E-learning in the Time of COVID-19
Scientific Editor Eugenia Smyrnova-Trybulska
“E-learning”, 13, Katowice–Cieszyn 2021, pp. 15–24
https://doi.org/10.34916/el.2021.13.02
A RETURN TO NORMALITY OR UNCERTAINTY AFTER COVID-19 FOR THE E-LEARNING ETHICAL ENVIRONMENT
Nuno Silva1 & Isabel Alvarez2, 1 Universidade Lusíada de Lisboa 2 ISTEC, Lisboa, Autonoma TechLab COMEGI 1 nsas@lis.ulusiada.pt, ORCID 0000-0003-0157-0710 2 alvarez@edu.ulusiada.pt, ORCID 0000-0003-4381-6328
Abstract: The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic global health crisis is having a profound impact, not only on people’s lives – but how they learn, work and live. Educators were forced to shift to an online mode of teaching overnight and have adopted Emergency Remote Teaching through Online Learning (ERT-OL) using digital tools and online resources. Also educators had to deal with digital inequities by putting in extra work and shifting their mindsets. There are concerns that the impact of this health crisis will worsen inequities in learning outcomes for students from minority backgrounds. But learning had to continue. In these uncertain times, much had to be done so that students could learn, develop skills, and build on the knowledge they have be cquired. The expected reopening of educational institutions will another challenge, although still with many operating procedures put in place. There will be a need to define the resources that have been found beneficial, assess needs for the future, innovate and implement transparency in alternative educational systems and truthfulness in assessment strategies. This paper, following a systematic literature review aims to provide a comprehensive study on the COVID-19 pandemic emergency on the Portuguese educational system and analyse the way forward for a return to normality considering the uncertainty in a more equitable and ethical e-learning environment.
Keywords: COVID-19; e-learning; ethics; equity; transparency; truthfulness.
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