Page 2 - STUDENT GUIDE IBAMTAL

INTRODUCTION

ABOUT ADE

The highly infectious COVID-19 disease, declared a pandemic by World Health

Organization, has changed the educational panorama of the world in a very short time. In the
face of global school closures, all educational systems have faced striking challenges in

moving from traditional methods of learning to online/distant teaching-learning environments.

The pandemic has shown that the world is not ready to address such challenges efficiently and
effectively. The crisis has shown that finding viable methods when urgent is essential to

sustain the educational system around the world. Although online methods have been used

around the world before, such a rapid transition to using only distant learning as a precaution
against COVID-19 has proven to be hard not only in execution but also in planning. Schools,

teachers, administrators, students and parents, as well as the stakeholders in the whole school
community, have been widely affected by the change. The process has shown that nobody

was ready to fully implement online learning in all aspects, from planning to assessment.
Therefore online learning strategies, technological and content readiness, assessment and

validation as well as motivation and psychological aspects have become topics that must be

addressed at different levels. Vocational Education and Training (VET) has experienced the
problems caused by the sudden transition to online environments more strongly because a

significant portion of VET relies on practice which requires hands-on and face to face
interaction. Hence, VET schools have borne the brunt of this pandemic. Urgent measures

need to be taken to ensure productive continuity in such schools and that VET serves its
purpose in developing the country economy and its sectors.

According to European Commission survey that started on March 2020, VET specific online

courses/modules are not available. Ready-made material with VET specific content is less
developed and there is a strong call for the Commission and national public authorities to

create a database with existing resources to be shared for free around Europe

(https://ec.europa.eu/social/vocational-skills-week/fight-against-covid-19_en ).
Hence, this project set out to contribute to maintaining the continuity of VET in the field of

tourism by introducing digital VET opportunities. This will ensure that students get the most
of their education and training and they are less affected by the crisis situation. In order to do

so, the project developed a set of guides for digital vocational education in the tourism sector
for administrators, teachers, students and their parents to introduce digital solutions to

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