Tackling COVID-19 – Challenges Aiming at Bettering the Higher Education Quality
(TACOHEQ)
The global situation has already changed as a result of the Pandemic Covid 19, and the changes will be irreversible and more dynamic than the rate we will be able to react with. The labor market is exponentially changing and problem with addressing proper skilled labor force is growing. The current situation is combined with other several factors– lifestyle changes, the increasing possibility for remote or distance working strongly related not only to pandemic but and to the fact that a large part of the jobs currently created are much more mentally than physically labour-intensive and so on.
To answer this growing trend should be addressed by the higher education institutions. They are forced to include new approaches of educational methods and instruments, new syllable, complementary measures, and the development of dedicated learning teams, programmes or hubs, the generation of new knowledge and skills and mentoring processes offered to higher education students. The project TACOHEQ is a 24-month project to empower universities in Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Turkey by entering into new strategic partnerships, to face the challenges rising from the global pandemic of Covid 19 and future similar events that will require on-line distance trainings
The project will identify the main shortcomings and difficulties in the process of on-line distance trainings, that the students, training and administrative staff of the participating universities have faced in the last year, due to the pandemic of Covid 19. Those challenges will be profoundly analyzed by experienced partner organisations – Center of research and analysis (Bulgaria) and Udruzenje gradjana Osvezenje (Serbia) and relevant findings and recommendations will be made in an special document. Based on that result special courses for on-line distance training in Bioinformatics and Databases will be developed and approbated by the partnering universities – South-West University “Neofit Rilski” – Blagoevgrad (Bulgaria), University of Thessaloniki (AUTH, Greece), Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University (Turkey).
As a project result it is expected to be available a full methodology for shifting from face-to-face training to on-line distance training, which to be approbated and ready to apply not only for the courses on Bioinformatics and Databases, but also to another courses and universities beyond the current partnership. The expected impact will be substantial with regard to the ability of the higher education institutions to provide innovative and flexible learning methods in challenging and changing environment which require fast and effective solutions.