The COVID-19 Pandemic as an Opportunity to Foster the Sustainable Development of Teaching in Higher Education
Abstract
:1. Introduction
[…] social distancing measures (notably, the immediate isolation of symptomatic persons, the suspension of mass gatherings, social distancing measures at workplaces and measures in and closure of schools); ensuring the public is aware of the seriousness of COVID-19; prevention and control of COVID-19 in hospitals and long-term care facilities; the training for all staff of healthcare facilities; rational approaches to limited resources; and surveillance systems for detecting cases and assessing community transmission [1] (p. 527).
2. Materials and Methods
3. Improvement of Digital Sustainable Development in Higher Education
3.1. Higher Education Culture
- The first group is effective in the academic and moral domain, but ineffective in the adaptation to the external environment and internal interaction;
- The second group is effective in the external domain, but ineffective at all other levels;
- The third group is low in quality and its effectiveness at all levels is below average;
- Finally, the fourth group has average effectiveness in the moral domain, is effective in the academic domain and ineffective in terms of the external adaptation and external interaction.
3.2. Digital Sustainable Development in Higher Education
3.3. The Role of Leadership in Higher Education Sustainability
- Measure 1—a greater focus on practical aspects of governance, better integrating governance issues into university life.
- Measure 2—institutionalizing the incorporation of SD issues at universities, by means of a stronger embedment of concrete activities, such as the elaboration of sustainability action plans and strategies or work programs, via which senior management can be better related to academic and non-academic staff, all to the advantage of institutional practices.
- Measure 3—a greater focus on the contributions from leadership towards the attainment of the SDG targets. Here, the current levels of emphasis on the SDGs could be measured, a set of SDGs-related goals could be set, and progress toward their achievements could be assessed. The fact that senior staff act as drivers and/or moderators means that the visibility of such action will be assured.
- Measure 4—identify the means via which leadership may engage in fostering the capability of staff at their organizations to promote sustainable development. There is a paucity of leadership-led training initiatives aimed at raising awareness among academic and non-academic staff, so such an initiative may help to move this important area forward.
3.4. The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Role of Higher Education Institutions in the Promotion of Online Learning
4. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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TYPE OF ARTICLE | GEOGRAPHICAL SCOPE | YEAR OF PUBLICATION | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Theoretical | Empirical | Opinion/ Viewpoint article | Report | International | National | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | Prior to 2018 |
19 | 21 | 3 | 1 | 23 | 21 | 25 | 8 | 4 | 7 |
Total: 44 publications |
Academic domain | Favors students’ academic development, professional satisfaction of the teaching and non-teaching staff, as well as the ability to secure resources. |
Moral domain | Favors the student’s educational satisfaction, the professional satisfaction of the teaching and non-teaching staff and the robustness of the internal institutional processes. |
Adaptation and external interaction domain | Favors students’ career development. |
Extracurricular activities domain | Favors students’ personal development. |
Competence for Sustainability | Definition/Characteristics |
---|---|
Focus on systemic thinking | Ability to collectively analyze complex systems in different domains (society, environment, economy, etc.) and at different scales (from local to global), thus considering feedback and other resources related to sustainability issues and sustainable problem-solving frameworks. The ability to analyze complex systems includes understanding and verifying empirically, articulating their structure, main components and dynamics. The ability to analyze is based on the attained systemic knowledge, including concepts such as structure, function, cause and effect relationships but also perceptions, decisions and regulations. |
Preventive | Ability to collectively analyze and assess the future setting related to sustainability issues and scenarios for solving sustainability problems. The ability to analyze future scenarios includes being able to understand and articulate their structure; the ability to assess regards comparative skills that relate to the “state of the art”; finally, the ability to create integrates creative and constructive skills. |
Normative | Ability to specify, implement, reconcile and negotiate sustainability values, principles, objectives and goals. This ability allows us, first, to collectively assess the sustainability of current and/or future states of organizational systems and then to collectively create the visions of sustainability for those systems. It is based on attained normative knowledge, including concepts of justice, equity, socio-ecological integrity and ethics. These skills are adapted to address key-issues of socio-ecological sustainability, including integrity, logical systems and organizational equity. |
Strategic | Ability to implement interventions, transitions and strategies of transformational governance towards sustainability. This ability requires a deep understanding of strategic concepts, such as intentionality, systemic inertia, path dependencies, barriers, carriers, alliances, etc.; knowledge of feasibility, effectiveness, efficiency of systemic interventions, as well as the potential for unintended consequences, etc. |
Interpersonal | Ability to motivate, enable and facilitate collaboration and research on participatory sustainability and problem-solving. It includes advanced skills in communication, decision-making and negotiation, collaboration, leadership, pluralist and cultural thinking, and empathy. The ability to understand, accept and foster diversity across cultures, social groups, communities and individuals is acknowledged as a key-component of that competence. |
Structural transformation and entrance of sustainable development into universities’ organizational structures. |
Decision-making processes, leadership strategies, and strategic planning dynamics. |
Role of internal factors (e.g., institutional culture, strategic agency, relationships and power on campus). |
Role of external factors (e.g., funding/regulative bodies, networks, other higher education institutions). |
Focus on organizational learning, to explicitly investigate the process of change. |
IoT | IoT has been developing rapidly in recent years, with billions of connected devices. IoT is becoming a global infrastructure, enabling advanced services through the interconnection of things that belong to both the physical and virtual worlds. |
