UVic-UCC becomes a one hundred percent online university and transfers its entire academic activity to the Internet

Two weeks after moving to online teaching as a result of the suspension of face-to-face academic activities due to the coronavirus outbreak, classes on all bachelor's degree courses at the University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC) are continuing through a variety of digital resources and platforms, with the Virtual Campus at the core of relationships and contact between teachers and students. "We have many types of subjects, and profound and complex changes have taken place in some of them, and both teachers and students have been very accommodating in terms of adapting to the new situation," says Albert Juncà, Vice-Rector for Teaching Staff, whose assessment of the first fortnight is highly positive.

Juncà explains that "because it appeared likely that face-to-face classes would have to stop, the Rector's Office had already begun working to deal with the situation days before it happened," which is why on the same day that the suspension of face-to-face teaching was announced, "all the teaching staff had already received their initial instructions, which have continued to be sent on a constant basis through the deans' offices and heads of study." According to the Vice-Rector, crucial factors have been that "each course has considered the best adjustment for its particular case" and that the Information and Communication Technology Unit, Teaching Support Unit and the Office of the Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs (VOA) have "worked hard to meet the training needs of teachers quickly and precisely."

Juncà says that "the teaching staff's response to the new situation has been exemplary, and they are working to maintain the scheduled academic planning as much as possible." The Vice-Rector recalls that the main change that it has been necessary to address has been of a methodological nature (the transition from face-to-face to virtual teaching) and that "our teachers' high level of pedagogical training" has played a significant role in helping to make it possible. The format of some of the more practical activities has had to be changed, and some have had to be postponed until a later date. The lecturers in many subjects which depend on a physical environment such as laboratories, "have had to sharpen their wits, their creativity and their teaching expertise," he says.

In order to make the transition to online teaching as seamless as possible, a series of materials, resources and directions for teachers have been compiled in a guide, which according to the Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs, Cristina Vaqué, "contains good practices for creating online alternatives to face-to-face teaching activities." Regular teaching support sessions are also being organised for teaching staff, where doubts, alternatives, success stories and solutions are discussed.

Clearly defined resources for specific subjects

Apart from the virtual campus, teaching staff and students can use tools including Microsoft Teams and the platform Zoom to continue with their academic activities. In addition, each bachelor's degree course and each lecturer has adapted their contents in the way that they have considered most appropriate. For example, in the case of the bachelor's degree in Multimedia, the coordinator Raymond Lagonigro explains that "we are using cloud programming tools that enable students to write in various programming languages without installing applications and libraries, or having to set up development environments." According to Lagonigro, this working system "means that the teacher can see what the students are writing, and help them when they have problems, doubts or become stuck. They use resources like Sandbox, Stackblitz, codePen and GitHub.

Some lecturers, such as Gonzalo Flores who teaches Physical Education Teaching on the bachelor's degree course in Physical Education and Sports Sciences, use the application Edpuzzle, which allows them to add questions and activities to a video, which students have to answer and pass in order to continue viewing and complete the class or activity. This resource, combined with live classes via Zoom, "is dynamic and fun for the students, it means that the dates of the session can be flexible, and guarantees that the teacher has complete oversight over whether students complete the teaching material or not," says Flores.

In the Faculty of Business and Communication Studies (FEC) a team of teachers has created "UViConfinats" in Microsoft Teams, which they have used to link up since the beginning of the confinement, according to the coordinator of the bachelor's degree in Business Administration and Management, Carme Viladecans, in order to "learn to use the tool together to improve the teaching experience." In her case, she explains that she has transferred the ten hours a week she teaches to Teams. "Students have a positive view of this channel of contact, which in some way brings us closer to normality," she says. At the same time, she has adapted exercises and activities to enhance students' autonomy when doing them at home.

Other lecturers, such as Emma Hitchen, who teaches various English subjects at the FEC, have enhanced resources that they were already using in the normal classroom environment, such as Kahoot for doing grammar quizzes, tasks on Moodle and Quizlet to revise vocabulary. She has also introduced reading, visualisation and discussion topics focusing on the coronavirus health emergency in the classroom, and she has transferred oral presentations by her students onto Zoom. At the Language School, where she also teaches, classes are running as normal via Zoom, through the digital book and with conversation groups using Breakout Rooms.

Connected students

The students' response to the new context has also been positive, says Juncà, who points out that "many were already familiar with the virtual environment and its dynamics." The Vice-Rector explains that the attendance and participation in classes is high, and the response to the forums and activities available has been massive in most subjects. "We have found that the activity and connectivity of students in virtual classrooms has shot up," he adds. More than 7,000 messages and an average of 300 video calls a day have been recorded in the Microsoft Teams collaborative tool, which teachers and students use for tutorials, among other purposes. On the Virtual Campus, "traffic has increased significantly because although the same number of people access it, they remain connected for much longer than usual, because they're working in virtual classrooms instead of physical ones," says Joan Busquiel, director of the ICT Area.

In this context, the third-year students on the Medicine degree course, whose entire teaching activity has been transferred to Zoom since the first day of the confinement, have sent a letter of thanks to the teaching staff of the Nephrology and Urology subject, which they are currently studying. "They are hard at work every day fighting for their patients' health at a very difficult time, and despite everything they are ready for us every afternoon, with all the material prepared, extremely professional and motivated, and they convey that attitude to us day after day," say the students.

"Adapting teaching from one day to the next without knowing how long the situation will last is a problem for everyone and is an extra workload," acknowledges the Vice-Rector for Teaching Staff, who says that many teachers have to cope with this challenge while taking care of children or elderly relatives. However, says Juncà, the tangible feeling is that it is also gratifying to see "how we have been able to adapt most of the subjects to the virtual format in record time." According to the Vice-Rector, this unexpected leap into virtual teaching that the University has been forced to make "has helped us overcome some of our fears and clearly shown us how virtual teaching resources can be a very good complement to face-to-face teaching for the future."