100% of the students - new and in higher courses - started their classes today through virtual rooms on the Phoenix Platform.

The University of La Serena, as a result of the health contingency derived from the COVID-19 pandemic, made the institutional decision to temporarily replace face-to-face teaching activities with a remote online modality, thus beginning the 2020 Academic Year with a different modality than the usual one.

Students, both new and old, and their teachers, will access their classes through virtual rooms connected to Zoom, from the Phoenix Platform and with notification of the start of classes in their corporate emails.

The general framework for remote teaching approved by the University and communicated by the Academic Vice-Rector's Office, indicates that, during these first two weeks, teachers work with their students on aspects of diagnosis and leveling of learning, with special attention to becoming familiar, as a course and individually, in the appropriate use of technological tools for teaching.

For the correct use of the virtual rooms, the Information and Computing Center (CICULS) had tutorial videos and manuals for teachers and students; while the Academic Vice-Rector's Office, the General Directorate of Student Affairs and the Teaching Directorate provided guidance documents, such as the General Framework for the Start of the Academic Year, the guidelines for remote teaching for students and teachers. All available at the end of this press release and in corporate emails.

The Teaching Improvement Unit (UMD) has already been working on remote teaching training, within the framework of the closing conditions of the second half of 2019, so it is also possible to find related tutorials on its website. Even so , and understanding that the efforts to arrive with the messages and support material necessary to accompany this transition from in-person to remote modality, this week a special communication campaign will be launched, which will reach the email of each teacher and student, with guidelines and recommendations.

Recommended links

Video Tutorial Virtual room access Phoenix

Virtual Rooms / Manual for teachers

Virtual Rooms / Manual for students

General framework for the start of the academic year in the pandemic context

UMD Website

“I hope to be a contribution, through the Council of Rectors, to Chilean higher education and education in general. For me this is an honor, I say it honestly,” said the rector of the University of Santiago de Chile, Juan Manuel Zolezzi, after having been unanimously elected in session No. 612 of the Council of Rectors, held remotely this Thursday April 30.

He added that “assuming this responsibility and this mandate from my rector colleagues is an honor in the sense that we are in a moment of extraordinary difficulty, of unprecedented events, not only in Chile, but in the world.” 

The new executive vice president pointed out that the Council of Rectors is one of the most valuable organizations that our country has and also one of the most respected. For this reason, he said that “in these complex times we cannot fail” and highlighted that “we have been able to do extraordinary things in a very short time, and I would say that with a lot of commitment from our own institutions we are collaborating with measures related to the pandemic.” . He pointed out that “the economic and social impacts of Covid 19 are going to be much greater and that the only way to move forward is to be united.”

Regarding the guidelines for its management for the period 2020-2022, Zolezzi maintained that “we must set medium and long-term objectives that strengthen us and unite us. You have my commitment to make the best of efforts to collaborate as much as possible and bring all our universities to the best level, for which we require the participation of our own university communities.”

Meanwhile, the rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Ignacio Sánchez, will assume the position of alternate executive vice president.

Recognition to the rector Aldo Valle

On the other hand, all the rectors and rectors valued the management of the rector Aldo Valle in his position as executive vice president during the period 2015-2020. In their interventions, the rectors thanked and praised the leadership of Rector Valle, highlighting his dedication, commitment, equanimity, his ability to generate unity in the diversity of the CRUCH, his contribution to dialogue in the public space, as well as his ability to agree on lines strategic for the benefit of higher education in the country.

Rector Valle thanked the words and maintained that “I was only part of the result, which does not occur unexpectedly, it is the result of the common effort and will that we have been able to make important changes. In this sense, I am especially grateful for the honor of trust, which is one of the greatest honors to which one can aspire.” Also, he valued the contribution of the members of the Executive Committee who accompanied him during his management, the rectors Darcy Fuenzalida, of the U. Federico Santa María; Ennio Vivaldi, from the University of Chile; Claudio Elórtegui, from the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso; Patricio Sanhueza, from the Playa Ancha University of Educational Sciences; Emilio Rodríguez, from the University of Tarapacá; and Jorge Tabilo, from the U. Católica del Norte.

Finally, Valle asked for “a round of applause for the new team in the person of Rector Zolezzi who is going to take on this responsibility.”

Members of the Executive Committee

Meanwhile, the Executive Committee, whose main function is to collaborate in the execution of the agreements adopted by the CRUCH and support situations that require urgent or urgent decisions, was made up of the following rectors: Ennio Vivaldi, rector of the University of Chile and President of the Consortium of State Universities, CUECH; Diego Durán, rector of the Catholic University of Maule and President of the Network of Non-State Public Universities, G-9; Patricio Sanhueza, rector of the Playa Ancha University of Educational Sciences and President of the Group of Regional Universities, AUR; Luis Alberto Loyola, rector of the University of Antofagasta and representative of CUECH; Óscar Galindo, rector of the Universidad Austral del Chile and representative of the G-9; as well as Eduardo Silva, rector of the Alberto Hurtado University and representative of universities incorporated into CRUCH in accordance with the procedure contemplated in Art. 6 of Law 21.091 on Higher Education.