Blockchain | Blockchain was developed to support the bitcoin currency, and has the characteristics of decentralization, persistence, anonymity, and auditability. |
Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality/Mixed Reality | The demand for all types of interactive experiences, whether from scientists, business people, government decision makers, or ordinary citizens, will continue to grow. |
Artificial Intelligence (AI) | A broad term that includes deep learning, knowledge graphs, and brain-inspired computing, is one of the most prominent technologies currently being advanced. |
Hyper-Connectivity | The volume of available data is now growing at an unprecedented pace. |
5G, Fog/Edge Computing | Many connected devices (including those using AI) require the transmission of huge amounts of data to the cloud for storage and processing. The advent of the 5G (the fifth generation of mobile wireless technologies) network will dramatically increase this demand and, in particular, demand for real-time processing services. |
Progress in Computing and Microelectronics | Big Data analytics and AI require new types of computing to address emerging needs to support parallel and tensor processing, overcome the traditional computer architecture latency problem, embed machine learning, deploy processor-in-memory, 4D virtual reality and augmented reality, to visualize and, notably, to consume less energy. |
In-memory Computing | In-memory computing stores data in RAM rather than in databases hosted on disks. This eliminates the I/O latency and the need to implement database transactions reliability and consistently. |
Form | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
Dislocated | Top-down and bottom-up systems do not match up; leadership does not occur where it is needed. | Weakened central leadership where budgets are devolved to schools or faculties that make it difficult to initiate and sustain institution-wide initiatives such as corporate branding and IT. |
Disconnected | Different parts of the institution pulling in different directions; lack of consistent/coherent direction/vision; competing agendas. | Formation of a “silo mentality” within schools, with holders of devolved budgets pursuing their own objectives, not aligned with (or even counter to) the overall university mission and objectives. |
Disengaged | Staff avoid becoming involved in leadership and management of the institution; leadership is seen as unappealing, unrewarding or unnecessary. | Leadership viewed as administration/bureaucracy rather than strategic and inter-personal—e.g., leadership and management of school/university versus academic leadership of research or discipline. |
Dissipated | Leadership is too broadly diffused across groups with little accountability or responsibility for implementing decisions and actions. | This was a frequent criticism of the committee structure, described as a “washing machine” where decisions go round and round remaining unresolved and disowned. |
Distant | Leadership is felt to be removed from the operational level of the organization; inaccessible, imposed; not necessarily ‘in our best interests’. | Decisions taken at senior management level and imposed with limited consultation. This situation seems to be amplified where senior managers are physically distant from academic departments. |
Dysfunctional | Leadership fails to achieve its intentions; results in unexpected/undesirable outcomes; misalignment of performance measures. | Negative reaction to performance review and appraisal process by senior academic staff; performance measures driving individual rather than team behavior; risk aversion and dysfunctional systems arising from failures of senior leadership. |
Leadership | Management | |
---|---|---|
Agenda and goal setting | Develops and articulate a vision, establishes directions, develop change strategies | Executes plans, improves the present, creates detailed steps/time tables |
Way of thinking | Focuses on people, looks outward, “sees the forest” | Concentrates on issues, looks inward, “sees the trees” |
Employee relations | Empowers colleagues, trusts, and develops | Controls subordinates, directs, and coordinates |
Mode of execution and operation | Does the right things, inspires, creates change, serves subordinates | Does the things right, manages change, controls, and organizes to solve problems, serves superordinates |
Governance | Uses influence, uses conflict, and acts decisively, inspires and energizes others to overcome barriers | Uses authority, avoids conflicts, and acts responsibly, organizes to solve problems |
Outcomes | Potentially revolutionary change | Consistent key results |
Topic | Actions |
---|---|
Involve high administration | Greater sustainability awareness at the highest level of the university (e.g., Vice-Chancellor, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, etc.) Involve university rector board and administration office Must be presented at all managerial levels Convincing administration that sustainability is not an option but a necessity for remaining a relevant educational institution and leading by doing Only when a benefit for the University appears, interest may be created |
Partnerships/public relations | Establishment of partnership with institutions that are making greater progress and impact Development of joint projects with universities, which have expertise in sustainable leadership Good public relations Cooperation in sustainable local development projects with municipalities Development of stakeholder organization networks Leadership on the basis of local knowledge practice |
Strategies | Description |
---|---|
1. Be prepared (preparedness planning and contingency planning |
|
2. “Bite-sized” information is gold (dividing teaching content into smaller units) |
|
3. Personalize/Humanize (use of “voice” in teaching) |
|
4. Teamwork makes the dream work (working with teaching assistants, technologist and online support team) |
|
5. Empowerment (strengthening students’ active learning ability outside of class) |
|
6. Flexibility (combining online learning and offline self-learning effectively) |
|
7. Reflection (gauge students’ understanding, learning outcome attainment and improvement for next session) |
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Sá, M.J.; Serpa, S. The COVID-19 Pandemic as an Opportunity to Foster the Sustainable Development of Teaching in Higher Education. Sustainability 2020, 12, 8525. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12208525
Sá MJ, Serpa S. The COVID-19 Pandemic as an Opportunity to Foster the Sustainable Development of Teaching in Higher Education. Sustainability. 2020; 12(20):8525. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12208525
Chicago/Turabian StyleSá, Maria José, and Sandro Serpa. 2020. "The COVID-19 Pandemic as an Opportunity to Foster the Sustainable Development of Teaching in Higher Education" Sustainability 12, no. 20: 8525. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12208525
APA StyleSá, M. J., & Serpa, S. (2020). The COVID-19 Pandemic as an Opportunity to Foster the Sustainable Development of Teaching in Higher Education. Sustainability, 12(20), 8525. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12208525