The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on education in Switzerland
School closures during the pandemic have opened up a fascinating field of research in the area of online education. Open access allows researchers to share their findings in a new repository. Exchange ideas with other researchers at the online event on 1 December.
The coronavirus pandemic and the measures introduced to slow its spread have had a major impact on education in Switzerland and around the world. This impact is not just a result of the school closures imposed during the initial lockdown period – even after schools reopened, educators were also forced to completely reorganise the way their institutions are run and how lessons are taught due to strict hygiene and social-distancing measures. New practices have emerged, and they continue to be developed and adapted to the ever-changing situation.
New studies providing valuable insights
Educational researchers reacted quickly to the emergence of these new teaching methods with research activities, with many of them conducting studies to document and investigate the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on education. These studies don’t just have the potential to help us to understand what has happened – they also provide valuable insights and evidence to help us prepare for similar future scenarios..
Access for the whole community with a new open-access repository
However, in order for this information to be useful, the studies need to be accessible for the entire research community. The Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK), the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI), and the EPFL Center for Learning Sciences (LEARN) teamed up to create a platform designed to enable researchers to share their research on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on education in Switzerland. The result was an external pageopen-access online repository of studies that allows researchers to upload their data and studies to share their findings with colleagues.
Online event bringing researchers together
On Tuesday, 1 December 2020, from 1.00 p.m. to 5.00 p.m., an online event is being held that will bring researchers together to make the full range of studies accessible to the research community. The huge range of information gathered includes studies from pre-school to university-level education from all linguistic regions and cantons in Switzerland. The studies may examine the perspectives of students, parents, teachers, heads of institutions, public authorities and educational experts. Their thematic focus may be on specific areas such as content delivery, assessing and evaluating practices, distance interactions, emotional reactions or the use of technology. This exchange will be completely informal, which also means there is no peer-review process, and presenters are responsible for the quality of their contributions. If you would like to attend the event, external pageplease subscribe by 27 November 2020.
DownloadRead more in the official press release (PDF, 120 KB)
Open access at ETH Zurich
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Good to know: The ETH Library is providing funding for publications relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. Further information
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