Opportunities And Challenges For Teachers In Biology Programs With Theoretical-Practical Subjects From Two Colombian Institutions Of Higher Education Under Pandemic Restrictions

Abstract

From beginning the COVID-19 pandemic, academic institutions worldwide were forced to close their campuses and adjust their teaching to a distance education model. One of such tasks of major difficulty was related to academic programs that involve fieldwork or lab practices, which cannot be adequately cover by using only computers, videos, or demonstrative actions. Despite these concerns some adjusts, or new alternative proposals were developed by the teachers, such as the use of new teaching sources, however those cannot be thought of without consideration of their learning implications on the modern students: digital natives, more participatory and wishing to strengthen their further practical skills. By using an at-home lab integrating computer, in vivo samples, digital camera, and remote tools and online platforms, we described the experiences of teaching-learning online during the current pandemic, at the Universidad de Ibagué and Universidad del Tolima in Ibagué, Colombia. After feedback we highlighted the opportunities and the main issues, concerns, and further challenges in both teachers and undergraduate students of biology programs for continuing under a hybrid teaching and learning during new normal age or post-pandemic in higher education without neglecting quality assurance.