Kick-off meeting in Israel
13^th and 14^th of March 2022

All PANEL partners gathered in Israel for the kick-off meeting of the PANEL project. This meeting, held in a hybrid format, was the opportunity for the partners to meet and plan the work for the first months of the project.

Universita della Libereta, the coordinator, presented the general aspects of the project and partners got the opportunity to ask any needed clarification to ensure a smooth delivery of the project’s results.

Partners discussed in details the project result 1 “Evaluation report of the teachers and learners questionnaire and of the best practices about e-learning courses”, under the lead of the University of Malaga.

The meeting was a great success thanks to the warm welcome of our Israeli partner, Modiin Municipality!

University at home during covid: testimony from a student’s perspective

I'd just started my first year at university when the pandemic began. My class was lucky enough to spend a semester at university, so we got to see what lectures were like and what the difference was between a lecture and an online tutorial. We were able to get to know our classmates and forge links, even planning trips together. Then COVID came along and everything fell through. The next intake of first-year students wasn't as lucky as us, because they started their courses online using the Zoom application and only got to know their classmates and teachers on Zoom.

Animation courses – logistical connection problems – teachers not trained in online teaching… The university platform was often saturated, so they had to create another one, which at least helped to improve things. However, the teachers were not at all prepared or trained to give online courses. Most of them were not familiar with online platforms. Our courses were mostly given on Zoom and there were often problems at the beginning because of the overload. During the lectures there were many incidents due to the poor quality of the sound, or connexion. Professors and students sometimes got into confrontations because we couldn't hear each other anymore because some people left their microphones open.

Some tutors and lecturers tried to make the lessons interactive and encourage participation. Some have gone so far as to mark the students who speak up. This started out as a good initiative, but the system disabled a number of students who, for example, did not have a high enough connection speed and were unable to speak without being cut off by the poor connection. Some teachers have tried to force students to put the camera on so that they don't feel like they're talking to themselves, but again, not everyone has the right equipment or a good enough connection to do this, while others prefer to find an excuse because they're not very comfortable showing themselves to the camera and prefer to keep a discreet presence.

So the lessons became robotic in spite of ourselves. It was more difficult to follow some lessons than others, especially those that required a lot of concentration or practice, but fortunately some teachers recorded their lessons so that we could watch them again. They were the real university heroes, while others refused to do so because they considered that everyone should be present at class time and take notes!

However, some students have found themselves in a less than healthy environment in which to study, battling with the depression of loneliness and insecurity, others with toxic families or flatmates, while many are far from their families and friends. Many found themselves without resources because most of the facilities were closed.

It was a real struggle for us because we were often lost, sometimes there were changes to course timetables and also to the way exams were scheduled, which we only found out details of at the last minute because the university was waiting for government directives. The government was also confused and didn't really know how to manage the situation.

What was the most absurd thing, I think, was hearing people and even politicians discrediting us and our future diplomas by saying that online training is far too easy, and many called us incompetent future managers because we were probably all going to cheat. Thank goodness all that's long gone. We ended up going back to university and taking our exams as normal, which we passed with flying colors. And we can finally take advantage of our Erasmus exchanges and stays abroad!