La gobernanza a través de las TIC en el contexto de pandemia vivenciado desde una universidad regional chilena: debilidades y fortalezas ante la emergencia. VIII Congreso Iberoamericano de Investigación sobre Gobernanza Universitaria

Abstract

The health crisis occurs in Chile immediately after a deep social crisis whose popular manifestation begins on October 18, 2019, where social mobilizations intensify and translate into citizen marches, institutional stoppages and irregular occupations of university establishments, to prevent the normal proceeding of academic and administrative activities. This context was maintained until the end of December of that year, so that higher education establishments had to use the month of January 2020 to normalize some of their activities. However, normally the month of February represents a recess that traditionally is exempt of teaching activities, so the sudden arrival of Covid 19 in the country in March forced education institutions to accelerately promote mediated distance communication through platforms such as Zoom, Teams, Google Meets, among others, to carry out their activities. However, this forced change had a great impact on the governance of higher education institutions, which have a deep-seated tradition of in-person education. The various bodies had to put into operation unforeseen strategies and resources in just two weeks to articulate the organizational structures in the establishments and to be able to move forward with the activities of the academic year. This exercise of immediate immersion of university governance in the context of ICT meant an important experience in terms of narration and analysis from the perspective of various university actors. The protagonists are the directors, academics, management officials and students of a regional university in the north of Chile, who until today face a crisis that forces them to carry out their academic activities through electronic devices connected to the internet. This has forced everyone to be protagonists and to recognize the strengths and weaknesses that, together, allow us to reflect on unprecedented events and also allow us to rescue the necessary recommendations for a better procedure in a scenario that holds many obstacles to the proper implementation of a correct and effective governance. The trial obtains tri-state perspectives derived from the experience of key informant cases, whose testimonies are potentially useful in other contexts with similar regional characteristics, where positive and negative aspects intersect to face emergencies such as the one caused by the Covid 19 pandemic.