In July 2022, a focus group was held within the SNSPA on how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced teaching activity, respectively the quality of educational processes. This focus group was attended by teaching staff with varying levels of experience from all academic structures of SNSPA. The main results are presented below.
General aspects
This focus group sequence focused on aspects of the changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to teaching and student assessment practices, good practice, lessons learned, the formalization of good practice and methods at the institutional level and specific fears regarding the return to didactic activities in physical format in the new academic year, especially in terms of student expectations and behaviors.
The lack of a regulatory framework for online education was highlighted, which makes it difficult to develop appropriate strategies. Participants stressed that this is surprising given that many universities have serious online-only study programs.
All participants emphasized that online teaching brought advantages, and the SNSPA teaching staff made special efforts to constantly improve online teaching and assessment methods. Online teaching has in some situations allowed a higher presence of students and master’s students, especially those who work, as they can connect from various locations. In addition, professionals, experts, etc., whose physical presence is more difficult to ensure due to time restrictions, could also intervene online, which generated interesting debates, considering the practical experience that such participants brought. In this context, the idea of maintaining the alternative of online teaching for master’s students was supported.
However, as mentioned by the participants, it is difficult to establish the real impact of these efforts on students, and the effectiveness of the activities carried out should be evaluated. It was noted that, in terms of the discrepancy between the efforts made by the teaching staff and the impact on the students, the gap would have been much greater in the absence of these efforts, and it is necessary to take into account the unprecedented context that is the subject of the discussion.
Exchanges of experience and informal consultations among higher education professors were helpful, with all participants sharing that observations and reports were followed by the adaptation of teaching and assessment methods to the new educational environment. New methods of teaching (e.g., the use of interactive concept maps, the 5-minute essay, collaborative apps, etc.) and assessment (with increased frequency) were introduced, but a lack of dedicated platforms to support the effort was noted.
Regarding the challenges faced by the teaching staff, the following were highlighted: the lack of involvement of students, sometimes, in teaching activities and the need to find ways to make them responsible, not only from an administrative point of view but from the perspective of training for professional activity; the difficulty of interacting with some students when they kept their webcams closed and did not intervene in the discussion even after the nomination; capturing and keeping students’ attention for a longer period of time; violation of the rules of academic ethics (e.g., plagiarism, sharing answers through messaging groups, etc.).
Digital platforms and tools for teaching
The teaching staff participating in the discussions showed that they benefited from the support of the SNSPA management regarding the use of online platforms for organizing and conducting teaching activities, with training being organized at the beginning of each academic year. Regarding the platforms used, there were both advantages and disadvantages, but the main advantage was the provision of a common platform for communication with students and between teachers.
Among the platforms used, Moodle was mentioned (FSP, FAP, DRIIE), which was in use even before the pandemic, being accredited for distance education. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the management purchased additional space on the platform, drew up guides for teachers, to facilitate the adaptation process, and training was organized for the use of different platforms and digital tools. These efforts led to an early normalization of the situation as far as possible so that even online admission could be organized. Thus, an important decrease in the quality of the didactic act was avoided.
Other digital platforms and tools used for teaching purposes were Google Meet and Google Classroom (also used pre-pandemic, e.g., by FM). Tools were created to encourage students to participate in online courses by providing them with information and guidance. This worked at first, but not after switching to the use of Webex.
The positive effect of digital platforms in increasing participation (e.g. in chat) of shy students was noted. In addition, digital platforms allowed students to be divided into small working groups (2-3 people), giving everyone a chance to participate, and therefore the debate no longer being monopolized by some students. Although, in the context of the pandemic, the use of digital applications was a solution that allowed the creation of richer video content, the tradition of working with text should not be lost, as some teachers have observed.
Finally, the debate highlighted the need to evaluate the effects of new teaching methods and tools from the student’s perspective, as well as the possibility of comparative analysis, in order to reveal the positive and negative aspects of various policies and practices.
Well being
The last part of the discussion within the dedicated focus group had in mind the effects of the sudden adaptation process to the new way of carrying out didactic activities in the online environment on the effects of students’ well-being, in the context of the pandemic. Many teachers highlighted the challenges they faced in trying to provide psychological support to students, despite having no specialist training. It was emphasized that it is necessary to provide emotional support and assistance to students, including those who disclose psychological problems (e.g., addictions), and teachers must be role models, be open, and not judge students by the standards of other generations. The need to ensure students’ well-being has created additional pressure, especially of a psychological nature, on teachers as well.
Among the ways to provide psychological support to students were mentioned the following: the use of questionnaires to detect the state of mind of students, the problems they face, possible difficulties related to the teaching/learning process; and encouraging students to provide permanent feedback on teaching activities and to ask for assistance, including by email, when they consider it necessary or when they did not understand certain aspects, and this helped even the shyest ones.
Preliminary conclusions
The faculty of SNSPA mobilized and collaborated to find appropriate solutions to the difficulties encountered, which included the need to review and develop innovative teaching methods, acquire new skills and abilities, identify a new way of interacting and inter-relating with students, new tactics for ensuring their involvement and responsibility, and for combating violations of academic ethics norms, solving unprecedented psychological challenges. At the same time, the accelerated transition to exclusively online education revealed new strategic and tactical opportunities, the identification of new technical and human resources to improve the teaching process, including through the involvement of experts and entrepreneurs, the development of good practices in the use of digital technologies in the teaching process, and strengthening the organizational culture focused on collaboration, sharing experiences and communication, both within the structures, but also interdepartmentally.
Responsible for researching the quality of didactic processes: Dr. Elena Dinu
