Learn as you go. University Teaching Practices in Public Health and the Coronavirus Pandemic

Abstract

This article reflects on the teachers´ job in a context influenced by both the pandemic and the preventive social isolation measures applied by the Argentinian National Government from the end of March 2020. Through the strategy of systematization, experiences, tensions, and challenges of virtual classes in the subject Problemática de la Salud (Public Health Problems) in the social work degree at Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (Uncuyo or Cuyo´s National University in English) located in the Mendoza province are analyzed. Some recent debates related to virtual education in university contexts are reconsidered and it is from them that we analyze in which way were the contents, the practical activities plan, the learning objectives, the teacher´s role, and the experiences of the alumni, affected or influenced by a pandemic context and the type of virtual education that this imposed. In the end, we cover to what extent we were able to take advantage of the potentialities that the virtual learning provides, as well as how its limitations had an impact on the students and teachers´ experience through the coronavirus pandemic.