The Faculty of Economics of the Universitat de València has adapted its in-site teaching to continue training students at a distance during the State of Emergency and all subjects are now operational.
From the past Monday 23 March, the Faculty of Economics of the Universitat de València began to provide online teaching, thus adapting to the current circumstances arising from the COVID-19 crisis. In this sense, almost 8,000 students and more than 400 Professors will be connected virtually throughout the upcoming weeks.
This setback is an opportunity and a challenge for the teaching staff and the student body to incorporate into their teaching the various tools linked to ICTs that the Universitat de València, led by its Principal's team and with the full support of deans and directors, has made available to the entire university community. The aim is for students to continue to receive classes without losing any quality, in a public university committed to accompanying students in their academic training, now online.
The adaptation process has taken place in record time, as it should be remembered that barely a week has passed since the Spanish Government established the State of Emergency. During the entire holiday period corresponding to the Fallas days, the teaching staff has been working hard in this direction. As an example, on March 19, in Sant Josep, there were 180 Professors connected to an online tutorial on the virtual platform Blackboard Collaborate, which makes it possible to offer live videoconferences to a large number of attendees, who can interact with the moderator through a chat, intervening with their microphone and camera, or showing their satisfaction or displeasure with simple emoticons, thanks to which the Professor perceives the human warmth behind the screen.
On Monday, a quick query identified that about half of the classes had been taught live via this video conferencing system. Andrés Alfonso, after his Financial Accounting class of the Degree in Economy, said “I have been thanked by more than 50 students for the chat, and the feeling has been to optimise time and agility in communication. Market Research Professor Antonio Carlos Cuenca was even more enthusiastic about the ability to interact with his Double Degree in Law and Business and Management Administration students. “I have spoken more with the students than when I have them in front of me,” he said. In the subject of Corporate Strategies, for the Degree in Business and Management Administration, Professor Joan Ramón Sanchís particularly valued the opportunity provided by the chat, which allows students to ask questions during the presentation, so that he can adapt it according to what he reads that most concerns them. The Consumer Behaviour students, encouraged by their Professor Víctor Martínez, also interacted basically through the chat, as they were more embarrassed by the micro or, as the Cultural Heritage students from the Double Degree in Tourism and Business and Management Administration expressed, they did not want to connect their webcams “because they were not presentable”.
This online class format can be used for almost any subject. For example, for the Statistics class in the Finance and Accounting degree, the Professor has connected a kind of whiteboard, Microsoft Whiteboard, which allows it to be installed on a Tablet/iPad where it is synchronised in real time with a digital pen and the students can see how it develops the formulas on their screens from home. José Vila, in his Microeconomics class of the Double Degree in Tourism and Business Management and Administration, has resorted to using a surface with a touch screen and pen that has very good functionalities for writing, drawing and introducing mathematical expressions from text, which he says has been even more comfortable and clearer than the conventional blackboard.
It wasn't all video conferencing. Many Professors have also resorted to voicing slide presentations that, under normal circumstances, they would explain verbally in their classes. Others have chosen to redesign their support materials to facilitate autonomous learning and have completed the offer with the use of chats or forums on the teaching platform used by the Universitat de València, the Virtual Classroom, which has occasionally been saturated and has led to some moments of despair. Precisely this has been the most repeated complaint, since the increase in traffic has been significant, as has also been seen by primary and secondary students with the platforms enabled by the Spanish Ministry of Education.
The truth is that it is difficult to adapt from face-to-face teaching to virtual teaching overnight. It is necessary to overcome disadvantages derived not only from the technical conditions of the platforms' capacity or connection speeds, but also from other more mundane issues, such as assuming that all students have a computer at home. Although today's mobile phones allow access to videos, enter videoconferencing rooms or download materials, it is no less true that, in order to perform tasks and send them online, it is preferable to work with a computer. For this reason, the Faculty of Economics has offered students who need to borrow a laptop during the non-attendance teaching period, a service that 11 people who picked up the computers yesterday (Tuesday) have opted for.
In the end, the important thing is the commitment of Professors and students of the Faculty of Economics of the Universitat de València to continue learning. As one professor of Economic History explains, who has resorted to completing his study materials, without entering into other more sophisticated technological developments, “my option is the same as the one Keynes would have adopted: reduce uncertainty and you will make a good investment. The new tools can be useful, but the value does not only depend on marginal utility, but also on the scarcity of resources, and this is something that no economist should forget in situations like the one we are experiencing”. Let us adapt, then, and make the most of every minute, because this will pass, and in the end, we will have to come out of this crisis wiser and stronger.
