This 27th of August the executive directyor of the Institute for University Management and Leadership (IGLU-IOHE). Dr. Leticia Jiménez González, was presented at the cycle of talks “Digital transformation in post-pandemic higher education: challenges for the public university”, organized by the Pedagogical Table and the Distance Learning Area of the University.

The PhD in Philosophy and Education Administration from the University of Montreal, Canada, gave the presentation “Virtual learning environments, challenges and opportunities in the transformation of higher education”.

The Academic Director of the Santiago Campus of the University and responsible of moderating the conversatory, Dr. Daniella Gac Jiménez, recalled that the emphasis of the cycle, in this context of pandemic, “is not only to install the experiences we have had from teaching in the delivery of virtual content, but rather in how the development of a consolidated virtual learning environment can be projected, articulated and shared by the University”.

Therefore, she reassured, this kind of activities change “in a supply of big importance for the strategic proyect of Distance Education ofPEDI 20130“.

Also, the Dr. Gac mantained that the invitation to Dr. Jiménez is part of an articulated work that the University has with theInter-American Organization (IOHE) entity that is presided by the Rector Oscar Garrido– “and specifically with the Institute for University Management and Leadership, where Leticia is executive director and has been a referent with a respect to the work of virtual environments by the directives of the Universidad de Los Lagos”, she said.

Regarding the talk, the CEDER researcher, stressed that Dr. Jiménez delivered “A strategic view on how we have to develop the virtual education and how we have to incorporate the technology to the learning processes. And how this also has dimensions that exceed the approach of knowledge transfer of teachers to students becasue it considers the emotional and collaborative aspects that have to exist in the development of virtual initiatives of distant education content”.

“Lastly, she gave us guidelines about how to consider ourselves as teachers against this challenges, that is a big question to find answers and strategists to face this process and also it allows us to provide better quality teaching and adjust it to the needs of our students” said the Dr. Gac.

Lecture

In her presentation, Dr. Leticia Jiménez argued that it has been reached a point of “saturation of reflection” about what is happening in the higher education “From this unfortunate event that we have had globally and I think we return to the same point where we have been for a long time and that is to change.“

However, she clarified that it is difficult to change something “when I have not taken into account the one who is implicit in the change and mainly when I have not told him what is going to happen, where we want to go or where that new route is going to take us.”

She adds that with this pandemic ““We realized that unfortunately the education sector was not prepared neither in terms of infrastructure nor in terms of training nor in terms of awareness of the importance of the transition from face-to-face education to virtual education.”

In this context, Dr. Jimenez precised that to analyze the transition from face-to-face education to virtual education, three factors must be considered: the challenges that the institution or university must face as such, the challenges that students are facing and the challenges that teachers are facing.

Among the institutional challenges, the integration of a strategic initiative, financing, innovation, curriculum development and personnel development stood out.

Along with this, he warned that the transition requires actions sequenced in phases, such as investment in infrastructure, teacher training, curriculum development, interconnection, in addition to guaranteeing connectivity.

Acording to the challenges that the students are facing, she emphazises that “They must be integrated to innovation, we need to develop skills and develop social-emotional habilities”.

Similarly, she stressed the major challenges related to the virtuality are minimize the learning deficit, decrease the inequity, keep the interest and guarantee the quality and integrity of the evaluation.

Regarding the challenges that teachers have, she notes the digital literacy, the application of innovation, the development of social-emotional skills and habilities

“The teachers are the force that move universities, we are one of the most important pilars that support the university and at the end of the chain are the responsibles of the product that comes out to society (…) and the best we can do is be better to give better things”. she said.

Finally, she thought “technology is here to stay thanks to the pandemic and definitely the best way to predict the future, is creating it”.

The presentation of Dr. Leticia Jiménez can be checked here