Regulations of the CRUCH management bodies

According to the “Regulations on integration, election and operation of governing bodies of the Council of Rectors” - approved in plenary session No. 611 of the CRUCH on April 7, 2020 -, it is worth mentioning that the President of the Council of Rectors is the Minister of Education, however, may delegate his powers to another member of the CRUCH or to the General Secretary.

Said regulations also establish that the Executive Committee of the Council of Rectors will be made up of the following: a) By the Executive Vice President; b) By the Alternate Executive Vice President; c) By the President of the Consortium of State Universities, CUECH; d) By the President of the Network of Non-State Public Universities, G-9; e) By the President of the Group of Regional Universities, AUR; f) By three rectors, proposed and ratified according to the following formula: one by the Consortium of State Universities, another by the Network of Non-State Public Universities and the third by the rectors incorporated into CRUCH in accordance with the procedure contemplated in Art. 6 of Law 21.091 on Higher Education. 

Source: CROSS

The Rector's statement states that the Council's decision takes into consideration the urgent need of the University to comply with the requirements established by the supervisory agencies and providers of student benefits.

Counter Response to Petition

This is a development by the team at the Center for Informatics and Computing (CICULS) that links Phoenix ULS with Zoom, allowing synchronous remote teaching to occur at the same time and day set by the in-person academic offer. Through technology, students and teachers meet according to the class schedule in a virtual room that will open 5 minutes before and close 5 minutes after the planned time.

With the purpose of emulating the traditional academic offering in the virtual world - subjects, schedules, teacher assignment, student roster and rooms -, the CICULS professional team developed functionalities that connect the Phoenix ULS teaching and student page with Zoom, allowing The synchronous class occurs at the time set by the academic unit and respecting the time of teachers and students.

Andrés Moya, director of CICULS, comments that "it is exciting to work and see the achievements of the most powerful university in Chile in these content delivery technologies in teleeducation. Our main motivation was to deliver and offer our students and teachers a friendly way and easy to make synchronous classes".

With this development, in which classes are accessed at the set time, from the Phoenix platform and a single key, "the class takes place and leaves a mark of completion. With this, we prevent each person from deciding and promoting different platforms for the classes, allowing greater order for teachers, students and curricular managers,” says the director.

To guide access to virtual rooms, presentation videos were prepared for students and teachers, which will be communicated to the emails @userena.cl and published in their tutorial version, on the Phoenix platform. Additionally, email was enabled This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to respond to queries and difficulties with the use of this new development.

Written by Patricia Castro, DirCom.

This institution communicates that the payments corresponding to the month of May will be retroactive.

ULS, through its General Directorate of Student Affairs (DGAE), informs the student community that after the efforts carried out by the University, JUNAEB has communicated that in accordance with the provisions of the document “Technical Guidelines Food Scholarship for the Higher Education, BAES Process 2020”, approved by Res. Ex. No. 736 of 02.04.2020/XNUMX/XNUMX, Payments corresponding to the month of May will be retroactive.

In addition, it is reported that on Friday, April 24, the enrollment of 2.716 students was uploaded to the JUNAEB computer system, with the status of Regular student.

On the other hand, the next data upload date to the JUNAEB computer system will be May 19 at 13:00 p.m. Those who have reached their regular student status, as of that date, will receive the payment in the month of June.

“We invite you to proceed promptly with the regularization of your regular student status, so that you have all the benefits that have been granted to you,” the DGAE states.

With an initial offer of 15 courses in this modality, the Office has begun the execution of its first course.

Faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, the units of the University of La Serena have adapted to delivering their different services remotely. One of these cases is the work carried out by the Training Office, which from its beginning had opted for in-person training and which today is renewed in a new service that contemplates the possibility of distance education, through virtual classes.

On this occasion, the course that started this challenge was “Design, Implementation and Application of Quality Assurance Plans for Construction Projects”, taught by the academic and Director of the Construction Engineering career, Mg. Rodrigo Olivares.

The offer includes courses in different areas, designed to deliver an experience with the same quality as always, backed by certification in the Chilean quality standard 2728:2015, giving the community the possibility of investing in the training of new skills from home. , protecting his health.

The courses are live, in real time, and at times established according to the calendar. The first of them started its classes successfully, filling the total number of available seats, and with perfect performance of the platform.

The person in charge of the ULS Training Office, Eng. Pablo Sánchez, referred to this new modality, the advances of the Office in recent years and the successful start of the online course. “Today we have managed to put the entire service chain on the network; It has been hard work that, due to the contingency, was possible to accelerate in this last stage. The immediate impact is to address the current state of social isolation of those people who seek to improve their employability or enhance their knowledge,” he assures.

Finally, Sánchez maintained that "once this is overcome, it will also allow us to make the University available to each of the locations in the region, and why not say the entire country, where they have access to the internet."

Written by Jenifer Araya, DIVEULS