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Faculty training through crowdlearning for emerging online education

Abstract:

This paper reports a training process undertaken by teachers from the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (Salesian Polytechnic University) in Guayaquil. The process was carried out between the months of March and April 2020 using crowdlearning as a teacher training innovative initiative to face the challenge of online university education as a measure proposed by the Ecuadorian Government to tackle the health crisis caused by COVID-19. This crowdlearning proposal convened, trained and motivated faculty to face the health emergency in the academic period that was about to begin (May-September 2020). This initiative, which originated from a group of professors, summoned (voluntarily) the entire academic team from the Guayaquil campus to be part of a virtual space for the exchange of knowledge on the use of technologies for virtual education. A training experience based on virtual conferences was developed applying multiple teaching tools, exploring innovative strategies for online education, and training the academics in the use of digital tools to enhance the teaching-learning process. Beside the meaningful and effective learning on the use of online and virtual teaching-learning strategies, resources and tools, it was possible to help the teachers mitigate the negative effects of isolation such as apprehension, fear, anxiety about the unknown and uncertainty, according to what the participants stated.