2020_05_08_ENF_videconferencia

The special circumstances caused by the covid-19 pandemic have changed the ways of giving class, studying and evaluating students. Just as the teaching, which has been made online, and the exams, which will be non-face-to-face, also the defense of the Final Projects Degree has had to change scenario.

The nearly 100 students of 4th year of Nursing have defended their TFG online. Each professor has evaluated through applications such as Zoom or Meet the defense of the students assigned to them. Each defense lasted around 15 minutes: 3 or 4 minutes for the presentation by the student, and between 7 and 10 minutes for questions from the teacher.

In addition, the entire process that was previously done with physical and paper deliveries has been transferred to the platform classroom VIRTUAL. "Sooner or later, we were going to have to make the change, and the status has made it look natural and obvious. The natural uncertainty in the face of change has been blurred with the full conviction that alternative paths are necessary right now. And under this premise, change has been accepted and carried out in an exceptional manner. We have all assumed it as something normal", explains Marta Vidaurreta, professor manager of the subject TFG. 

The challenge has been "to make easy what a priori was perceived as difficult", acknowledges Professor Vidaurreta. "For the direction and assessment of the work we have professors from the School, but also associate professors, who are practicing nurses, and given the status we had to avoid that any change would mean an extra burden for them," she explains. "I can only thank all the professors for the way they have adapted to the new circumstances, especially the nurses who, despite their 12-hour shifts and the fatigue of weeks of intense work in the hospitals, have continued their work as tutors," she concludes.

It was also important that the new process for their submissions and the defense of their work should be easy for the students. "The TFG is, in itself, an experience that involves great nervousness and in this case we had the added factor of not knowing very well what we were facing or how it was going to be," says María Camats, a 4th year student. When the academic activity was suspended due to Covid-19, she already had her work practically finished: "I only had to prepare the poster and the oral defense". And María adds: "With the teachers' financial aid it has been easy. They have always been there to solve any doubts I had".

"The oral defense made me a little nervous, but the fact of "playing at home", doing it in my room, in a familiar and known environment, helped me to face it more calmly", explains María. "It has had its advantages and disadvantages, but overall the experience has been positive," she concludes.