A newly offered certification program at Zamorano supports the strengthening of our faculty’s competencies in the design, development, monitoring and evaluation of courses taught specifically online. To transform classroom courses into an online format, several training and technological tools are being used, in addition to a program of adapted teaching practices.
Faced with the challenges for sharing knowledge and the evolution of classroom learning to online teaching, Zamorano has adapted strategies and methodologies for teachers engaged in distance learning. Keeping with the university’s mission to be a leader in agricultural training for all Latin American and Caribbean youth, 100% of the faculty, including course teachers, laboratory assistants and instructors in the Learning by Doing program, have been certified to teach courses online.
According the Associate Dean’s Office for Academic Quality and Management at Zamorano, beginning in January 2021 all faculty members will have at their disposal a recording room with state of the art technology, It will support a new era of teaching with online teaching material for classes, laboratories, and Learning by Doing modules. This innovative system will strengthen the creation of multimedia content and materials to be used in support of online teaching. These supports to online teaching resources will help strengthen autonomous, critical and constructive learning, through didactically designed and continuously evaluated materials.
To improve Zamorano´s capacity for remote training processes, technological resources such as digital blackboards, state-of-the-art recording equipment, video software for the creation, editing and animation have been purchased. In addition, a “system to support faculty for teaching online” has been created. It includes permanent training in up-to-date technological topics and the integration of new digital tools to help support the teaching learning process.
The systems allow for the development of discussions around best practices and lessons learned for enhanced online teaching. It is also set-up to encourage the revision and alignment of classroom protocols following institutional guidelines for this new kind of training. And finally, it includes bulleted publishing, evaluation instruments and Quick Guides for the use of various platforms as didactic resources.
Zamorano never ceases making progress. It adapts to change using creative educational solutions and constant innovation!
