mails, chats, among
others.
These activities highlight the
role of teachers as transformers, since they are professionals who are more
immersed in the learning process of students and, therefore, more assertive,
and cooperative professionals in relation to students and their commitment to
acquire relevant knowledge for their professional development. FTP (n/d)
mentions that:
The
objective of learning in educational environments is for students to acquire
and develop knowledge, skills, abilities, and aptitudes that they must use
daily as an exercise in educational centers. Consequently, learning
environments are generated by applying new educational technologies that
contribute to the access and process of teaching in various disciplines,
approaches and practices, with the purpose of stimulating meaningful learning
in students. (p.10)
Based on
what is mentioned by FTP (n/d), learning in education has the purpose of
generating favorable environments for students and their acquisition of
knowledge, abilities, skills, among others, so that they can be transferred to
the real world at the right time when they are working as workers. In addition
to the above, educational institutions must be clear and take steps to ensure
that these learning environments are the timely response to fortuitous
situations such as the pandemic, and are based on the following diagram:
Source: Own
elaboration based on FTP (n/d), p.11
Based
on the above diagram, the E-learning implemented at the universities has
generated a positive impact on the knowledge society of the students of the
different careers that are taught in the different faculties, developing a
historical milestone in different careers in the Faculties of Education. It is
in virtual education that the universities saw a great opportunity to continue
teaching lessons even when facing with such a complex situation as the Coronavirus
pandemic. This methodology responds to the needs of the environment and
empowers the universities to continue reaching every student corner where there
is a student studying.
In
line with this virtual experience, a large part of the higher education
institutions and their constant self-evaluation, carried out different
consultations with the student body during 2020, with the aim of evaluating the
perception of the student population and the classes received during this year,
in order to seek continuous improvement, to provide the continuity of the
educational process with its high quality standards and to be able to culminate
the on-site processes that had begun before the pandemic, always with the
intention of making the corresponding contributions in terms of providing
follow-up to the educational and curricular policies that clearly aim to
develop the skills that the population demands with the slogan that the centers
of study become transforming axes of quality in the country.
All the ideas that can be brought together will always be
valuable as long as the objective is to allow academic progress in the training
of students and future professionals, all those who are involved and committed
to education and in this case with Costa Rican education have seen the need to
create spaces for discussion, forums that have allowed to know international
experiences, so that by articulating ideas can be built and under the guidance
of the different experiences to realize a line that allows according to the
different contexts to move forward, In addition to leaving in this experience
an example for future generations where they can analyze that under a situation
as difficult as the one lived by this pandemic, it was achieved in a positive
and collaborative way, with an immediate response action the continuity of the
processes, clearly many adjustments must be made in terms of teacher training
to meet the distance contact of students and make profound revisions in the
changes that must be generated at the level of evaluation and that possibly
this will be one of the great challenges to make the forms of academic
evaluation more flexible both nationally and in the macro evaluation for the revision
of international standards that are undoubtedly necessary.
It is important to recognize each
one of the mediation processes where academic life must be carried out for the
construction of knowledge, to grow and guide the process that will allow us to
get out of this crisis and global emergency in relation to education. Possibly
many are trying to cope with other issues of public interest such as health and
the economy of the countries, but it is up to the academy to bring forward this
reality that requires all the attention and effort of the different disciplines
to drive the educational transformation that is far beyond a curricular
transformation, It has to do with a transformation in many directions,
including the awareness of government authorities to focus their action on the
changes needed in the structure of educational attention, immediate connectivity
in all populations but undoubtedly with greater attention to remote and
underprivileged populations so that all students have access to combined
distance attention. No es
posible tener que detener procesos por la incapacidad de accionar
interdisciplinariamente, la investigación nos debe mover a reflejar con números
las necesidades de cada contexto para tomar decisiones justas para cada
población y no generalizar de manera subjetiva sin sustento
indagatorio de la realidad de cada comunidad donde se desarrolle la educación.
Based
on what is mentioned by Chen (2006) cited by Sampieri et al. (2018), a mixed
research approach is proposed to obtain the above mentioned in relation to the
reality of each community by mentioning that:
(...)
the systematic integration of quantitative and qualitative methods in a single
study in order to obtain a more complete "picture" of the phenomenon,
and points out that they can be combined in such a way that the quantitative
and qualitative approaches retain their original structures and procedures
("pure form of mixed methods"); or that these methods can be adapted,
altered or synthesized to carry out the research and deal with the costs of the
study ("modified form of mixed methods") (p.534).
This statement by
Chen (2006) quoted by Sampieri et al. (2018) allows to collect the feelings of
the general population when making an objective x-ray of the reality lived by
each community or context.
It is necessary to create spaces for discussion so
that the authorities, under the criteria of experts, can have a light to guide
the actions to be considered in the following months in order to meet the needs
of the world population that demands international connectivity to interact
with multiple cultures and scenarios.
4. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
Therefore,
once this analysis has been carried out, it is concluded that virtuality does
not replace face-to-face attendance one hundred percent, especially in higher
education generations, where anthropology plays a preponderant role in human
relations and contact. In addition, between the study period of 2020, the
positive perception of the non-face-to-face methodology by the student body
increases considerably as a consequence of one of the actions that the
population has been waiting for a long time, the higher education institutions
activated their resources and have put them at the service of the population to
provide many students with their first distance experience with methodological
adaptations that did not cut the healthy progress of the teaching-learning
processes that the student body received before the pandemic.
In
addition, it is pertinent to give continuity to this methodology adopted by the
University communities in the face of the health emergency situation during the
time that the pandemic lasts, and in the face of a similar potential situation
that makes the continuity of face-to-face attendance impossible. The volatile
and convulsive knowledge society and the fourth industrial revolution are based
on the awakening of an action and implementation of flexible methodologies,
focused on the student, without neglecting the educational quality dictated by
the regulatory bodies, to make the student body integrally formed and trained
to meet the demands of globalization.
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