2026-04-29T18:47:06Zhttps://riubu.ubu.es/oai/request

oai:riubu.ubu.es:10259/80152023-11-16T01:05:16Zcom_10259_6171com_10259_5086com_10259_2604col_10259_6172

Teaching lessons learnt by civil-engineering teachers from the COVID-19 pandemic at the University of Burgos, Spain Revilla Cuesta, Víctor Skaf Revenga, Marta Espinosa González, Ana Belén Ortega López, Vanesa Ingeniería civil Enseñanza superior Universidad de Burgos Civil engineering Education, Higher The COVID-19 lockdown in Spain caused abrupt changes for students following the Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Burgos when face-to-face classes switched to online teaching. The recovery of face-to-face teaching after lockdown meant that classes were taught with obligatory social distancing and the use of masks. Teachers were therefore unable to interact with students closely, to perceive their facial expressions during class, or to conduct group work. The changes to civil-engineering teaching linked to the COVID-19 pandemic and the lessons that civil-engineering teachers learnt from the new teaching scenarios are studied in this paper. The reflections of teachers throughout all three stages of the pandemic (pre-pandemic and lockdown, during lockdown, and post-lockdown), and the qualitative and mixed analysis of their responses to a survey of open-ended questions contributed to the identification of six major lessons: (1) asking questions and using real-time quiz tools enliven classes and help to determine which concepts to emphasize for proper student understanding; (2) autonomous student learning can be promoted through the provision of supplementary documentation and the digitalization of solutions to classroom exercises; (3) virtual site visits and real visual examples interspersed with explanations bring concepts closer to their real applications; (4) the delivery of projects in the form of audio-recorded presentations enable their distribution, so that other students can also learn from them as well as the students who created them; (5) online videoconferences, adapted to the concepts that are addressed, facilitate fast and flexible communication with students; and (6) online continuous-assessment exams can promote better student learning patterns and final-exam preparation. Nevertheless, these six lessons were drawn from the experience of teachers at a small Spanish university where the period of solely online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic lasted only four months. Thus, it would be interesting to analyze the experience of civil-engineering teachers at larger universities and universities that had longer periods of solely online teaching. A study of the level of implementation of the six aspects when the pandemic is declared over might also be worthwhile. Víctor Revilla-Cuesta is grateful for funding from the Spanish Ministry MCIU, AEI and ERDF [grant number FPU17/03374]. In addition, the authors would like to thank the University of Burgos for supporting this study through the funding program "Convocatoria de Ayudas a Grupos de Innovación Docente reconocidos para la elaboración de materiales docentes para los años 2021 y 2022" of which the researchers who conducted this study were beneficiaries. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. 2023-11-15T10:54:35Z 2023-11-15T10:54:35Z 2022-12 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion http://hdl.handle.net/10259/8015 10.1371/journal.pone.0279313 1932-6203 eng PLOS ONE. 2022, V. 17, n. 12, e0279313 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279313 Atribución 4.0 Internacional http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Public Library of Science https://riubu.ubu.es/bitstream/10259/8015/4/Revilla-po_2022.pdf.jpg Hispana TEXT http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ RIUBU. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Burgos http://hdl.handle.net/10259/8015