Gestión estratégica aplicada en los centros educativos de modalidad presencial ante la pandemia del COVID-19 para la impartición de clases en línea en México: un caso de estudio

With the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus in Asia towards the end of 2019 and its spread to the rest of the world in the first quarter of 2020, the World Health Organization determined it was a pandemic and urged all countries to take isolation and social-confinement measures. Because of these COVID-19 measures, universities were forced to suspend all face-to-face activity and find a way to overcome the educational disruption. The vast majority opted for distance education through the use of virtual platforms. Faced with this new challenge for the educational system, higher-level educational institutions in developing countries obviously had to accept this new paradigm and somehow continue teaching, but new and unexpected technological obstacles arose that were to hinder their mission. In Mexico, some large public and private universities such as Universidad Autónoma de México (UNAM) or Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) had already been employing digital platforms and this facilitated the transition en masse from face-to-face classes to virtual ones and the migration of their study plans to the online system. Universities in general had to provide a timely response to the contingency or else confront the worse challenge of a short- or medium-term interruption of their syllabuses. This research examines the technological, academic and administrative strategies applied when designing and building an online teaching platform, taking into account the technological factors and their associated variables. The study also considered the emotional effect of these decisions, their repercussions on the students’ academic performance and the labor aspects and stress imposed on the teaching staff. Our research took pains to analyze the specific case of Universidad Tecnológica de Manzanillo (UTeM), through a descriptive cross-sectional study. The results led us to conclude that the decisions taken by the University’s senior management had a direct impact on the new way of operating the administrative and distance-teaching functions. The study further highlights the fact that almost 40% of the students failed to positively assimilate the transition to the online modality and, moreover, that 3 out of 5 students did not actually have their own computer at the time to follow the classes from their homes. Therefore, one may assert that UTeM senior management’s decision-making, when faced with the dire reality of the pandemic, was designed and implemented - over the short term - as a knee-jerk response to an admittedly complex situation. It is imperative, however, when taking such transcendental decisions, that the conditions and scenarios and their technical analysis, testing and trials be first completed, so as to guarantee the correct assimilation of the guidelines subsequently provided and that these in turn permeate the work of the university community.Tras el surgimiento del virus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) en el continente asiático, a finales del 2019, y dada su propagación en el resto del mundo, a partir del primer trimestre del 2020, la Organización Mundial de la Salud declaró una pandemia y exhortó a todos los países a apegarse a las medidas de aislamiento y confinamiento social. En ese sentido, con la finalidad de abordar la disrupción formativa ante la crisis causada por el COVID-19, las universidades se vieron obligadas a suspender toda actividad presencial, optando, en su gran mayoría, por la educación a distancia, mediante el uso de plataformas virtuales. Ante esa nueva realidad a la que se enfrentó el sistema educativo de muchos países en vías de desarrollo, las instituciones educativas de nivel superior debieron hacer frente al nuevo paradigma y continuar con la enseñanza e impartición de clases, no obstante, surgieron diferentes obstáculos de índole tecnológica para llevar a cabo su misión. En México, se logró identificar que existían grandes universidades (públicas o privadas) como la Universidad Autónoma de México (UNAM) o el Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) que habían estado trabajando mediante plataformas digitales, lo que facilitó la transición total de sus clases presenciales a virtuales y la migración de sus planes de estudios al sistema en línea. Sin embargo, para la mayoría de las universidades, la interrupción formativa significó enfrentarse a nuevos desafíos en el corto plazo para dar una respuesta oportuna ante la contingencia. El objetivo de esta investigación fue conocer las estrategias tecnológicas, académicas y administrativas aplicadas para el diseño y construcción de una plataforma en línea de implementación de clases, tomando en cuenta los factores tecnológicos condicionantes y sus variables asociadas. En este mismo sentido, se estudió el efecto emocional de esas decisiones y su repercusión en el desempeño académico del alumnado, así como el efecto laboral en el personal docente. La investigación analizó el caso de la Universidad Tecnológica de Manzanillo (UTeM), a través de un estudio transversal descriptivo. Los resultados obtenidos permitieron establecer como conclusiones relevantes que las decisiones tomadas por la alta dirección universitaria repercutieron directamente en una nueva manera de operar las funciones administrativas y docentes a distancia; se destaca en el estudio que el 38.9 % de los alumnos no asimiló la transición a la modalidad en línea de manera positiva y que, además, 3 de cada 5 estudiantes no contaban con una computadora propia para asistir a clases desde su casa. Por lo anterior, es posible aseverar que la toma de decisiones de la alta dirección en la UTeM para hacer frente a la pandemia fue diseñada e implementada en el corto plazo como una respuesta inmediata a la situación, sin embargo ante este tipo de decisiones trascendentales es imperante que existan condiciones y escenarios adecuados para la implementación de estudios técnicos, pruebas y ensayos para la correcta asimilación de directrices y que estas, a su vez, permeen en el quehacer de la comunidad universitaria

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field