Nota previa
de Eduardo Rojo.
Comprenderán
fácilmente los lectoras y lectores del blog la especial, y doble satisfacción que
tengo al publicar esta entrada de un “invitado” especia, Juan Rojo Chacón; de una parte, pongamos
el lado académico en primer lugar, por la elevada calidad docente e
investigadora de quien lo publica, como queda fehacientemente acreditada en su
página web y en segundo lugar, porque estoy muy orgulloso
como padre. ¿más claro imposible, no les parece?
La reflexión
de Juan, hecha en clave preferente de la realidad universitaria de los Países
Bajos, pero totalmente extrapolable a la de todo los países afectados por la crisis
sanitaria y sus dramáticas consecuencias económicas y sociales, nos interpela
sobre la necesidad de construir un futuro universitario adaptado a los cambios
con los que ya nos estamos encontrando y, nos gusten o no, con los que nos
vamos a encontrar en los próximos meses y años. Su mirada optimista, no
simplemente “porque sí”, sino sustentada en un excelente conocimiento de la
realidad científica y social, nos anima a quienes pensamos que hay que seguir avanzando,
y aprendiendo cada día, para construir una sociedad mejor, y en esta la
Universidad, en mayúscula y sin mención a ninguna concreta en particular,
debe jugar un papel de primera importancia.
Lo dejo
aquí, no es el momento de explayarse, sino de dar paso al “invitado especial”.
Sólo he suprimido las fotos publicadas en el texto original publicado, del queadjunto el enlace.
Muy buena lectura
(y en su caso, muy buena lectura tras la traducción realizada y hecha posible
por los avances realizados en el campo de la inteligencia artificial).
“HigherEd in the anderhalvemetersamenleving era
On Wednesday the Dutch
government announced a further softening of the corona-prevention measures. From secondary
schools to cinemas, gym centers, cannabis cafes, and sex clubs, there is not a
more or less clear roadmap for their calendar towards reopening and trying to
recover part of their pre-corona activities. This said of course most the
safety measures remain in place, and will do so for the foreseeable future, at least
until a vaccine or an appropriate treatment for the virus is found and widely
distributed. Perhaps the most important of this measurements, which affects the
most how we can and we cannot resume some activities, is the obligation to keep
a safety distance of one and a half meters between people to prevent the
propagation of the virus. Clearly, such measure changes quite dramatically how
we can do things, and thus it makes sense to call the current situation the
“one-meter-and-a-half meters society”, or in the delightful way the Dutch have
to cluster long arrays into single words, the anderhalvemetersamenleving
era.
Now, what about universities?
Unfortunately, in the government’s plans there is little to none guidance about
what will happen with the Dutch higher education system in the next months, so
it is anyone’s guess. Right now, universities are essentially empty for a
couple months now, with all on-site educational activities and most if not all
of research work put on hold. Fortunately, despite the claims from some
politicians, higher education has adapted itself very efficiently to the
ongoing circumstances and moves swiftly to online lectures, tutorials, and
examinations. While not ideal, and certainly with hiccups here and there, my
evaluation would be that higher ed has successfully adjusted to the challenging
situated and kept offering high-quality education to their students. Likewise,
while on-site experiments are off the table now, research goes on since a fair
amount of scientific work can be done remotely (think data analysis, literature
studies, paper writing and so on). Juggling research and online education with
in many cases homeschooling small children or caring for relatives has been a
tour de force for many of us, but all in all the show has gone on with
relatively few disturbances.
The main question now is how
long this situation is going to last, and how higher education is going to look
like in the next months and years. The VSNU, the association of Dutch
Universities, has published its main strategy for the next months: On campus, if we can, Online,
because we can (nice and catchy slogan, by the way). What does it mean?
Well, the idea is that for the next months (to be more precise, until an
effective vaccine or cure against the virus is found and distributed) there is
no way one can go back to packed lecture rooms or crowded university areas.
Even if campuses were large enough to accommodate all students in suitable
lectures rooms where a safe distance can be kept, which is far from being the
case, the strain on public transport and other services might be excessive. So
for the being we forced to adopt a blended learning strategy, which is
some fancy jargon to denote the simple idea that some things will be done
online (think of lectures with large groups) and others will be done on campus
(small group tutorials or seminars, lab work and practica, fieldwork, and so
on). Several universities and faculties have already announced that until
February 2021 most educational activities will be online, and I foresee that
this trend will be generalised in the next weeks. Actually, this also means
that until a vaccine is found there will be no major changes and so this
blended/online strategy might become the new normal of the higher education
system (not only in The Netherlands of course, but also in most other
countries).
One advantage as compared to
the current situation is that now we have some more time to adapt our courses
and examination methods to the new anderhalvemetersamenleving times. We
are gaining experience with many (perhaps too many) online videoconference and
Learning Management System softwares, for example, and discovering various
useful features that facilitate online learning, from tutorial support with
breakout rooms to online quizzes and tests. Teaching online brings many challenges
but also a great deal of opportunities. If you want to take a look at an
example of an online lecture, check here and here for a guest lecture on Feynman diagrams in particle physics that I gave
some weeks ago at the UvA/VU bachelor program of physics and astronomy. It was
a fun experience and I found that one can keep a rather dynamical interaction
with the students: for example they can submit questions via the chat and then
I would answer and discuss them on the spot. This was fun and I also had the
feeling that students felt a bit more confident in sending written questions
via the chat as compared to what they would have done in a real lecture.
….
So these are definitely
interesting times for higher education, which might change it to its core in a
way that can have long-lasting consequences beyond the ongoing corona
emergency. Rethinking higher ed in the anderhalvemetersamenleving times
is much more than just recycling a traditional course into an online format: is
trying to make sure students experience the university life, the friendships
and the adventure of growing and learning together as adult; looking for people
that might be left out or that do not have the resources to follow effectively
an online education; keeping the sense of belonging of the university
community; and offering a clear perspective for the future. There is a lot of
work on our plate but also a unique opportunity to change and improve higher ed
for good. The `normal’ higher ed might never come back, so it could be up to us
to define what is the `new normal’!
Incidentally, these
challenging times might also be a good time to lobby for a healthy and
renovated higher education system that contributes to the national and international
wellbeing and prosperity for a generation. When one study after the other
confirm that investing in higher education, research, and innovation is one of
the most cost-effective ways that exist to ensure a good economic return,
crisis like the present one could also be used for political reasons for a
long-term crippling of the higher ed ecosystem. Despite having world-leading
universities and research institutions for a relatively modest cost, again and
again there are calls to further axe the system, even when multi-billion
bailouts and support loans are being offered to many companies. A working
document from a group of civil servants of the education ministry suggested a bunch of measures to reduce the cost for the government of higher education, from
eliminating the subsidies to master programs (ending up with a UK-like system
where a master program can cost up to eur20k or more) to reduce the number of
international students, as if foreign students came here to just profit from
the local generosity, when it is actually the opposite: the country badly needs
highly skilled professionals to boost its knowledge-based economy. So we need
to be on the lookout for attacks against higher education and research and
proclaim proudly that our contribution to the financial, intellectual, and
moral well-being of the country is essential even (or even better, specially)
during the ongoing crisis.
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