Virtual education and pandemic. The case of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Costa Rica

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is a challenge to university education and the University of Costa Rica is no exception. Due to the lack of specific data on student access to educational computer platforms, installed internet capacity in their residences, appropriate equipment for connection and to carrying out practical work for the study of the arts, on March 2020 the Faculty of Arts of the University of Costa Rica conducted an entry survey. Through the systematization of the data produced by the survey, an analysis is made of the students’ abilities and capacities and the state of vulnerability in the technological fields and technical resources to receive teaching linked to workshops and practices techniques typical of the various disciplines. These at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey reveals the possibility of virtualizing theoretical courses while leaving doubts about the possibility of solving adequately practical and technical classes because the student body requires highly specialized instruments to solve learning. It also shows the challenges that faculty faced in order to carry out the first semester of the 2020 school year in Costa Rica.